New Laptop Input

So needless to say the screen on my 7 year old A8JS died on me. So now I am in the market for a new laptop. I am not really looking for a gaming laptop because i bought that in the A8JS and almost never played a single game on it. So stand alone graphics card isn't a requirement. It would be nice but I don't need it. I am looking to buy in a like 2 week window as I will only be able to tolerate this old dell laptop for so long.

What I do want is for the laptop to be in the 12-14" range, 6-8gb of memory would be preferred, and a 500gb 7200 rpm drive or larger. SSD would be nice but I am kind of leaning towards the greater storage capacity of a traditional drive. I am looking to keep the price under $1100.

If it hasn't happened already, when (if at all) are the OEM's switching over to sandybridge platforms?

I plan to use it for everything from web surfing, to media streaming, to light video editing/photoshop.

I really like the look and feel of the HP Envy 14, however I've noticed that they don't offer the higher resolution screen anymore, just the 1366x768. So other than the metal case & backlit keyboard what makes this laptop worth the $200 premium over the DM4T. I get a company discount with HP so that means I could get a fully loaded dm4t for under $900.

The Samsung series 9 is pure sex, but I don't really want to pony the money up for it. How are their other laptops? The QX410 seems interesting, do they allow custom configurations? I kind of want a little more processor than the 460M, I've been eying the 560 but would settle for a 480 if I had to.

Any other suggestions? The more portable the better while still maintaining a decent power level.
Thanks!

I have a little 11" thinkpad thats about a year old, and was VERY impressed with its quality. Lenovo.com I've always been picky about how my laptop looks, and never liked the glitz and shine that HP and Dell usually offer.

Unibody Macbook pro, but would require some upgrading yourself aswell (Screen is 1280x800, 1440x900 for 15") and would push your price range up a bit.

Alienware offers the M11x and M14x which are pretty good deals it appears. M11x is a beast.
http://www.alienware.com/Landings/laptops.aspx

Most Vendors should be offering sandy-bridges now, and its integrated intel 3000 should fit your needs rather well.

The 6-8Gb of ram might be pesky for a "preconfig", and may be easier to do yourself. $69 from Newegg

Thinkpad! Thinkpad Thinkpad Thinkpad.

If you're into graphics and want a smaller form factor, you can get an X220 (12.5 16:9 screen) with an IPS panel. It comes standard with SandyBridge, and has an mSATA slot if you want to use an mSATA SSD and a hard drive. You get the best of both worlds that way.

The T420 is very similar, but in 14.1". It's a couple pounds heavier and includes a CD drive. That option would be best if you want a larger screen (I believe the keyboards are about the same size) and a CD drive, but there's no IPS option. There is some kind of display upgrade, though.

Both of those should fit your budget and the build quality kicks ***. Sandybridge graphics are even up to handling some older games, so I don't think you'd be hurting for a discrete solution.

If you haven't owned or used a Lenovo before, you'll become a convert.