<p>Well, if you are going to get an external monitor, keyboard, and mouse, you might also look into getting a docking station as well, since it is going to be a pain to connect and disconnect all of those cables.</p>
<p>IBM isn't the only manufacturer with the pointing stick. The business line notebooks from Toshiba, HP, and Dell also have the pointing stick in most of their models.</p>
<p>A docking station would be great (because you get to leave everything attatched and just stick the computer in...a good one should have ethernet too so you can get off the wireless).</p>
<p>And its true that the other companies make systens with the trackpoint style mouse (or the innapropriet nickname for it) but they do it sparsely between models. My school has 2 different kind of dell laptops and half of them have both touchpad and stick and half have only touchpad. The touchpad isnt a terrible input device but the stick is more ergonomic and comfortable for long periods of time. IBM models all have one and many dont have a touchpad at all.</p>
<p>Note the operative word "business line." Dell's Latitude lineup has a pointing stick in just about every model except for the very small Latitude X1 which is essentially a rebadged Samsung.</p>
<p>Hmm... I hit the quick reply button too quickly!</p>
<p>I personally think that a touchpad is a more efficient way of getting the cursor across the screen, but I do have to agree there is something that I like about the pointing stick. Personally, I have found the touchpad to be faster, but the pointing stick to be more accurate. It really has to do with preference.</p>
<p>Note that I call that little red nub in the middle of the IBM keyboards as the pointing stick, since that is what other manufacturers call them. I can never quite remember which one is the Trackpoint and the Trackpad... too confusing for me.</p>
<p>I believe that all the Dell Latitudes come with the trackpoint/stick mouse and touchpad. The Inspirons are touchpad only.</p>
<p>While all IBM/Lenovo Thinkpads have the trackpoint/stick mouse, only the R and T series have the touchpad in addition.</p>
<p>EDIT: IAmTheEvilest beat me to this post. Ok, so the Latitude X1 indeed doesn't have the trackpoint/stick. </p>
<p>By the way, since you brought up the X1 as a rebadged Samsung, we should also note that the rest of the Latitudes are all rebadged computers by Quantas Computer and the Inspirons are rebadged ones made by Compal Computer. Both of these companies are based in Taiwan.</p>