It's very easy to pop the 500 GB SSD out of my current laptop and drop it into the new one -- they're both HPs, and it's just a cover on the bottom with a single screw, so I guess that I will. Battery life is useful, but the least critical for what I'll be doing -- I should always be somewhere near an outlet. HP has a 9-cell replacement for the stock 6-cell which I can get later if I really need it. Right now, I'm looking for a desktop replacement that will work on the road in hotel rooms and at client sites, and will also keep me amused and occupied during those long, lonely nights on the road and the inevitable hours spent sitting at airport bars waiting for flights. That's why I sprang for the full HD screen (love my movies). I probably won't use it in the air -- it's a little to big for Y, and I have a tablet and my iPod for in-flight entertainment. There shouldn't be that many occasions when I'm dependent on battery power. I'll also be using it for remote recording sessions (my hobby), writing music, etc., and it's got more than enough power for that -- in fact, more power than the desktop that I currently use for all of this. And, finally, assuming I get to start taking vacations again at some point, the lighted keyboard will make it a lot easier to use without disturbing my sleeping wife. The idea of a subwoofer in a laptop is, frankly, laughable, but I always use headphones anyway.

At this point, I can't recall the difference between Win7 home premium and Win7 pro. As I recall, it primarily has to do with networking and joining a domain (or was that Vista?). That's the only upgrade that I'm planning, and then only if I need it to use at my new office. 8 gig of RAM is plenty (though I'm curious what 16 gig in a fastish quad core would be like on things like Photoshop and my music software).