At the under-$500 clearance price, looks like a very good choice.

(eta: that's the top of the line model of the machine JMN57 was recommending, and I mentioned in passing up-thread.)

Ignoring cost (which is a big win at that price), it's going to be thicker than the present round of ultrabooks, and perhaps not as good on battery life (although I believe it has an exchangeable battery, which ultrabooks generally don't.) It's not going to be as durable or fast as a business subnotebook, but it'll be lighter and have a better battery life.

Oh, and compared to an Atom or AMD C-series based netbook, it pretty much wins all-around (although it's a little pricier.)

You didn't mention any gaming or 3D-graphics-heavy use; the on-chip video for the first-generation mobile i7 like that has is a LOT weaker than than the 2nd-generation i5/i7 ("Sandy Bridge") but it's sufficient for any general-use. Just don't try gaming on it.

You did mention Photoshop, and it will not have GPU acceleration in Photoshop. For very serious users, that may be an issue, but for most users it won't be a noticeable issue, especially with a reasonably-fast processor (which that has.)

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eta2: if you have some budget left over, for a serious travel machine, replacing the HD with an SSD makes a big difference in durability of your date. There are some decent 240gb models for $180-$220 these days.