I need a hand...

I have a few laptop finders at http://forums.cnet.com/7723-19680_102-350349/cnet-laptop-chooser-college-too/?tag=contentBody;threadListing

If you are choosing by "brand" that's Apple.
Bob

Some help...

Personally, I'd stay away from Acer and HP, which also includes Gateway, eMachines, and Compaq. Let these two companies fight over who's the bigger bottom feeder without you having to get caught in the middle.

Until the new "retina" models, I would have also said Apple, but no longer. Now everything is either soldered directly to the logic board (i.e. RAM) or is an expensive custom form factor like the SSD. Add to that several compromises made in the construction of the newer models, which only make it so any damage to the unit is likely to be much more serious than it might be for any other brand. Apple units are nice to look at, but they've gotten to the point where they're almost too fragile to actually use unless they're fixed in place. Plus there are basically NO upgrade options anymore. If 6-12 months down the road you find you need more RAM, you have to get a new logic board, you can't just pop in some new SO-DIMMs. And if you find yourself needing more storage space, your only option is to buy expensive custom form factor SSDs. You have to buy everything you might possibly need at the time of purchase.

Dell, Toshiba, and Asus tend to make up the solid middle of the road options. Not as cheap as HP or Acer, not as pretty as Apple, but they're generally solid units at a fair price as long as you stay away from the low end models. Just stay away from any so-called gaming laptop. The high end hardware in those units tends to lead to high failure rates.

Think first and foremost what you want to use your laptop for: gaming/video editing/hidef tasks vs office based tasks/internet/basic stuff. Also in this initial consideration should be the need for portability - is this going to be a mostly mobile device or desktop replacement that won't stray far from an outlet.

Next think about what OS you want - windows or OSX. If you have an iPhone/iPad and want all your devices to sync up flawlessly, then you might want to go with a Mac. If you plan to use your laptop for business purposes and your employer uses mostly windows apps, then a PC might make more sense.

Then set the budget.

Next would be some hardcore research - just google and narrow your search to listings over the last year. Reviews of different models are pretty easy to find.

Just as an example, Im a gamer and I knew thats what I'd be using the laptop for. I also like to upgrade components over time. Jimmy was right about Macs, you can't expand/upgrade without buying an entirely new model. So I went with a large less portable power hungry Sager NP 9170 with a badass GPU - lasts about 1 hour on battery . Had I wanted portability for primarily business use without any intentions of opening the hood to upgrade hardware - MacBook Air. Hope this helps!