If you haven't completely settled on the Sony check out ASUS too, I'm currently typing on one at college and it works really great. $1199 for P8400 Proc Montevina Core, 1GB 3650 HD GPU, 4GB of RAM and 250 GB hard drive.
I've come across this article on the net recently stating that there are some overheating issues with the vaio TZ series, wich sony had to recall the units for free repair. But no information is given as to if other models are like that or not. Wich worrys me..