I have had many laptops go through my hands. The nicest, cosmetically and computer wise, are Sony Vaio, Dell Inspiron and HP laptops. However, if I was to recommend one, I would not doubt and I would suggest the Sony. I am going to make the story short. Sony has proved to me as the most reliable, versatile and high performance machine. I have tested about 40 top end laptops for my work and Sony is what I recommend. Very silent, slick and thin, very high quality workmanship, durable buttons and beautiful clear screens. To show that I am not prejudiced, I admit that for example HP has in general more outputs, such as in some cases DVI output, more USB outputs, ect. Also a drawback of VAIO is its highest price among the other competitors. If you are looking for a nice laptop, get a core 2 duo VAIO. It will last the longest and you will be very pleased with it.
In the closing I would like to state that I, by any means, do not try to express any inferiority of the other producer's laptops. But in my opinion, in overall comparison, VAIO deserves the number one stage.