I'm using a Lenovo for more than 3 years and the performance has been nothing short of awesome. I agree the audio is very very feeble through the speakers. I always use headphones, so I'm not really worried about the weak sound.
OTOH, I have handled a lot of Dell Latitude laptops in my previous job and had faced one problem or another in almost every laptop. The after sales service of Dell is excellent, but those niggles shouldn't be there in the first place. They are little expensive as well.
Toshiba and Lenovo are the two brands I always suggest to my friends when it comes to laptops.