I would go with Sony or Apple. Believe it or not Gateway still exists. Gateway is really good better then most you have mentioned.
If you are talking about performance than definitely IBM, Lenovo are the best. Design wise Sony is the best.
Brand is nothing compare to performance and functionality. As long it can do what you want, you can choose any brand of notebook. As long you have money to pay for it. But in term of look, I really admire the design of Sony Vaio.
My first mp3 player, which had almost 0.5KG was Toshiba My first headphones were Toshiba My first laptop, was Toshiba Toshiba gogogo
Always buy a pc, if you have to buy a laptop I recommend either the asus eee pc or macbook or macbook pro depending on your requirements. Shmoe