Is Apple the only game in town?

On my trip to the eagles photosession the other week, the only option I had for a laptop was a Lenovo X61, which was very far from being a usable tool for on-the-go image editing.
Two of the other photographers I met had Macbook PRO 15,4" laptops that worked very smoothly indeed. One of the guys had his machine configured to boot with Windows XP as well, giving a fair hint of how well the same machine performed in an enviroment more familiar to me.
It also struck me that the ability of Macbooks to run Windows makes it easier to compare them to normal laptops, so I sat down and had a hard look at the hardware specs.
As far as I can see, the power offered by the 15,4" Pro Macbooks is on par with other laptops in the same price range, such as Dell Precision M4400 and Lenovo W500. Where the Macs have glossy LED screens, Lenovo offers only old-style TFT monitors with fluorescent tubes. With Dell, one can choose. The CPU, RAM, HDD, weight and connections are comparable for most part. Apple has a few fancy connectors with magnets and small form factor, but functionally they do the same as what the others offer.
So as tempting as the Apple may be, I don't think I'm going to listen to the snake.
- Well... Microsoft's garden is no kind of Eden, but I just couldn't resist... :-)