Some weeks ago I had to choose a PHP framework and ended up with Laravel vs Symfony.
I started the project twice in both frameworks.
And while Laravel might be the most popular one I would say you should go with Symfony 4.
Laravel just has too much magic. When your IDE doesn't know what is going on, how will you?
But whatever the choice, skip 'annotations'! It's a bad trick that will mess up your project at one point (for example if your IDE cleans up unused usages).
Laravel does have a lot of magic, however you can be aware of what's going on. https://github.com/barryvdh/laravel-ide-helper
Framework continues to evolve, for the better of course. With the introduction of PHP 7, I believe Laravel will get rid of magic eventually. Meanwhile, we've got tools to help ourselves.
If I need to build an API, or want an app with backend/frontend separation, it is my go to.