I have had enough good luck with Toshiba that I would recommend one to others. They have a decent keyboard (at least I like it) and a good reputation for reliability (better than Apple and Sony; only bested by Asus) and longevity, so I like them.
While my $500 T135 could easily run what you want to run, it has since been superseded by the T235. If you want big power in a small package, the M640 is a nice 14” model. It starts at $699 with a Core i3–350M, but you can get it with an i5–520M, up to 8GB RAM, Blu-ray burner, and other goodies.
The Portege R700 is a bit spendier ($1109 base with the i5–520M and 2GB RAM) but can take an i7–620M and the 128GB SSD is an option if you don’t mind trading a little storage space for something far faster and more reliable than a regular hard drive.
If you want to compare brands though, you might want to look at this. You pretty much want to go with Toshiba, Sony, Asus, or Apple; don’t consider the others.
@Dog Watch it with those things. They are prone to frayed cords and other problems, some of which may lead to fires. I know of at least one class-action lawsuit regarding Apple’s magnetic connectors.