Dell's new line of notebooks, the Vostro series fare pretty well. They are fairly cheap if you want them to be and have a similar aluminum alloy frame as the Thinkpad's. Dell Has announced a refresh of the vostro lineup. I think they look better than the current design. I have a vostro 1400 and have been quite happy with it. With the cpu at max speed and brightness at max, I receive about 3 hours of battery life with the small six cell battery. That is with me using a bluetooth mouse, surfing the web via wifi, and using MS office.
My Specs:
Core 2 Duo 1.4Ghz, Intel X3100 graphics, 2 GB ram, 160GB HD, Intel Wireless G, Bluetooth.
Link to vostro refesh pics:
http://www.engadget.com/2008/04/15/dells-vostro-1310-1510-and-1710-small-business-laptops-redefi/
I believe Dell will be using the new 45nm cpu's in the new vostro lineup. If intel has a newer mobile platform than Santa Rosa, dell may also be using that. You don't need to have a business to buy from dell small business.