Over the last decade or so, I've owned 11 laptops from 6 manufacturers, so I've had a fair amount of experience with a variety of laptops.  Here's what I've learned, and why I like Thinkpads and MacBooks.  Here's what I've owned, in order:

• a 75Mhz IBM 701c (butterfly keyboard - still works great although it's now slow, slow, slow)
• a 266Mhz Toshiba Satellite (broken screen but the computer still works if hooked up to a display)
• a 500Mhz Sharp (returned to store when it gave me problem after problem)
• a 700Mhz T20 Thinkpad (sold on eBay after 2 years - it held its value well),
• a 2.8GHz HP Pavillion (sold at the Dayton ComputerFest after 6 months)
• a T40 Thinkpad I had for 18 months (IBM then exchanged it at no charge for an upgrade to a T42 because the wiring on a screen they had replaced just kept causing problems)
• a T42 Thinkpad (still using and loving it)
• a Dell XPS M1710 (I loved it's speed and graphics and Core 2 Duo CPU, but it's no Thinkpad for portability.  I just sold it to my brother-in-law, so I obviously respect this laptop a lot).
• A Dell M1210 mini-laptop (this was great for portability, and has Windows Vista on it, but it died not long ago because of a power problem that I suspect is a design defect).
• A 2.4Ghz, 200GB MacBook Pro with Multi-touch (the jury is still out on hardware usability, reliability and durability - but the software platform is unbeatable)
  
• A Dell Latitude D620 (a nice balance between portability, durability, and performance - most of what I say about Thinkpads also applies to this system).
  

Thankfully, I've never had one stolen.  No matter what kind of laptop you get, a word to the wise: don't let it out of your sight unless you're at home.  But other than its high desirability to a thief, I can't think of any other reason NOT to own a Thinkpad (engineered by IBM and now sold by Lenovo) or a MacBook (from Apple).  In the past, I've thought that the relatively high cost of either system was a good reason to get something less expensive, but every time I've done that, I've regretted it.   Let me elaborate on why I like Thinkpads and MacBooks.

What Makes Thinkpads and Macbooks Special

For starters, I'm a fan of the intelligent engineering.  Both systems are literally head-and-shoulders above everyone else in this department.  It's as if they were designed by creative engineers who actually used their inventions for well over a decade, improving everything they could whenever they could.  Come to think of it, that's probably a pretty close description of the IBM engineering that's gone into the Thinkpad. And the MacBook reflects the notorious passion of Steve Jobs for design excellence.

Now I have to confess right here that I'm biased, because even though I'm not an engineer, I was at IBM when the Thinkpads were originally designed, and I even served on IBM's Field Advisory Council - 12 marketing reps and systems engineers who advised IBM on what our government and corporate customers were looking for in desktops and laptops.  In other words, I was one little cog in the generally big wheel that is responsible for developing the Thinkpads, so discount what I say to the degree that I'm pretty proud of being involved with the birth of the Thinkpads even to a small degree.  But if I were totally biased, I wouldn't have purchased half of my laptops this past decade from other laptop manufacturers, and I certainly wouldn't be sharing my appreciation for the MacBook. But back to the intelligent engineering.

Portability

Laptops should be made to be conveniently portable.  This should be self-evident, but it's not.  Many people purchase a desktop in a laptop case - me included with the HP Pavillion and the Dell XPS.  That's not really a bad thing, but I've found that when you're lugging around a seven or eight pound desktop disguised as a laptop, there are a few extra considerations you need to keep in mind. 

First, the last place you want to put it is on your lap.  If you think all of the heat will blow out the side vents, you're kidding yourself and it's a joke you won't be laughing at later. (As an aside, this is one area where the MacBook is weak - it runs very hot compared to a Centrino Thinkpad, for example). 

Second, the weight makes for great exercise and, as a bonus, a great excuse to visit your chiropractor every few weeks unless you religiously trade off which side of your body you carry it on.  Third, that nice, full-sized keyboard and well-positioned mouse you take for granted on your desktop will probably not translate to a laptop, so get ready for the joys of finger-scrunching, poorly laid out keys, pinkey cursor-chasing on a touchpad, and even carpal tunnel syndrome if you're not careful. 

