I would personally recommend staying away from IBM ThinkPads, ahem "Lenovo ThinkPads" that is... They have an outdated design, and are overpriced for what you get.

I personally went with a Dell Latitude D610 with a 3-year Next Business Day On Site Server CompleteCare Warranty (covers damage caused by me, too). My specs are:

Pentium M @ 2.0GHZ 533MHZ FSB 2MB Cache
1024MB DDR2-533 RAM
80GB 5400RPM HD
8X DVD-RW
64MB ATI Radeon X300 Graphics
14.1" SXGA Display (1400x1050)
Intel 802.11b/g
90W Charging Adapter
Windoze XP Pro SP2

Cost me $2300 including taxes and shipping Canadian, which is around $1950 in US dollars.

I'm very happy with the machine. I'm using it to write this post. By having a metal case, it doesn't get scratched easily, and it has very little, if any flex in the chassis. Also, I personally enjoy that it doesn't have all those quirky plastics with lighting, like those HP laptops on the market today. This is a business-class notebook made to last, and it shows. I can even play games with this video card. You can run CS at max resolution easily, getting 100fps at all times. You can even play GTA Vice on this, and any other light-to-mid graphic game.

Speakers provide good sound, too, and having four USB ports is a bonus!

Forgot to add: By having a 14.1" display, this notebook is smaller than most. You'll be laughing at all those people who bought huge 17" notebooks (might as well carry my desktop PC around). I get just over 4 hours with the screen dimmed down, 2 hours and 45 minutes with 75% bright screen, and normal usage, and 1 hour and 30 minutes with screen maxed out and playing games.

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