Macs are always good. Although I personally don't like them based on personal preference.

I have a newish Dell XPS 15 and I love it to death (I say this because it got redesigned about 6 months after I bought mine). Its a little more than your budget (around 1300 for mine) but its got plenty of memory, good graphics, and great sound. I bought mine with an extended battery, which I don't know is an option still after the redesign, and I'll get six hours or more depending on what I'm doing. Its a powerful enough laptop that I can run CAD software on it without slowing down. As far as outputs goes. Mine has 3 usb slots, ethernet, HDMI, Digital audio out, and two headphone jacks.

My personal suggestion would be to go to a best buy and talk to them, even if you don't want to buy it there. Nowadays you can pretty much customize any computer from any number of companies and make them the same. Only thing I push for in my laptops is Intel Processors and NVidia graphics cards. I've had AMD processors and ATI graphics cards, which are the other two big competing brands, and haven't liked either one.