I've heard the same things about HP computers. Their build quality is pretty low. Probably one of the problems of being the largest PC company in the world. I tend to hate most consumer laptops made by HP, Toshiba, Acer, etc... I have owned a Compaq from when HP bought them. It's not the slimmest or prettiest thing, but the specs/price were right on for when the laptop came out.
Dell is fairly good, especially their Latitude brand.
Lenovo/IBM is amazing. IBMs are solidly built, but they will be poorly spec'ed because they are so old. Thinkpads since Lenovo took over are of lower quality. You can feel it in the plastic on the outside, but the build technology is sound with the magnesium alloy roll cages. Thinkpads in general are clean and timeless. Black never gets old and they tend to have a rubbery finish to it that is good for gripping.
Apples do feel great. I keep telling myself that I will get one eventually. They aren't the strongest machines, but they get the job done. Apple is a company that tends to be the first to say what components aren't needed, but they are the last to adopt technology they can't control. They only recently started putting built in SD card readers! A plus here would be the Mac OS X.
Alienwares are only "meh" in my opinion. Since Dell bought them out, the build quality has gone down. The internal components have gotten better (because Dell has access to the latest parts), but the external components feel cheaper. The question you must ask yourself though is whether or not it's worth it to pay the premium for a Alienware when you could buy a Dell XPS with the same specs for less. The "other company" you tend to hear when Alienware is talked about is Voodoo PC (now owned by HP). They have gone away from making the strongest computers to making really solidly built machines. Their build quality is up there with Apples in my opinion.
