<rant> One of the problems with laptops these days is that most of the laptop manufacturers just don't get it.
For developers it's all about the screen space and performance, and it seems to be quite difficult to find a laptop that it spec'd how we want it. For example, if I buy a 15" laptop, I want it to have 1920x1080 at least. If I buy a 17", I expect it to have 1920x1200. But how many manufacturers build systems to cater for this these days? Most seem to advertise the size of the screen but not the resolution - and that's the starting point for me. 17" is luggable enough without having to tolerate ridiculously low resolution such as 1600x900 (XPS), or 1378x768. I ultimately end up buying Dell or Alienware because they are the only ones who will build a laptop close to the spec I want for a reasonable price. I don't like their SSDs, so I get a 7200 rpm drive put in them and change over to a RealSSD when I take delivery, and put the 7200 in a caddy. Alienware already have 2nd gen i7 chips in their 17" lappies now too, but why would I buy a 17" laptop that only goes to 1920x1080. If I buy 17", I want those extra 120 pixels! (Note that first gen Alienware 17" still has 1920x1200.) Do they expect me to always plug into an external LCD and a keyboard? If that's the case, give me some sort of really small and powerful laptop, such as the Alienware 10", but supe it up to be far more powerful than that! </rant>
