The i3 and i5 Dell Vostro 3300 is a good option. It's aluminum body with metal hinges. It's available with NVidia 310m graphics on the i5 models, but if you're not gaming, the Intel HD will do it all in terms of hardware video decoding. The Vostro 3300/3400/3500/3700 is much better built than older Vostro models which were really just re-badged Inspirons. These newer Vostros share much more of their build quality with the Latitude line.

The two main drawbacks are lack of HDMI output and lack of 8-cell battery as an upgrade option, though the 8-cell can be added as an EXTRA battery (in addition to the standard 4-cell). Having both can be nice... I used to have a D630 and I used the 4-cell at the office and around the house, and switched to the 8-cell for travel. This kept weight down day-to-day and also kept the bigger battery from losing capacity due to repeated daily charging/over-charging.

i5 models top-out at around $1200, but more reasonably-speced i3 models can be had from $600 - $900 depending on priorities and requirements.