Which is the best laptop computer?

[angkrf]

I am looking for a laptop computer. I would like to know which is better between the Apple, Sony, HP, etc. I mainly use a computer for email, surfing the internet, ebay, and watching videos/movies. I might go back to get a masters at some point. Right now I sometimes use my daughters low end version gateway laptop. It is very slow to load and annoying. Anyway, so I am looking into getting a much faster higher quality laptop. I guess my other question would be is worth the extra money to get the Apple (I really do not want to go over $1500)?