The LCD display can take a bit of getting used to if you had a CRT. Look at the resolution and go for 1280 X 1024 if you can. Sizing of characters (OS settings) for the screen is a bit of an art, usually the factory settings are best. I would advise getting a mouse with extending cable - preferrably inside the mouse. External monitor is not really convenient for portability. Get the best screen you can & try without monitor first.
I would opt for the best features you can. DVD (preferrably a writer). And USB 3.0 is announced - if you can find a laptop with such a drive - go for it, it looks to be the way to go, exceedingly fast (e-SATA & Firewire killer), and being backward compatible it will work on all existing devices (subject to drivers) and future-proofing has been the watchword up to now. We are talking HDD speeds so external drives will be as fast as internal, I saw a figure of 16:1 improvement in speed.