Apple PowerBook G4 (15-inch)

Pros: Outstanding keyboard & breath-taking screen; plenty of power for the road.

Cons: 90 day phone support is miserly to be polite; cost of AppleCare for laptop too high.

Summary: The c/net comparison of this machine to a ThinkPad is misleading - the ThinkPad does not have a backlit keyboard or scrolling trackpad, comes with a 60GB hard drive instead of 80, and is not a wide-screen model.

For anyone coming over from Windows the elegance and security of OS X will be more than worth any small premium in price. This computer has the best keyboard being made - laptop OR full-sized, a beautiful screen, and plenty of performance. Battery life can be extended significantly by setting the CPU to "automatic" or "reduced" performance and turning the screen backlight, which is almost TOO bright on full, down a couple of notches.

Besides being beauties PowerBooks are beasts: they can take a licking and keep on ticking. Better yet the aluminum case is hard to scratch or mar so a quick wipe with a cloth and your travel companion looks like new again, even after rough use like being thrown in a backpack with books & DVDs, etc.

Obviously connectivity with iPod is top notch, and the FW 400 and 800 cabablity make using external storage fast and easy. The only possible disappointment with this machine is its wifi reception which could be better - it's not bad, tho.

I've had a lot of laptops in the past 20 years (including ThinkPads) and the PowerBook 15 is definitely the best, by a wide margin.