Dell Inspiron 15R Laptop or Dell™ Inspiron M501R

Wait for sandybridge based notebooks.

i prefer Intel over AMD (personal experience)

forgot about McAfee, get Kaspersky Internet Security @ Rs. 450/per year

and if u can than as vickybat said wait for sandybridge

Wait for SB mobile proccy (scheduled for Q3 2011 India)

In terms of GPU performance 550v (re-branded 4650M) would be much better as it has a Memory Bus Width of 128 Bit, whereas 5470 has MBW of 64bit, not at all good even if it supports DX11.

I would also give N850 a preference because of its unlocked memory controller and its higher FSB speed/bandwidth.

i3/i5 will down-clock, native memory module frequency of 1333MHz to 1066MHz
But N850 will have no problem running it at its native freq i.e. at 1333MHz.

N850 and 370M have same TDP of 35W, so they'll last almost equally when running on batt.

N850 has 45nm CPU architecture, whereas 370M has 32nm arch. Hence N850 will run a bit more hotter than 370m.

You can also consider customized Dell Inspiron 14R+i3 370m+550v.

But if you can step away from Dell, ASUS K42Ja with i3 370M CPU+ATI 5730 GPU+14" display at about 37k would be a much better option.

A few corrections in the above post:

i3 370m has a 32nm fab process and not 35nm. Laptops running i3 370 lasts a bit longer than amd n850 triple core.

Amd's current mobile cpu's are no match for intel and even for its low end parts whether performance or efficiency.

@ op

That said, if you are in a hurry, try out the asus k42ja as it has a more powerful gpu compared to the earlier ones you posted.

But i suggest waiting for sandybridge.

Does anyone have an idea until when is Sandy bridge expected to launch. And what would be the minimum cost of such a laptop?

Thanx for the suggestions...i guess i will wait for Sandy Bridge

I hope Sandy crosses the Bridge soon
(I know, PJ)

yes. 15R is the better one. And Sandy's mobile chips should be out in 3rd week of Feb which means that we will see laptops by end of Feb in India.