Just got the new Sony Vaio, only released last week and like hens teeth to get hold of, its fantastic but I think would be a bit small and too pricey for you!
I know in the world of laptops Acer is a dirty word as they are more bottom end of the market but a designer friend of mine has just bought a huge 21" laptop to do large work on, and I have to admit its quite impressive.
You might want to take a look at them, I think he got his from `Dabs`. Although as I say, I cant vouch for the long term robustness of Acer stuff?
If it helps we all get our machines from `Micro Anvika`, who to date have been very good.