I've had two Toshibas, and both have had to have repairs to keep working. I won't go with another Toshiba.
I am currently typing on a 3+ year old Acer with a first generation i5. It has needed a new keyboard ($15) and I put in another 4 GB RAM (now has 8), and a SSD. It runs great. Without the extra RAM and SSD it wouldn't. I upgraded the RAM in August and added the SSD in January.
We just bought a 15" HP Envy series touchscreen laptop from Microsoft Store online for my wife. I immediately put a 250 GB Samsung SSD in it. The hard drive it came with was a 1 TB Seagate. The memory is Samsung. The processor an Intel i7. My only worry is the motherboard, but those are hit and miss with any brand. The computer is kind of heavy, but that isn't a problem for me. The case seems very sturdy. Keyboard and touch pad are nice, and the touch screen seems high quality (both the image and the glass itself). We were reluctant to get a HP because there are a lot of people who say they have had bad experiences, but so far so good. We'll see how long it lasts. I think with all brands the lower end are junk and the higher end are better. The Envy series is HP's top consumer line.
I wouldn't go Sony, they just announced they are getting out of the laptop business. ASUS is good, but expensive for the specs. Same with Samsung. Lenovo is good, and we almost bought one, but it came with 8 GB RAM and wasn't expandable to any more than that. I've never liked Dell computers, laptop or desktop. I think I heard they were looking for bidders to be bought out.
If you go with an Intel Core processor be careful that you don't get a 3rd generation, there are still a lot of those out there and it is two year old technology.