I wont go into details about all the reivews that I have read about or all the details involved with getting a laptop/desknote/notebook. Everyone else seems to be doing a fine job on that aspect.
I will however point you in a direction that no one has even mentioned yet......EBAY! I have seen and recommended to several of my customers that they check out ebay for laptops and have found very nice deals there on some high class laptops. I have even seen some sellers who accidentally purchased a laptop that didnt have a feature that they really wanted, company would not take the machine back (for one reason or another), and sell it on ebay brand new. (YES, I have customers to confirm this and they have been really happy)
Just an idea..........