Here are a few possible options.
- The Thinkpad Edge 3531 is a solid laptop, though a bit dated. Again, only an HDD, but the upgrade would be fairly simple. Has an i7. Unfortunately, it's resolution is a poor 1366x768. Price : $700
- The Asus Vivobook v500 is another ultrabook, with a HDD, i7, and a touchscreen. Very solid build quality. However, at $800, there is little opportunity for an ssd upgrade.
- Dell offers their i5535, which seems like a development name that was never dropped. It is the slowest of the laptops discussed so far, but also the cheapest at $590. Again, a swap is needed. No image available on newegg, but I saw some others elsewhere
- From Lenovo, here is a somewhat, nay, very thick beast (wink wink). However, it is $630 for an i7 and solid build quality. On sale at the moment.
- Lenovo has some others on sale at the moment that do deserve a glance. Note here, here, and here.
- Acer offers a few others, such as this, and this. They seem to have a lot of variants at that price point.
Finally, I haven't mentioned any HP's because of their extremely lacking build quality, but that is an option if you want it. If you can get the Macbook air for your price with a discount, go for it. It would be great, even if you have to buy a windows key for it.
Hope that was some help.