Modeblue

You want a laptop huh?  Well you have 2 basic choices, netbook or notebook.

A netbook is a cheap (around £300) small laptop that is good for basic web browsing and low power apps.  The benefit with this is you can replace it every couple of years and it wont break the bank.
If you choose a netbook, you should go for either a Samsung N110 or Asus Eee PC 1005HA

A notebook is all other laptops.  You can have a bigger screen, bigger hard drive, more performance, better graphics, etc and all for just more money!
If you choose a notebook, I would recommend:
- either a Intel Pentium Core Duo 2, or an Intel i3 or i5
- at least 3GB RAM (more = better)
- at least 250gb Hard drive
- dedicated graphics card (not integrated)
- At least 1440×900 screen resolution (assuming a 15″ screen)
- Windows 7

HP make some nice laptops around the 750GBP mark.