I had a similar issue recently and ended up going for a HP Pavilion. It's a versatile machine, you can do pretty much anything on it, it's in a metal case so sturdy to carry about, and you can get a bigger screen so you can multitask. I feel like you get quite a bit of laptop for your money.

I was also considering a macbook, I use them for work a lot so I'm used to them, but I felt like specs wise I was looking at lower specs and a lot more money.