mad,

A common problem with electronics is to buy not what you need now, but might need in the future and also to buy features and power etc. you might never use and probably won't need.

Considering the speed of digital development and the rapid price slide of all things digital, it makes no sense to buy anything you actually have no concrete plans to use right now or the [very] near future.
Think of the [unwise] early adopters of over pixeled cameras, HD video recorders, and too powerful [and heavy] laptops that all cost an arm and a leg a few years ago that can now be bought at often a quarter of the price with much better features, performance, weight etc. etc. Same goes with computers.

I run 2 rigs here. One is a real grunt-master with the video card alone costing more than many computers and an AMD64 3500 processor sitting in the motherboard that cost about $350, 4g of 'matched' ram and a screen costing around $500. The UPS power board alone cost another $350 and the whole rig is a continuious work in progress. It even has water cooling !

The other rig is a Pentium 2 that I cobbled together for less than $100 from second-hand parts that still has a 60g hard drive with 1/2 gig of ram and a pretty quick processor. It does everything most people would ever use a computer for and a lot more it will never be used for.

One is used for high-end gaming and photography editing and the other for almost everything else.

Look at the notebook reviews and work out exactly what you need it for now and in the [very] near future and then hunt down the best price. Don't take advice off a computer salesman about anything and never ask for their suggestions.

I would go small and light with the features you need, Look at battery cost and the time it lasts before re-charging.
1/2 the usage times claimed for it [about right] and check the ability to change it yourself easily when it needs it [about 2yrs.]. There have been some big advances in notebook HD's [no moving parts] which will revolutionize battery life before re-charging. HD's are the big power drain so avoid more G's than you need.

Cheers.