So all of those reasons why you may not want a humongous desktop in a laptop's body ARE reasons why you'll enjoy a Thinkpad or Macbook so much.  They are designed to be much thinner and lighter (my T42 is less than 5 pounds and is no trouble to carry around in one hand), and my real-life experience bears that out, in spades. 

Finally, the Thinkpads' full-sized, spill-proof keyboards are nearly legendary (This is another area where the MacBook hardware is inferior to and more vulnerable than the Thinkpad). They are laid out so well you'll find yourself annoyed that everyone else doesn't copy them every time you try to use someone else's laptop.

And then there's the little rubber eraser-looking pointing device in the middle of the keyboard - the TrackPoint.  Now, I know some people who say that the TrackPoint is hard to use and they prefer the touchpad, but I have a hard time understanding their beef.  The Trackpoint is so easy to use and so elegant that I can't imagine that critics have even made much of an effort to get used to the TrackPoint for the two hours it probably takes to get accustomed to it.  But once you ARE familiar with it, then moving the mouse is just about as easy as thinking.  The mouse becomes an extension of your finger.  I go crazy when I have to bully around a touchpad, but I keep trying to make friends with it nonetheless, since the TrackPoint seems to be pretty much a Thinkpad exclusive these days and if you own any other laptop you need to use a touchpad.   But for those who want both, well, most Thinkpads have both Trackpoint and Touchpad so you can use whichever one you like - and if you use the trackpoint as your mouse, then you can use the Touchpad for all kinds of other cool things enabled by the IBM driver.  One of the things I like about the Dell Latitude is that it has a Trackpoint - I just wish the Macbook had it too.

The Thinkpad also gives you a built-in keyboard light that can be handy in the dark, but in this area, the Thinkpad takes a poor second to the MacBooks brilliant light-sensitive keyboard backlighting.  And the benefits of Apple's multi-touch trackpad are very hard to give up once you get used to what you can do with it.

Now here's the best part: for all the ergonomic niceties of the Thinkpad and Macbook: you really don't give up much noticeable performance.  I kid you not - the designers of both the Thinkpad and the Macbook didn't forget performance when they created such nicely usable systems. 

The Thinkpads, however, are perhaps the closest thing I've found to no-compromise hardware design.

Protection and Security

Another example of elegant Thinkpad engineering:  if you ever drop or even suddenly whack some other laptop, especially while the hard disk is working, you're very lucky if the hard disk doesn't crash on you right then and there.  Most Thinkpads, however, have what they call Active Protection.  A sensor inside the PC or hard disk - I'm not sure where - knows when the laptop moves suddenly in any direction and quickly moves (parks) the hard disk head safely away from your data.  Brilliant.  And Thinkpads are designed to take a hit once in a while.  You certainly can't say the same thing for the aluminum or plastic Macbooks.  They seem very delicate compared to the magnesium-cased Thinkpads.

Then there's the optional fingerprint reader you get on some models - such as my T42 or my Dell Latitude.  Combined with the built-in security chip, IBM has the most usable, convenient absolutely secure security you can get anywhere.  With very little effort, you can protect your laptop such that thieves won't be able to even use it.  They'll have to dismantle it for parts, and even then all of the data on your hard disk is perfectly safe.  For the life of me, I can't understand why all of those Veteran's records that were on a laptop that was stolen weren't on a biometrically-protected Thinkpad.  Of course, anyone that cavalier with data probably doesn't pay much attention to all the reasons a Thinkpad offers superior value, either.  They probably just look at price and a few other specs that really don't tell the story.  Don't make that mistake.

