I've got one of the second generation HP Envy 15" (about a year old now and still going as good as new). I don't know why someone was hating on HP earlier in the thread, I would recommend one to anyone and it has been so much better than my previous laptop, an Acer.
The first generation of Envy's sucked MASSIVE BALLS, but the new ones are awesome in my opinion. I have a 1080p screen, i7, metal case, dedicated graphics card and MUCH better speakers than any laptop I've ever heard (get very loud for a laptop with good bass, people say beats is a gimmick, but the volume and sound quality far surpass that of a MBP). I will say, that there is some keyboard flex on the left hand side which is a little annoying, but I'm used to it and don't care too much. I have a multi-touch track pad (with 3 finger click which opens in background tab...and I fucking love tabs) that is great, but not quite as good as one you'd find on a MBP.
While a MBP may have better build quality, screen resolution & trackpad, a similarly configured current MBP probably costs about 2x what I paid (would have been much more if similarly configured a year ago). It cost me ~1500 after shipping and taxes (on sale) and I couldn't be happier. I don't really care if a laptop will last me 5 years (not that my current one won't, but most macs do) because technology advances so fast that I will probably want/need a new one 2-3 years.
PC manufacturers are really stepping their quality up and if you spend decent money on one, it can be quite a nice machine. There are, obviously, many options for laptops. Do your research and consider what you will be using it for, I am an engineer and didn't want to run parallels/bootcamp/whatever to get certain programs to run...and I hate mac OS, but if you are in graphic design, film making, etc. a mac may suit your needs better. Oh ya, I've heard mixed reviews about Windows 8...maybe just stick to W7 (if posible) if you get a PC because it is awesome :D
