I visited the showroom and had a look at the various entry level HP and Dell models and not very much impressed with the build quality of the ~ 1000$ range. I have seen people recommending MBP in many forums and thought I would give it a try.
I visited an Apple showroom last week and played with the 13 inch MBP for sometime, the build quality and looks are extremely good, but I felt a bit strange when trying to use it (that was my first experience with Mac), I had used Windows and Linux with various UI (GNOME,KDE,XFCE) etc but I couldn't navigate comfortably on Mac , It felt a bit different. I came to know that Mac doesn't have a backspace key, I was also not very much comfortable with the touchpad in Mac (I was apparently searching for the trackpoint)
I will be using a Thinkpad for my office work (client mandates windows XP). How useful would be to get a Mac, will the transition be easy? I would have to work on the Thinkpad in office and Mac by evening, will this won't affect my productivity by causing confusion due to different keyboard layout and mouse.