Both make good laptops. The newer thinkpads have that cool thinklight though that lights up your keyboard in the dark. The high end Thinkpads are pretty expensive, a similiar configured Toshiba would probably run a little less. Love the keyboard of the older Thinkpads, spacious, solid tactile feedback, heard the quality of their newer models are not as excellent, but still very good. The keyboard of the Toshiba's doesn't have the solid feel of the Thinkpad but they're not bad either. I do prefer the placement of the stacked, crescent shaped mouse buttons of the Toshiba over the Thinkpad's, side by side square buttons. Both use trackpointers, not sure if trackpads are an option. Some Thinkpads are actually made by Acer (A20 line and iSeries?), I think the T20 is made by IBM, Toshiba Satellites are also farmed out as well I believe while the Satellite Pro and Tecra lines are made in house? IBM offers the fastest mobile 3D video chip, the ATI 128/M3 in some of their laptops (A20p), while the Toshiba's current best offering is the SavageIX/MX 3D video chip (not as fast as the ATI 128/M3 but is faster than the ATI M1), also is limited to 8 megs RAM while the ATI comes with 16 megs. IBM also uses the Savage chip in their T20 line. IBM also has the nice SXGA+(?) 15" screens, not sure if Toshiba has a similiar offering.