>Hio,
>
>I'm looking for a new laptop and after careful comparison I'v turned my eye balls first time to Apple. 17" Mac Book Pro is the one what get me thrilled.

Have you looked at all the options ? Buying a new big screen laptop often seems to be the correct solution. In my case on second thought I rarely needed the laptop's big screen.
In 2 places I work at a company pc and used the laptop mostly for my personal stuff and as a carrying device for backup data for work at home. These places I visit now with a USB stick and a large USB disk - easier to carry and synching is faster.

On 2 other locations I have nice large screens to connect my laptop to - so I can get by with a smaller screen size just for the laptop. The only times I really need the laptop screen is in a hotel / on tour or when carrying the laptop to a briefing.

I even keep an not-too-old tower just to leave it at a new client with a large screen and just visit with my USB bag. In the near future there will be a small sized (1'8 or lower) 200 GB external disk with USB and SATA which will *not* need external power and fit into your pocket... Since middle ground computing power has become ridicously cheap for most development jobs, having your own files, development tools and the file structure you are used to is the main thing you need to carry.

BUT you must have a good encryption and backup schema in case the device is stolen.

my 0.02 EUR

thomas