Acer/Gateway makes a nice machine, there is nothing wrong with the quality of the build. Where they get beat up is their customer service which I have heard is atrocious.
HP/Compaq also makes a nice machine and has better than average customer service. The beef with them is the volume of bloatware that is pre-installed and some things that annoy power users, like proprietary and restricted BIOS settings, and proprietary parts and
drivers. They are also reputed to somewhat worse on updating their drivers. They are just fine for the average PC user.
Dell runs hot and cold. Sometimes they are making some damned fine machines that are geared towards the power user / enthusiast and then you turn around and they are worse than HP! It is hit or miss with those guys.
But once again, if you just want to use the laptop for normal things and have no intention of customizing it or the OS then you will be just fine with any of the major brands.
2 cents.