I've had the 17" MacBook Pro provided by work for about 18 months now. It was an excellent machine when it was my primary dev workstation, but now that I've moved onto a new job, they've given me a monster desktop machine. The MBP's inability to have > 2GB of RAM has really stopped me from using it to its maximum value, and its 17" size also means there are places it doesn't go well. I'm basically not bringing it to work every day, because I don't need it every day, and it weighs ~ 8lbs with the power brick. I wanted something small and fast that would suit well for meetings, travel, and presentations.
So I ordered a Dell XPS M1330.
I dithered and debated this internally for about a week. It was hard to resist, when you combine the $799 rebate going on, plus the discount I get on Dell machines through work. The machine I built would normally cost almost $3100, but ended up being just $2005 after all the discounts (including a 3 year warranty).
I equipped it with 3GB of RAM (will bump it up to 4GB after it arrives), a 64GB SSD hard drive, dedicated 128MB nVidia 8400M GS video card, and the thin LED-backlit screen with webcam. Yes, I got it in blue. :)
I went back and forth on the possibilities for an Apple laptop and in the end decided that this $1k discount was just too much to ignore. I compared it to the possibility of a MacBook Air (which was roughly the same price, before discount anyway). The Dell is nowhere near as sexy as the Air, although the M1330 is not exactly a visual slouch. I also considered a MacBook, but it lacked the 64GB SSD option (but would've been slightly less expensive at ~ $1750 after self-upgrades).
In the end, I couldn't quite put together exactly the Apple laptop I wanted. 4GB was important. 64GB SSD was important. Dedicated video card was important. Tiny and light (4lbs) was important. And the Dell was extremely reasonably priced given the decent power that's packed inside its tiny frame. Had the MacBook been available with 64GB SSD for reasonable prices (~+$600), I probably would've foregone dedicated video for a Mac.
Maybe 2-3 years from now, Son of MacBook Air will be my next choice. :)
