Dell business laptops are the only Dell laptops I like. I would never buy Sony laptops just because of the issues I have delt with on Sony laptops.
But check out ASUS and Toshiba, what is your budget? I have had both ASUS and Toshiba, just bought a Toshiba about 9 months ago and ASUS about 4 years ago and still being used.
I bought a Toshiba A505-S6020 about 9 months ago for $700ish and it has a i5, 4gb ram, nvidia 310m gpu, 16" screen, harman/kardon speakers and all that jazzy stuff. I didn't need all of it but it was under my slightly under my budget and it was on sale from $900 price tag which was over my budget. So I just went ahead and bought it, happy with it as well. I rarely game on it but nice to know I can, I tried starcraft 2 and call of duty 4 on it and both works great.