Go Dell!
I know that many people said to go HP/Toshiba over Dell. But if you want honest opinion, try operating a laptop daily down in the Caribbean where it is HOT, HUMID and the air SATURATED with SALT (can anyone say rust?). Do this for a year and 1/2 and you'll see what I mean.
Imagine a class of 50 people, each with some brand of laptop down in the Caribbean going on their daily business (I am one of those people) for almost a year a 1/2. The end result? Dell wins. Here's why:
1. Power supply is a BIG issue, I've witness many laptops in the past 1 +1/2 year down in the Caribbean (mostly Toshibas) where the power jack was unstable and literally MELTED the casing around it. I've witness a Gateway power supply where you have to insert the power jack in the CORRECT way, or else it'll disconnect and switch to battery mode. Amongst the 20 or so Dell in my class, NONE had power supply issues during my yr + 1/2 stay down at the Caribbean.
2. Mechanical failure. One guy had his daughter strip some keys from the key board, but the buttons still work. It was a Dell. Another guy had ISSUES with his Toshiba, got a free BRAND NEW replacement under warranty, but this replacement had issues turning ON (mechanical power on button failure). Once again no Dell in my class had this problem.
3. LCD screen. Doesn't it get anoying when you see missing lines on your LCD screen? No laptop is perfect, even Dell. Seen a Dell, HP, and Toshiba give out bad lines. One guy took his laptop home to the US during the break, the issue was a VIDEO CARD problem.
4. I'd be making this up if I didn't say that I saw a Dell fail. But this was one month after they got their brand new Dell (defective manufacturing, not failure d/t use/misuse). They sent a guy down to the Caribbean right away. The Dell guy replaced the motherboard for free onsite.
5. Laptop speakers generally SUCK! However, I could not imagine that my friend's $1000 Gateway laptop had much CRAPPIER speakers than my $600 Dell laptop. The sound on the Gateway would CRACKLE and BLUR at high pitch/really low base.
Overall, I would say that Dells aren't the most good-looking laptops (I totally adore the Gateway design), but they are sturdy in their power supply. Although certain non-Centrino Dell models can get really hot and you think that they'd catch on fire, they will NEVER get hot enough to melt their casings, even in the humidly hot Caribbean weather (unlike TOO MANY TOSHIBAS that I've seen). Dells don't have bad power jack connection issues. Best of all, you can rest assure that even though you may have purchased the lowest end Dell laptop, you can be pretty sure that Dell paid 3X more for the speaker parts than other brand named laptops, and yes your Dell speakers will actually WORK at high pitch/really low base (even though the sound coming out would be crappy). In the end, whichever laptop you buy, make sure that you get at least 3 yrs of return to depot warranty as you don't want to flush that investment down the toilet 0.0001sec and 1 year after warranty expires when your laptop begins to fail (or in my case, a BIOS flash gone wrong).