I have a HP Pavillion dv6838TX - Great laptop and I think it may be in your price range now.. Got it over a year ago for $AU1299 (Although I got it pretty heavily discounted) Very sexy looking laptop too - Vera Wang designed.
PROCESSOR: Intel® Core™2 Duo Processor T8100
CPU SPEED: 2.10 GHz, 3 MB L2 Cache, 800MHz FSB
HARD DRIVE: 250GB 5400RPM
MEMORY: 2048MB DDR2 (2 Dimms)
DISPLAY SIZE: 15.4\" WXGA High-Definition BrightView
RESOLUTION: 1280 x 800
VIDEO GRAPHICS: NVIDIA® GeForce 8400M GS
OPTICAL DRIVE: LightScribe Super Multi 8X DVD±RW
AUDIO/SPEAKERS: Altec Lansing speakers
TYPE OF PORTS: 3 USB 2.0; VGA; HDMI; IEEE 1394
OPERATING SYSTEM: Windows Vista® Home Premium
WEBCAM: Integrated HP Low Light VGA Webcam
MODEM: High speed 56K modem
BLUETOOTH: Bluetooth
NETWORKING: Integrated 10/100 Ethernet LAN
WIRELESS: Intel® PRO/Wireless 802.11a/b/g
ADDITIONAL FEATURES: Integrated HP Mobile Remote Control
BATTERY: 6-cell Li-Ion
DIMENSIONS & WEIGHT: 2.75kg
WARRANTY: 1Yr Standard HP Warranty
If you can get that or perhaps a model slightly lower for the price your looking at then you're onto a winner for sure. Also I'd never had a problem with HP so I don't know what that other guy was talking about
EDIT: Also I'll add the Windows Experience points it has
- Processor: 5.1
- Memory: 4.9
- Graphics: 3.5
- Gaming Graphics: 4.3
- Primary hard disk: 5.2
