My dad used to have thinkpads, and I have to say they're good computers. However I never got one myself because, well, they're expensive
I recently bought a toshiba A45-S2501. It's about 1580$ (bought it for 100$ less at the time because of a rebate). I like it, the only downsides are that the graphics are not so good (1024*768 screen), and that it's rather heavy. But I don't care about graphics myself. On the other hand, the battery life is really good. And the specs are good enough for me (Mobile P4 2.8, 60GB, 512 Ram, DVD reader/writer, XP pro).
PS: I had a toshiba before that, and had the same problem with dots on the screen.. Thankfully no such problem this time.