Buying a laptop, need suggestions

[Faqa]

I've lately come to the conclusion that while, strictly speaking, I don't NEED a laptop, it's useful to carry around a personal computer everywhere, since I'm on the go a lot, and going to university next year(CS).

Just about the heaviest thing I run, coding-wise, is Visual Studio 2008(I play around with Python and Ruby, but I typically only need Notepad++ for those). Otherwise, though, I'd like something that could run Adobe Premiere, but it's not strictly neccesary if it pushes the price up too much.

Anyhoo, within those limitations, what would you recommend? I'm going to be carting it around enough that it's not going to be a desktop replacement. Similarly, long battery life is important. Storage isn't, on the other hand, since I don't plan to store a lot of media on it. I mainly need enough raw power for the above-mentioned applications and a decent optical drive for viewing DVDs. In terms of graphics, I don't need a lot of horsepower, since I don't do a lot of graphics programming.

Right now, in terms of features, I'm thinking a definite yes on going 64-bit(OS-wise anyway. It seems to be difficult to find a modern CPU that's NOT), and possibly buying something with an SSD, though I've hear varied reports on that.

[phongn]

ThinkPad.

[Chris OFarrell]

You really are an IBM fanboy

[GrandMasterTerwynn]

You really are an IBM fanboy :)

Lenovo, now. IBM hasn't made ThinkPads in years. Still, if one can cough up the price premium (though Lenovo currently (at least till the 9th) has them on sale for a substantial price discount) for a business-class machine, the ThinkPad is the first machine I think of when I think of laptops. They're extremely durable, long-lived machines. Sure, they don't have the bling and zazz of a consumer-grade laptop, but the build-quality is top-notch.

[phongn]

You really are an IBM fanboy

Ignoring the SL-series, they are built better and are better-supported than virtually any other machine out there.