Support and Durability

Then, there's support.  When I buy my laptops, I almost always get the on-site service (including accident / loss coverage) unless it's just too expensive.  And if I don't get it (like with the Toshiba), then it ends up costing me even more down the road when something breaks - and most laptops eventually do unless you only rarely use them on the go.  That way, when something goes wrong, which happens more often than laptop makers want to admit, sometime over the life of any well-used laptop, I get it fixed within two days (worst case) instead of within a week or 10 days (best case).  3-years of on-site service for the Thinkpad is usually cheaper than equivalent service for the other guys - which just confirms my personal experience that Thinkpads are more durable and require less service.  No, I'm not telling you that Thinkpads are problem-free - just that other laptops are somewhat worse when it comes to requiring service, in my decades-worth of experience.  And the other guys aren't as good about fixing theirs, either.  IBM (Lenovo now - it's basically the same people) just seems to care a lot more about service - most seem to actually believe they can make you happy if they fix your laptop and solve your problem and work hard to make you happy!  That can be hard to find these days.  One last tip on the support:  opt for the optional extra accident coverage as well (and if you can, pay for it with an American Express Gold or Platinum card or some other credit card that gives you extra warranty coverage).  The screens can break pretty easily, even if you're careful.  I had one break once when I had it on an airplane tray and the person in the seat in front of me on a plane reclined suddenly, catching my display in the space where my tray was.  Snap, crackle, pop!  Not a pleasant memory, although as I remember, I was covered on that one and IBM replaced it. 

Software

This is where the MacBook shines, and the Thinkpad has an advantage only compared to other Windows systems.  The Mac OS X is, quite simply, the best personal computer operating system on the planet, hands down, no argument.  If you think otherwise, you're simply in the dark and have probably never actually used Mac OS X for long enough to get used to it.  Why is it better?  Reliability.  You always hear that the Mac is easier.  Well, that may have been true in the past, but now I don't think it's any easier than Windows.  But it's clearly more reliable and predictable.  In the year I've been using it, it has only hung a total of five times - I've been keeping track.  Compare that to Windows, which crashes on me every week or two.  And I'm a PC expert and know how to avoid most Windows problems (which is basically to never do anything new with your PC).  Yes, I still do most of my computing work on Windows, but now I do it from my MacBook Pro running Windows Server 2008 under the Mac OS X running VMWare Fusion.  Best Windows experience I've ever had, and it's ironically running under the Mac OS X on a Mac.

Most laptops come with a suite of tools to help you get the most out of it.  On the MacBook, everything (with the exception of fingerprint management software) is integrated with the operating system. 

With a Thinkpad, you get what they call ThinkVantage software - some of which is built into the laptop firmware, and some of which runs under Windows.  It's certainly part of what makes a Thinkpad so enjoyable to work with. 

• display management that's very convenient if you're doing presentations or an external monitor,
• nice backup and recovery software
• fingerprint reader management and file security software that's excellent, as mentioned previously
• nice wireless hotspot management software
• automatic BIOS and driver update software
• many more

These tools are not perfect, and have had a tendency to become degraded with "upgrades," but better than relying on what Windows offers.  I think IBM's had many years of American executives using Thinkpads who have told them to fix any bugs in their laptop software or lose a big corporate client.  So they have a tendency to be more elegant and usable than many of the others, although Dell does a decent job there too.  I can only fault Dell for shipping the chip-clogging McAfee suite with their laptops.  I thought I had a new PC when I uninstalled every last bit of the McAfee software...  Of course, if Thinkpads still come with Norton, that's not much better.  Whatever the laptops have, I uninstall their security software and then install the INVISUS PC Security solution (it's a Managed Internet Security Service that's a supurb solution to the whole security mess) - and then enjoy a boost in performance once Norton or McAfee has been replaced by something more elegant.  But the security software isn't part of the ThinkVantage software, and most other laptops are no better off in the security department, so Thinkpads don't really lose points there, unless you compare them to the MacBook, which has the twin benefits of excellent security as part of the operating system AND fewer threats out there to be concerned with.

Customization

If you walk into a Circuit City or Best Buy, you usually end up taking the configurations they have on the shelf, whether or not it's exactly what you want.  I recommend you customize your own Thinkpad at Lenovo's web site or a MacBook at Apple's web site if you want a new laptop, or purchase the exact configuration you want on eBay (which has oodles of every kind of laptop you might ever want) if you're looking for something used.  Over the life of the machine, that compromise or two you made to get your Thinkpad or MacBook a week or two earlier or a buck or two cheaper will haunt you for years while the week or two and the money you save will be gone in, well, a week or two.  You really can't go wrong when you get expert help in customizing just the right laptop for you.  Both Apple and Lenovo offer excellent help in configuring a system that will meet your needs (as does Dell, in all fairness to Dell).

