Get a $500 laptop then swap out the hard drive for an SSD and upgrade yours RAM. You will be good to go! If you are going to be dealing with graphics or anything that's heavy on the CPU, I will go for a $1500+ laptop (or desktop).

Depending on your budget the dell inspiron 15 7000 gaming(and or not) are both turning out well and are the sweet spot for ~800-900 range.

This is kind off topic, read if you want.

CriticaI wrote This is kind off topic, read if you want.

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honestly I would recommend running linux on a dvd or in a virtual machine,
to see if you like it first before you spend a bunch of money on a laptop.

just so you know, Kali can get you into some deep sh*t if you don't know what you're doing.
Hack responsibly

Kali is mainly for LAN and nothing really else. I don't get why people think that it is such a "real world" use OS when in reality it is bloated debian.

Kali is for plebeians. Use a real mans distro like Arch or Gentoo.

I recommend the X1 Carbon, XPS 13, or MacBook Pro. All pretty high end and expensive but you get what you pay for honestly.

Potion wrote Kali is for plebeians. Use a real mans distro like Arch or Gentoo.

I recommend the X1 Carbon, XPS 13, or MacBook Pro. All pretty high end and expensive but you get what you pay for honestly.

I second those laptop suggestions.

I would like to add that the Razer Blade stealth is a good laptop for my programming needs, and you can get a new one for 900$ with an i5.
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Potion wrote Kali is for plebeians. Use a real mans distro like Arch or Gentoo.

I recommend the X1 Carbon, XPS 13, or MacBook Pro. All pretty high end and expensive but you get what you pay for honestly.

OP, keep in mind that if you go with a MacBook Pro you can have 3 (or more) operating systems on one laptop, without much effort. It's the main reason I usually suggest it to anyone, regardless of its price tag. Running virtual machines in Parallels is both effortless, and if you use Parallels' Coherence mode it can be seamless; almost appearing to have several operating systems integrated into OSX. For example, my Windows apps are listed in my "Launchpad."

Just keep in mind that newer MBP models don't allow RAM to be added after purchase, so a 2012 model may be best. If portability isn't an option, an iMac is also a good option. RAM can be upgraded on those still.