I3 or i5

Hello and welcome to the forums
We need more info(screen size,battery life,budget etc.) so fill the FAQ first
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/50797-35-read-buying-...

I just wrote this which mostly applies.
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/65719-35-good-laptop-...

I'll modify it by saying the following:

1. 4GB
2. i3 vs i5 is efficiency vs performance (recommend i3 in general unless your Photoshop needs are very high such as massive RAW files using multiple layers or video)
3. Internet (any)
4. Movies (external)-> HDMI (HDMI->HDTV)
5) Movies (internal)-> any modern laptop (software: VLC, Boxee, K-Lite Codec Pack)

MOVIE WATCHING:

I just bought the Western Digital WDTVLIVEHUB which is a media player. It has a 1TB internal hard drive (can add external drives). Plays most media, including DVD ISO's (make with "passkey lite" and "imgburn"). I play anime, HDTV and BluRay rips (legal of course) and DVD ISO (full menus). I added a 2TB WD Elements USB drive.

The Boxee Box is a great little device too; the software isn't quite ready but it WILL be much better over time. No internal drive.

I believe either of these can (or will) play DVD and BluRay discs via a USB DVD/BD drive so you could possibly add a USB BluRay drive compatible with a PC when prices drop.

Wi-Fi:
I discovered that successful playback of High-Def over Wi-Fi is problematic and success depends mainly on the primary GATEWAY (modem) device. It's recommended to have "N" wi-fi for all wi-fi components (USB adapters, gateway, laptop wi-fi).

The i3 is good for what you want to do and 4 gigs should be enough.

i3 is a glorified Core2 DUO, I would get i5 for sure.

A laptop CPU is about having enough power for processing but not so much that heat and battery life are affected.

The i3 is still very powerful and more than most people need. The best thing you can do for a laptop is to get an SSD, especially if you have TWO hard drive slots so you can get a 100GB SSD for Windows etc and use the hard drive for backup and media.

for internet,photoshop and movie watching I'd save some cash and get an i3 personally. the i5 is an amazing CPU but your one major usage (Photoshop) is more dependant on lots of RAM and a decent graphics card to process all the textures than CPU dependant.

With that said it depends on price if the i3 and i5 are somewhat close in price than by all means get the i5. I'll agree with photonboy the i3 in most of it's variants is just a glorified C2D. Heck my T9500 C2D in my XPS is basically the same specs as an i3 just a different CPU die architecture not being SB though it does have 4MB of cache just like the i3 and with the video card I have in it (8600m GT) I'd bet I'd run over most of the i3 based systems on the market. Most seem to come with Intel integrated which completely ruins the point of SB chips

Either cpu is fine in your case. BUT
IF you want TURBO BOOST (over clock feature) , then you go with core i5.

For RAM, 4 gb or 6 gb is fine. Either one will do. BUT IF photoshop is going to be the most powerful program you will ever use, 4 gb is already more than enough. =D. Heck , i can run it w/o problems using 2 gb ram on a 6 yr old dumb dell desktop! Remember, you can always upgrade the ram later on =D.