>>I really like the fingertip joystick on the Dell's. I use mine all the time.

>I assume that's what I call the "eraser-head." That's what I have on my current notebook and it's what I'd like again. I don't want to waste the space for a touchpad that I'm not going to use.

I have a IBM ThinkPad with the "eraser-head" joy-stick in the keyboard too. I also have the touch pad below the keys -- is there any way you know of of turning off the touch pad? I find that sometimes my thumb or wrist will touch it and "throw-off" the cursor position from where it was. Thanks.