I did a lot of research before buying my previous notebook (1998-2003), and my current notebook (acquired 3/2003). Gateway won hands down. Why?
1) Good price
2) Case temperature lower than other major brands (important for comfort and battery life)
3) Good features - Gateway has for a very long time made 3-spindle laptops, and they have it down pat. Dell is fairly recent in that area (do they even do it yet?)
4) High review ratings for screen, keyboard, speakers, etc.
5) Intelligent touchpad with advanced behaviors
6) Good 800 # telephone support.
7) Case shell is mostly metal, unlike Dell's plastic (btw, I use Dell for almost all resales I make of desktop units, I just don't like their laptops)

I tend to like to haul around desktop replacement laptops, a paradox but good for upper body muscles :--) My first laptop computer was bought new from Gateway in 1998, my current one is a 600XL YGR, with a 16.7" screen, Firewire, built-in networking and modem, of course DVD/CD-RW and floppy at same time, and battery life of 3-4 hours (I have verified that in real life). Weight I believe is about 7 pounds. I bought it re-furbished, with Windows XP Professional, and paid about $100 to extend the warranty to 3 years, with lifetime free telephone support (getting it re-furbished saved about $1200, so the $100 investment seemed worthwhile). I have been happy with the result.