I want to make sure you guys realize that my laptop I've got now is still more than enough computing power for everything that I need. It was $1800 new 2 years ago. I just have issues with charging which is a complaint with this model (Dell Inspiron E1705). Because of this (and the fact that it's ginormous and not at all fun to lug around), it'll be in my best interest to leave this laptop stationary.
But I like using my laptop on my couch and in the kitchen, and it'd sure be nice if I could take the next one to the school. So, I'll still be using this one, for gaming, photoshop, stuff that takes a lot of computing power. But the new one would probably be used 2 out of every 3 times, or more.
I'm going to have to look at some of the netbooks; see if I could handle the small keyboards.