I've got an HP G70.
17" screen, dual core, 4G ram, some mid-range ATI 9xxx series laptop card, super-multi drive, 320 gig HD.
at the time I got it, my parents split the price tag with me since it was mostly going to be used at college.
it's perfect for the kind of homework I do.
research and word processing and media playing side by side, internet access virtually anywhere.
I guess we could have gone with a netbook for the same functionality, but I wanted the big screeen for the amount of workspace it provides.