I agree with the above posters. Acers are very flimsy machines. My girlfriend has one and it's been a pain in the butt. The customer service is okay but nothing special.
Apples have always seemed to me to be sturdy machines and I have given my old Powerbook G4 a lot of punishment. The support has always been really good, even though they don't have the manpower to send a technician in person (Dell will sometimes do this).
Dells tend to have a good customer service. The business class models tend to feel sturdier than the consumer models. I think both models feel kinda flimsy, but you can definitely tell that the business models feel sturdier. The support with Dell (my mom, my sister, and my best friend has Dells) seems to be really good. Remember if you get one of the business class machines you'll end up paying a premium though probably not quite as much as the MBPs
Thinkpads are my favourite non-Mac, I had one from work for a while. They are butt ugly, but this doesn't bother me because they are sturdy. I never had to use the support from them, but I can't imagine it would be too bad. Again, these you will pay a premium for over an Acer or a consumer system.
So, yes you do pay a premium for the Apple brand, but you're also paying for a sturdier laptop. The better Dells and the thinkpads will cost more than the Acer but again you're paying for a bit more quality. If you just want a Windows machine I would look at one of the higher quality machines, especially if you plan on toting the machine around everywhere.
Wronsky
