I'm not in the market for a Wintel laptop, but if I was, this seems to be a rather nice deal.

Dell .. crap..

I've had IBM thinkpads of various types for years, my current X31 is awsome. rugged, well laid out.

Major pros for me are the 3 button mouse (duh, i run linux 100% of the time)
and CF slot for digital camera cards.

Damn! I was doing an order for an Inspiron 600m for my wife and the coupon expired while I was doing the order. Now I'm in telephone hell trying to resurrect the deal. For $1000 for a loaded laptop, it was a good deal. Now it's $1500 for the same laptop -- not bad, exactly, but hardly worth dropping everything to buy right now.

*sigh*

After 40 minutes on the phone with hold music hell, I hung up and went for dinner. Maybe next time.

My wife's looking for a relatively lightweight laptop whose main job will be running PowerPoint. No need for fast CPUs or big screens. She says she wants built-in wireless Ethernet and a built-in CD burner, so that eliminates the subnotebook class that I like for myself. She also seems set on wanting a PC, not a Mac.

The Dell Inspiron 600m roughly fits the bill. Any ideas on other possibilities?

I recently purchased a Sony Z1WA. I like it, but it gets hot. And it has a high resolution, if not big, screen. Also, I think they discontinued it right after I bought mine.

I have what you want. Right here on my lap. Sony VGN-S150. Oops I guess there's been some model number creep. VGN-S260

$1999
-Uses about 45 watts power peak, which makes it only warm when running.
-The vents in and out are on the perimeters, not the bottom. You don't have to worry about blocking them.
-The display is something like 114dpi, very sharp. Xbright is worth having. I've had mine out in the sun and it is usable.
-The hinge side has a nice curve to it for carrying (4.2lbs)
edit- The keybord is good. Not like the cramped version on Sony's smaller machines.
edit- BTW these machines have their restore software on a hard drive partition. It gives the option to make restore cd's.

There is a decontented base model for $1446.19. You'd have to add back in some options, like the built in Wireless.