I beg to differ - I went to university for a year toting around an HP Compaq tc4400 convertible business-class tablet PC - I had a secondary 8 cell battery (hello 11 hours of battery life!), and a docking station, 22" LCD and ergonomic keyboard on my desk. I also own several HP Compaq nc6400s, a couple 6910p notebooks, a couple of Dell Latitude D620s, a ThinkPad T60, a ThinkPad T61, and I bought my sister an HP EliteBook 6930p to take to school this past year. The non-pro MacBook doesn't come anywhere close to any of these notebooks in terms of physical durability. That's without mentioning the easily cracking/staining topcase on the MacBook (pre-unibody), the insanely thin jacket on the MagSafe adapter's cable, or the lack of an appropriate strain relief on the MagSafe connector (although this has recently been corrected). The ThinkPad T and X-series product lines (as well as current-genreation HP EliteBooks and the ProBook 6x40 line) also have drain holes in the keyboard in the event of a liquid spill - as a service technician, I see LOTS of liquid damaged notebooks coming from university/college students. On a note of personal preference, I can't stand Apple's notebook keyboards. Some people love them, but I find them too flat and soft - I would much prefer a solid, responsive (if noisy) ThinkPad keyboard - the UltraNav eraser head mouse is also convenient for when I can't whip out a wireless mouse. As for your complaint about your M4400... you're right, Dell did a less than stellar job with their current line of enterprise notebooks.

The 4000 isn't perfect, but it is by far the best keyboard I have ever owned.
So good, in fact, that I ended up buying a second one for occasional use with my tablet when docked.

I use proper posture when typing (wrists not resting on keyboard, hands level with arms, etc.), and I simply cannot tolerate using a standard keyboard for an extended period of time.