Lenovo?

I hear a fair amount of concern about Lenovo having purchased the Thinkpad division from IBM.  So far, my experience has been that little has changed except the ownership of the company, and they seem to know enough not to try to fix what's not broken.  I've been told by numerous insiders that the same people, by and large, still design and support Thinkpads that used to.  And if you're looking for a laptop that's Made in America, you'll be looking for a long, long time.  It's enough for me that most of the money for the Thinkpad I buy goes to pay the salaries of Americans who still care about (and deliver) quality, service, and support.

MacBooks

I have two sons who purchased MacBooks in the last couple of years, and my oldest, Jared, persuaded me to give the MacBook Pro a try. Well, to put it as simply as possible, so far, I'm loving it.  Most of the good things I say above about the Thinkpad also applies to the MacBook - with a couple of notable differences.

The power connector on the MacBook is superior. A few times, I've caught or tripped on the Thinkpad power cord and pulled the Thinkpad onto the floor. That will never happen with the MacBook because it's magnetic and just pops off rather than pull the laptop with it. The Macbook charge connector also has a small light that lets you know by its color whether its plugged in or not or fully charged or charging. With the Thinkpad I have to look at the brick or on screen to see.

Also, the MacBook is missing the Trackpoint, but I don't really miss it because the mouse pad on the MacBook (with multi-touch at least) is so smartly designed that I quickly adjusted to it and now love it as much as the Trackpoint.

As I mentioned, the MacBook runs far hotter than the Thinkpad.  Small price to pay to get the other benefits.

But the Macbook, with its lightweight aluminum case, is far more delicate than the Thinkpads or Dells, with their rugged but still lightweight magnesium cases.  Just look up "Macbook dents" vs. "Thinkpad dents" to get a feel for relative durability of the two.

Finally, the MacBook runs, of course, the Mac OS X (Leopard) which is FAR superior in almost every way to Windows - with the single exception of popularity. There's still plenty of good freeware available, though, so I'm doing more and more of my work on the Mac and less and less on Windows these days. I'm even running Windows XP or Windows Server 2008 (my favorite, when trimmed down to run as a client OS rather than a server OS) under VMWare Fusion on the MacBook and think they've done a fantastic job.

All things considered, I see no reason NOT to have a MacBook if you fall into either of these two categories: 1) you're just starting with computer and don't want to make a career of PC maintenance and security and don't mind paying a premium for elegant design and quality, or 2) you want the best of both worlds (Windows / Mac) and are willing to invest in learning TWO platforms.  If you're comfortable with Windows and don't enjoy learning new things, then get a Thinkpad.

Conclusion

Notice that I haven't raved about how Thinkpads or MacBooks are so much cheaper than anything else.  They're not, although they do seem to be fairly competitive even if all you do is compare specs.  But what they do offer is great value for the quality you get.  I don't know ANYONE who has purchased a Thinkpad or MacBook who bemoans the price they paid - no, they always seem to rave about what a great laptop they own.  If you're spending a grand or more on a laptop, I believe you'll agree with me that it doesn't make sense to try to save even $100 and forego a TON of the satisfaction you get when you know you have the highest quality, most usable, hassle-free, best-engineered laptop out there; if you've never owned a Thinkpad or a MacBook, give it some serious consideration.  It's like getting a Lexus - once you've owned one, for a variety of reasons that just don't come out when you're comparing specs on paper, you really don't want to risk the disappointment of ever going with anything else.

You can find good used Thinkpads / MacBooks here on eBay (I've sold one here myself) - but be careful: beware of any Buy-It-Now deal that seems too good to be true.  It probably is.  Laptops are a prime opportunity for fraud because they're expensive and popular and people are looking for a deal. 

I hope this Guide and my experience with laptops over this past decade has been helpful to you.  If not, let me know where you think I'm missing the boat - feel free to contact me via eBay.  If it has been helpful, won't you take a moment and encourage me to write more Guides by clicking on the Yes button below?  Many thanks and may your laptop experience be a wonderful one!