Asus, Dell, and HP are the three brands that have nice notebooks at a pretty nice price.
Asus - M50 series here in the states are about 1200-1300 USD and has great reviews. Even though you did say it doesn't have to be able to play games, this one can.
Dell - Inspirons are pretty cheap because they don't have an option for dedicated graphics anymore, but they're still OK. The new Studio 15 has a option for a dedicated card though, it seems OK, it's got an option for an LED screen and backlit keyboard. That's always a plus. I dunno if it goes in your price range, but take a look at the XPS 1530.
HP - I don't really know the names/numbers for HP notebooks, so I can't quite point out specifics, but almost every review I've come across at notebookreview points to a solid, cheap, decent notebook. So I doubt you can really go wrong here. Customer service on the consumer lineup is said to be a little iffy though.
