My laptop is Acer and it is uber-awesome. They are the third biggest laptop maufacturer in the world, from Germany and are incredibly robust and problem free. They always get top reviews so make sure you google them to find out those. The only one of theirs I've seen not so good reviews of are the Ferrari ones and that's just because they are overpriced due to the Ferrari colours and permission etc.
Mine has an AMD Athlon 64 3400+ processor so speaking from experience I know that they are great but my friend has one of the more normal pentium ones and she was well chuffed with it until her other friend spilled coffee on it
It still works though xD
I would definitely recommend them, they are amazing value for money especially and seem to have no disadvantages compared to the likes of Sony save for having a slightly less well known name. They're also not as bulky as I thought they were, I don't think you get ultra slim line ones but they are the same thickness as the Vaio's I've seen though slightly more heavy I think. Not really noticable though.
...heh, can you tell I love my laptop?
Good luck deciding on your laptop