I'm a strong endorser of the little HP laptops -- great deal if you can find them on sale... there's a good price on a dv2416us right now at Office Depot... also the tx1000 series tablets are affordable and they seem reliable for a tablet. However, last night I found a 300$ coupon online for a Dell and I got some insano configuration that I couldn't resist... 14.1" T7500 processor (BEAST), 2GB ram, 128MB dedicated 8400gs vid card, 160GB HDD, anti glare (old school matte) screen, bluetooth, intel wireless (not the crappy cheap proprietary card), webcam, 9 cell battery, cd/dvd burner... came out to $1098 after taxes... try the same config elsewhere and it comes out to 15-16ish.

One thing... almost all retail store laptops in the US are made in china... even the Sonys now... (I've got one of the last mainstream Japanese made ones) the only ones that are made in Japan now are the very very high end Sonys that you'll pay an arm and a leg for... custom-building online with certain companies (dell, hp, gateway) will get you something at least put together in north america. Apple's also good but I'm not supporting an evil empire that profits off keeping everything proprietary and that's run by a dopehead that snaps every other year. Also, Apple's stuff... almost all China. The failure rate of Chinese laptops, from what I've seen, is much higher than ones that are made fresh for you... many things to attribute to this including spotty quality control when they're mass produced, shipping, and the handling at the stores/distribution centers... wow -- you wouldn't believe what it goes through to get to you. Take it from someone that's been selling this stuff since 04.