If you want it to last and still be relevant years into the future, you want a business class laptop. Macs are not business class. The durability is not up to the standards they need to be. Neither is performance, heat dissipation, I/O, or user upgrade-ability and repair-ability.

Lenovo Thinkpads are, in my experience, THE business class laptops, and have been for years. The T, W, and X series Thinkpads are the only true Thinkpads, and the E and SL series are not.

They have matte screens, which are far superior to glossy panels.

They run very cool and quiet, even under load.

They have famously great keyboards. Likely the best laptop keyboard of any line.

They have removable batteries and are compatible with extended "slice" batteries that can give you a full day of regular usage. I mean a full 24 hours of battery life. Flat out. It adds bulk, but when you need it, it's worth it.

They're extremely durable. The X, T, and W series laptops have a metal "roll cage" throughout the body.

Every part is user-replaceable and can be found relatively cheap. The T and W series even have replaceable (Upgrade-able, too, with any mobile CPU that uses the same socket.) CPUs.

There are tons of ports.

The keyboards have spill-trays, so you can spill liquid on them and it will just drain out the bottom through drain ports.

The trackpad and Trackpoint are both great, and come with their own right and left buttons (on most models, some have a clickpad).

They look awesome, in my opinion. I love the utilitarianism and the iconic color accents. There's a Thinkpad in the Museum of Modern Art.

Dell makes great business class laptops as well, but I would say that Lenovo's latest line is better than Dell's.

You do pay a bit of a premium for a Thinkpad, but you get a lot. It's not a premium like you pay for Apple products, and you can clearly see why you paid more. In short, the premium is more than worth it.

The Lenovo Outlet has good refurbished Thinkpads for way under their retail. They don't always have what you want in stock, but things come and go fast. If you see what you want, get it quickly, since someone else probably wants it just as much as you do.

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Every once in a while, you see a really insane deal here. I've also heard nothing but positive reports of their refurbs, but I would avoid scratch and dent deals.

If you're mobile a lot, the X220 is the best choice. There are larger options and workstation options, but the X220 is the sweet spot.

Get it with an IPS screen! They're better than the Macbook screens since they are matte and have better color accuracy.

If you're into production or art, the Thinkpad Tablet (X220T) is perfect.

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I usually don't take Windows tablets seriously, but convertibles I do. I'm planning on getting one once I get the money ready and one becomes available in the outlet. I've seen them under $600 with good i5s, IPS screens, multitouch, 4GB RAM, and 320 GB hard drives. RAM and HDDs are easy upgrades, though. 8GB laptop RAM is less than $30.

I honestly have no idea why people buy Macbooks anymore. If you can do it on a Mac, you can do it in Windows or Linux. There's no reason to get a Mac over a PC for music, art, or any creativity purposes.