On the inside, pretty much all manufacturers are using the same components (Wifi cards being the only real exception), but Thinkpads have always seemed much better constructed than the equivalent Dells or HP's.
There isn't really any PC laptop brand you can buy to escape the "reminds me of crappy company laptops", with the possible exception of Sony.
Some point to Vaio's as being the most "Apple-like" PC's. That description can be either positive or negative depending on how you feel about Apple machines.
As it is, I've never really liked Sony's manufacturing process for laptops (I've only had 2 over the years though, and it's hard to divorce yourself from personal experience when recommending a brand).
For what it's worth, I wouldn't ever buy another non-Thinkpad PC laptop. I've had an Asus, about a dozen Dell's, and a bunch of HP's. They were all giant pieces of shit (Dell's being the worst from a hardware failure perspective).
If I get a Thinkpad, I am fairly confident I won't have any issues for at least a bunch of years (my last T series put in a good 6 years of daily use without any issues).
As far as I'm concerned, they're the Honda of laptop manufacturers.