HP has a very decent and durable machines in the corporate line. I have one that operates practically 24/7 for two and a half years now. This particular one I've bought after my desktop workstation (IBM IntelliStation, double Xeon, Wildcat graphics, 15K drives..) died after just little more than one year in service. So much for desktop vs. laptop durability. I also prefer the keyboard (and rubber mouse buttons) to the ThinkPad's design.

Buying form corporate line has an additional benefit that one can use a docking station for all the external monitors, hard drives, mouse, keybord, speakers and the ethernet cable. Of course I know ThinkPads do have a docking connector too, but Macs do not and I hardly understand how people can trade convenience and commodity price for a shiny paint that wears off from sweat in under a year and a shiny GUI that annoys me (maybe it's just me) almost as Windows does.