I wouldn't go with Mac. I would rather buy decent PC for half the price. Mac kinnu bhanda ta Windows PC kinne ani 3 barsa ma feri arko kinne. (Mac cost you a lot for nothing much, i know they are sleek)
Anyway, Don't buy HP, they use cheap material and customer service is very lousy. Dell is alright and have good customerservice. Sony is good computer but dont expect much from computer service, I mean they will do repairs if needed but will charge you, Money enough to buy new laptop.
Gateway, Compaqs are crap.
Owened and used all of above mentioned brands, is tellling my personal experience. Last week I opened my HP laptop to fix some internal components........ gosh...... They use so cheap materials, they look really flimsy inside.Almost every HP battery dies way before 1 year and they dont cover this under warranty.
Never owned Toshiba, Acer or Lenovo, so no comment.
If i had to buy another one from my above list, I would choose Dell, one more time not the inspiron though.