Even though people can have a personal taste for different brands(such as HP, Acer, Asus, Lenovo etc), if you're serious about what you're getting you should not be thinking of the name as much as you think about what you actually get inside. I do realize that not everyone is all tech savvy and look into the exact specifications and know exactly what it means, but it can honestly make all the difference and save you some too if you do know.
My best suggestion if possible, is to have someone that you can talk to or bring to whatever store you'll buy your laptop at, or at the very least talk to them before anything is bought so they can give their voice about the laptops you've been looking at.
I am by no means trying to step on someone's toes here, but plainly telling someone to get a certain brand, is like telling someone to get a house with a roof. There's cheap butt computers from most brands that will be slow for todays standard, and they all tend to have faster machines as well. You usually get what you pay for one way or another, but sometimes you can save some if you know what to look at.
