First rule of IT purchasing: When asked for opinions, people will try and justify their own purchasing decisions to drag others into their clique. Therefore, selectively ignore replies in this case where people are only 'users' of laptops as the sample size is too small.
So, answering the OP's question from a standpoint of having hundreds of laptops under support, Acer is a reputable budget brand and I would consider ASUS laptops as well if your budget is tight. In the sub £400 range however, there's very little to distinguish one make from another, so choose on level of available support from the manuf. and whether recent driver updates are available readily from the website. Sony are ****e in this regard btw.