Portable 13-14" Asus Laptop - Which one?

I was considering buying a Lenovo T60, then thought of getting a macbook and actually ordered one, but the order got canceled for some bizarre reason and then the shipment dates were changed with the 2nd order and it was too late for me (I'm leaving on Friday and was hoping to have my mac by then).

So now I'm also considering an asus. Here's what I'm looking for:
* Relatively light or medium-weight, around 5lb.
* 13-14" screen, widescreen preferred but I'll also consider SS with higher resolution (SXGA+). Preferably a SXGA+ anyways.
* Good battery life: minimum of 3-3.5 hours with medium-work and 4.5 and up on battery-saving mode (lower brightness, no heavy programs, etc).
* Sturdy: I don't want a plastic piece of junk. The plastics on macbooks are nice, or the Lenovo T60s or the likes. Either good plastic or magnesium-alloy.
* Good Keyboard: I love the keyboards on my HP ZT3000, and actually hate the macbook keyboard. I type a lot so a good keyboard is important.
* Not so much into gaming, maybe just a few (some strategic games like Age of EMpires III, or Prince of Persia, but def. nothing cutting-edge or even that frequent). So a dedicated graphic card would be nice, but an integrated one would not be the end of the world (as long as it's a higher-end one).
* I do a lot of multi-tasking (running an anti-virus program, surfing and taking notes at the same time, copying and uploading files).
* Looks are somewhat important but I can manage with a good piece of technology that looks ugly!
* BUDGET: $1400USD and under (before tax and everything else).

Thanks

 

well, there's no sxga+ or wsxga on 13.3" or 14".
13.3" you will only get wxga. 14, the A8jp and A8js gets the wxga+ which currently, is the highest resolution you can get in that form factor.

battery life and any video card will conflict. Even the W7j (a 13.3") with a lower end Nvidia 7400 card will NOT meet your battery life demands unless you buy a larger battery. it will get you 3 at most, with everything at minimum. Same with the A8 series with their more powerful video cards.

If you're willing to sacrifice that, I believe places like BTOtech give good pricing on theirs. W7j, A8js.

If you don't want dedicated graphics, there's the Z35f which will probably come close to your battery needs.

and yes, Asus keyboards are as nice as Thinkpad ones.

 

I've been looking at a W5 that fits your description and seems like a nice notebook, not sure how much they are in USD though...

insane