Been running Linux on laptops since around 97 (Dell Inspiron 4000 clone, PII-400 I couldn't afford the PIII-450, Red Hat 5.x); over many years and laptops it comes down to: use a Thinkpad T-series or a Dell Latitude/Precision (modern times, not the XPS or Inspiron) and your Linux experience will be quite smooth. (sometimes card reader hardware doesn't work if they used some weird chip, which Dell seems to like to do with those devices)