Looking to jump ship from Apple to PC - Need replacement for '13 Macbook Pro

[Agentbolt]

I recently switched from my Iphone 5S to a Galaxy S6, and now that I'm Iphone-less my Macbook appeals to me much less than it used to. I've currently got the late '13 Macbook Pro Retina, the just-above entry level that just about everyone purchased with the 8GB of RAM and 256GB SSD.

I'm looking into replacements now, and I'd like some advice on whether any laptops fill my need, or if any that will be coming out in the next month or so would. My main wants are:

15 Inch screen (I prefer the extra power and flexibility over minimizing weight)
Good to great performance
Backlit Keyboard
Good to excellent battery life
Excellent screen (I don't need touch capability, unless people think that'll start being a major limitation for laptops soon-ish)
premium build quality

I use my laptop for work and home (I'm in marketing, so work mostly involves Word/Powerpoint/Excel and some video streaming/content production)

Home use is 75% mindlessly surfing the internet while watching TV, and the other 25% some light gaming.

Would like to get something as "future proof" as possible, so things like a 4K screen or USB-C would be nice to have, but not mandatory. There's no real rush for me to buy this laptop, especially if there's anything big coming in the pipeline

Budget is ~$1500, depending on if there's an enormous jump in quality just outside of my budget.

Any insight is appreciated folks

 

[firewolfsm]

USB-C will be integrated into laptops along with Skylake in september. The Asus zenbook is probably the best MacBook competitor, with better processors, dGPUs, and great screens/battery. They will be updating to Skylake very quickly so I would wait a few months and get the 15" Zenbook.

 

[Valantar]

For current laptops, I'd think the Asus Zenbook Pro UX501 would be your best bet. It lacks USB-C, but otherwise should fulfill all your wants/needs:
-Intel quad core CPU
-Nvidia GTX 960M GPU
-16GB DDR3
-Available with a selection of SSDs
-Optional UHD (3840x2160) display with 100% sRGB coverage (at least that's what they're saying)
-USB 3.0, Thunderbolt 2
-Optional 96Wh battery (about as large as you can legally carry on planes in most countries)

Haven't seen any reviews yet, and I'm guessing it won't quite match the battery life of the MBP (haven't seen any reference to Optimus, so it might run the dGPU all the time). Otherwise, it should fit your needs perfectly.