To add my 2 bobs worth, the machine and brand are largely irrelevant as far as laptops go.
Fact #1 is that laptops fail and will need major repairs during your ownership period.
Fact #2, there is nothing that can be fixed in a laptop without major surgery.
The main criterion for purchase is the dealer. Buy the dealer, and let the rest follow. I've been buying Dell now for a while and will keep on doing so because they are strong in Oz on support for their product. However you could just as easily find an IBM or Toshiba dealer close to where you live, and as good. I'd suggest that you don't buy from an electronics discount store, because they can't give the same level of backup.
I look for a quality certification (ISO 9000) certificate on the wall - no idea why it helps computers, but the computer dealer that's impressed me the most had one. Funnily enough the car dealer that impresssed me the most also had one. Both industries are rather unrelated to ISO 9000 I would have thought. But I know it's hard work to get the ISO 9000 piece of paper, and they must have wanted awfully hard to do things right.