To be honest, all the brands nowadays construction wise are pretty much the same. You won't find much variance in build quality.
People will make recommendations based upon their perceptions rather than fact based.
My "recommendations" would be any of the major brand manufacturers will be fine. Just avoid the likes of Packard Bell.
The big problem with laptops are when they go wrong, they are a lot more expensive to fix. Esp given they are prone to being dropped!
That said, they make up for it in terms of portability.
If you need to move about and just light surfing then laptops are great. But if you are going to use it for extended periods, a desktop will stand you in much better stead.
As for intel vs AMD, again I'd argue most people would never be able to tell the difference.
Avoid anything bigger than 15" cos they generally get very heavy to lug about. Screen & keyboard are nicer though!
Lastly, its worth popping into PC World. There's so little skin in the game nowadays that I've started to tell people to do that. You do pay more but you do get the peace of mind that if something goes wrong, you can take it back and shout at someone.