It may be time to take the plunge

I'm seriously giving consideration to finally taking the plunge and buying a laptop... and essentially abandoning my desktop (for matters outside video editing and whatnot). I know I realize it's 2009 and I'm somewhat behind on the times... but after having compared the costs of what it would take to fully upgrade my desktop as opposed to buying a decent laptop, I think a laptops is the only reasonable way to go.

I'm thinking Toshiba, HP or Dell... Macbooks are far too expensive for the time being. I just need something stable/reliable, with decent RAM and battery life, and helpful customer service (i've heard my fair share of horror stories already). Any suggestions from laptop enthusiasts out there?