These laptops are configured absolutely identically except for a crucial difference: one is equipped with NVIDIA's flagship GeForce GTX 285M, and the other with AMD's flagship Mobility Radeon HD 5870. These are the fastest (current) single chip mobile graphics solutions from either vendor. NVIDIA just announced their upcoming GeForce GTX 480M, which will boost performance (and power consumption) and very likely take a clear lead over today's combatants, but we'll hold off on saying more about the 480M until we can actually get one for testing.

Let’s face it: Even the most diehard Mac fan needs a little dose of Microsoft sometimes. Whether you want to run some obscure engineering software, experiment with the dark side, or just want to fire up Modern Warfare 2 on your iMac, the ability to dip your toe in the Windows software pool is a major advantage. And these days, getting that means installing Windows 7.