Apple in general is rediculous. Save yourself a ton of money and go to Wal-mart and spend $400-$500 on a Gateway/Acer or whatever is cheap. It will play DVDs, run Microsoft Office, Photoshop, run the internet, etc. and if you feel that it is slow toss a 1gb stick of memory into it from newegg.com for under $30 and turn off 3d effects on Windows Vista if it has Vista. It will most likely not game because it will be equipped with a cheap on-board video card. If you can, find a laptop with Windows XP, which you probably won't find.
i have an Advent and i use all them features plus more....it was €700.....including microsoft.....dont know how much it is in whatever currency you have......
but dont rule out laptops with a cheapest brand name....mine works perfectly and compared to others it was one of the cheaper ones