[Schaulustiger]

I was looking at buying an ultrabook and had the same problem (but living in Germany). In the end I decided on a Lenovo X1 Carbon, though, but faced the decision to either get one from the Lenovo store (which allows you to get a US keyboard) or buy with an education discount from a retailer. Since the discount for the latter was really steep, I saved 500€ and settled on a DE keyboard, although its layout is a major pain for programming. But I couldn't justify shelling out 500 bucks more just for the different keyboard. It's a shame but I guess we're really a minority.

[sundvor]

The X1 Carbon is a beautiful laptop, with the best keyboard in business. I am still using my original (i7/8/256) one from 2012, and it's holding up incredibly well. Build quality is second to none.

I would love to upgrade to the latest quad core goodness, and better energy saving tech, but as long as it works I'll keep on using it.

It would be good to see a toughness comparison of the MBP against the X1 Carbon, especially in a "milspec" dusty environment. I hear they're not having the best run with their keyboards in less than pristine environments.

[xur17]

I just got an X1 Carbon that I use with an egpu dock for work, and I absolutely love it. Thinner and lighter than a MacBook, the keyboard is great, and it runs Linux. Only complaint I have is that the egpu doesn't support hotswapping, but egpus are new, so I'll give it some time.

Also, a trackpoint :).