Thanks for the replies so far,
In looking earlier today and searching for more information on the i3 one from Gateway I came across alot of stuff that came out over the weekend thanks to CES. And wow is there alot coming.
The Gateway is nice for what your getting and found out more details. It was listed on Futureshop.ca for $692 with it being in stock. This looks realistic as I've found a new Dell and HP ones using i3 and/or ATI 5xxx Series mobile chipsets with a shipping or availiblity date of Jan 17/18th.
Looking further I found some posts about incoming Asus, Acer, Samsung and Sony ones using the i3/5/7 cores and ATI 5xxx cards. But again with no solid prices or full details. Although from knowing basic prices I can see the Samsung and Sony ones being higher then my $1000 max. However Asus and Acer typically have nice ones sub-$1000. (have heard bad things about Acer though, anyone able to confirm?)
So I'm probably gonna sit on this for the next week or so and see what comes up.
Helpful link for news in the new stuff;
http://gadgets.softpedia.com/news/Portable-computing-systems/SideWinderDX
PS - I've typically noticed that vendors seem to have the systems and specs online before the actually company making the product.