Laptop buying advice forum: Laptop for Grad Student

Hi All,

I'm looking to replace my 5+ year old Dell Latitude with a good laptop for heavy use. I mainly do multi-tab surfing (mostly with Chrome, although sometimes with Firefox), some movie watching and music streaming, a lot of word processing and powerpoint making, some photoshop work, and a lot of pdf reading/writing/editing. I don't do any gaming, so that's not a concern.

I would like a machine with fast start up and a fairly long life. I do travel a good bit, so something 15" or less and fairly light would be best. I would like a webcam for skyping and a fairly long battery life. Would it be good to go with an i5 or i7 and 4(+) GB RAM?

I've looked at some Sonys (CW and the new(ish) F line) and I've initially liked them. I think this is mostly because I hate the plasticy feel that I get from so many HP and Toshiba laptops. I don't want a Mac, mostly due to the software compatibility issue in my field of work. I'm looking to spend somewhere around $1200.

Any advice would be much appreciated!