I chose the Dell because I got a SCREAMING deal. I purchased an off lease laptop with the specs above (3.06 Core2 Extreme, 1920x1200, 4gb...) for $900 shipped. That is why I chose the Dell.
That being said, here are the good/bad.
It has a 3 button touchpad + 3 button touchstick. This is extremely nice in SW because it allows me to rotate and zoom the part without a mouse. Basically, I have full functionality of a mouse without it. Not as fast or preferred, but it lets me bring my laptop into my boss's office without needing a mouse.
The screen is very nice. 1920x1200 is fantastic. I have a coworker with the M4400 and the basic screen. Compared to mine, it looks like he is on standard VGA. I cant go back.
Battery life is surprisingly good. I have the 9 cell and I can typically get 2-3 hours assuming I am not running heavy programs. I have had it for almost a year and no issue with battery fatigue. Also, the LED indicator on the battery shows you how much juice you have without turning it on.
It runs hot. Very hot. The thing doubles as a heater. Get a cooling pad, you will need it.
No HDMI out. The HP has it, not sure about the Lenovo. It does have a DisplayPort though, which carries the same digital signal, so you can get an HDMI adapter. I think it is stupid that they dont do HDMI... but take it for what it is.
Heavy. It isnt really fun to lug this around. My previous laptop was a Dell Latitude E4300. It was a featherweight compared to this, but you wont find a laptop with a decent graphics card and nice screen much lighter. It is built like a tank though. Very sturdy.
I had weird freezing issues when I first got it. It would freeze periodically and the only fix was a hard reboot. Updated the bios and no issues for almost a year. It is an issue with some of these, but warranty takes care of it. Apparently it is hit or miss, but Dell knows about it and I think they fixed it. Only a concern when buying a used one really.
The keyboard is fantastic. One of my friends works for R&D at Dell. He told me they spent quite a bit of money reverse engineering the touchpad keyboards. They are pretty similar IMO.
If cost is a concern, I would look into the Dell Outlet, or the Lenovo and HP outlets. They all sell refurb laptops at good prices. Watch out for the screen resolutions at the Dell Outlet though. Alot of their M4400s have poor resolution. You can often find 15% off coupons for the outlet (I get them in my email periodically).
Thats about all I can think of. Overall, you will probably be pretty happy with the M4400. I dont have much experience with the others, but I can tell you that anything less than the Quadro 770M and you will have slowdowns with SW2010. The 1700M is probably not worth the additional money yet.
If you want a screaming processor, you might want to wait until the Quadro is mated with the i7 chipsets. They should be out soon if not yet.
Cheers
![[pc2]](/data/assets/smilies/pc2.gif "[pc2] [pc2]")
