I bought a new laptop recently, set myself a low'ish budget and ended up spending 200€ more than expected to get what I wanted!
I'm now the proud owner of a Sony Vaio (i3) and love it
Try to get one with the new type of processor (i3, i5 or i7), the higher the number the better the performance, but also the higher the price!!!
Do you need one with lots of memory etc?