Yes, I find the work HP laptop very usable. Just looked online though and they're 1300 quid..gulp.
There look to be other HPs for around 5-600 though that have pretty good spec though.
Don't know about othersl, but I used to find the Dell website really good for specifying and understanding a machine (hence the desktop) but currently it seems to be really difficult to get to the technical information, the site driving you more along supplementary software, printers, AV and cases more than anything else.