I recently(01.07.10) bought dell inspiron 15R which has core i3 processor, 4gb ram, 320 gb hardisk, 512 mb graphics card;.
The screen looks stunning. it is a 16:9 display and is 15.6 inches wide. the movies look great to watch. The graphics card is good. I tried prince of persia: the two thrones with the maximum settings and it was cool. I also played nfs most wanted on very high settings and it looked great. This should be able to play many recent games.
My laptop had facial recognition software preinstalled. I had some fun playing with it. lol. The microphone also picks up sound very well and I was giving voice commands to the computer. The speakers are audible and actually you wont be able to see where they are. They are hidden!
Many of my friends have dell laptops and the service is very good. once my friend broke the laptop casing accidentally and they replaced the broken casing.
I guess if I don’t drop the thing, I am sure the laptop should live for four or five years.