My preferred laptop would be something like this...
a 14 inch screen with 1280 res, the size of the laptop just barely bigger than the screen itself..
no lump or bumps in the design, just clean as in ibm/apple notebooks
medium/high end processor
light
no-legacy
512MB memory
3D card w. at least 32 MB
60-80GB hard drive
4-5 hours battery in office at least 3 watching movies
built-in 802.11b/g and bluetooth
built-in 10/100/1000 network
2-4 USB2 and firewire port
quality soundcard
dvd-rw built-in or in an included docking station
No multimedia buttons needed at all (I've had them for 5 years, and haven't touched them yet..)
under $2000