I think that you'll need to be more specific to get the answer that's right for you. Are you talking about the hardware, OS, or both? What languages do you program in? Are you planning on developing for mobile devices and if so what sorts? Are you going to use it in an office setting or on the go? This information is all very relevant.
Yeah, this is a very arbitrary question.
To each's own. But you will pry my ThinkPad running Archlinux from my cold dead hands and the first eight of you to try will be bludgeoned to death with it. The ninth will have a perfectly functional, if cracked, laptop.
Terminal into a remote server and use the remote install of VIM then pretty much any computer will do.