NeXT was conceptually interesting. It had a magneto-optical drive and, as I recall, one of the pitches was that in a world of expensive computers and slow networks, especially in higher education it was an interesting concept that you could carry around a removable disk and essentially make any workstation "your" personal workstation by inserting your disk.

And, yes, Jobs was quite the salesman. I wasn't at the original announcement but he reprised the announcement for the Boston Computer Society in Symphony Hall. (Which also says something about the size of the BCS at the time.)

Way more so. The thing was made out of solid magnesium. The NeXT Cube had so many amazing features it hurts my head just to think back on it.

I remember staying with a friend who was a grad student at Stanford at the time for the 1989 TUG Meeting. He had one of these on his desk (he had been contracted by NeXT to do NeXTTeX). I just remember how blazingly fast and slick everything about that computer was. At the same time, it was super expensive ($6500 for the original NeXT computer) and originally only offered to students and educational institutions. Steve Jobs apparently answered a question about what business people who wanted a NeXT should do if they wanted one with, "Enroll."

Volume for surface area. Jobs loved to latch onto arbitrary trivia and pretend it was a superior product feature.