I agree that Acers are good, but they use the same old Chicony-style keyboard as most other companies. My number one would be a Thinkpad T or Z series, absolutely the finest there is. The professional end Dells are very good too (Latitude D6x0).
Agree on the Celerons - steer cleer, but I would also say steer clear of P4s unless you like big fat hot laptops with poor battery life. Centrino (Pentium-M) or mobile Athlon 64 is the way forward.
PC World stuff ain't so good - Packard Bell etc.
Not a fan of the VAIOs unless it's a high-end one. The cheaper ones really are shite.