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First let me give some back story. My trusty T61p is starting to feel very laggy with the business tasks I put it through on a daily basis (multiple large Excel sheets, very long Word docs, large .pdfs, and multiple browser tabs all open at the same time). The 2.4 Core2, and 4GB of RAM just can't keep up as well any longer.

My dilemma is that I have grown *very* attached to my 1920x1200 UXGA resolution, as well as my trackpoint and related trackpoint-scroll button (I never lay a finger on the touchpad).

I found a few other manufactures (business classes of HP, Dell, Fujitsu, Toshiba) that seem to have trackpoint options (nubs, point sticks, whatever you may want to call them) - but none seem to have the center button that makes for easy scrolling with the trackpoint - which I use extensively, and really need. Unfortunately, it's not like I can go to a big box store and look at those business class laptops in person to see how their trackpoints work. So I'm hoping someone may know if any of those other laptops with trackpoints also have the ability to easily scroll with their trackpoint (ala the Thinkpad center button)?

So aside from the trackpoint+scroll option, I need to have 1920x1080 resolution (I am resigned to the fact I'm not going to find UXGA anymore...), 13" - 15.6" screen size (preferably 13-14"), SB i5 or i7, 16GB+ max memory (don't care how much comes stock), Intel 6200/6300 wifi, gigabit ethernet, bluetooth, sdxc card reader, and at least 1 usb 3.0 port. Added bonuses would be discrete graphics, hdmi 1.4, light weight, long battery life. Don't care at all about an optical drive, and prefer to have a regular 7200 HDD and not an SSD initially (due to cost). I would like to stay in the lower $1,000 range.

I've already looked around a bit, and the closest thing I could find was an HP elitebook 8460p - but it doesn't look like you can easily scroll with the trackpoint on those - which is a feature I use extensively.

Looking forward to see if anyone has any other suggestions.

Thanks

Definitely Lenovo W520. I love mine. The T520 will come close to checking your boxes, but won't have the capacity for more than 16GiB of RAM, and can only reach 16 with 8GiB SODIMMS which are crazy expensive. I'm not sure what class of SD card the reader can use as I don't use it, it doesn't have HDMI, it'll be at the higher end of your price range and size range, but the screen is really nice for a laptop and it has phenomenal battery life (at least, I think 8 hours on this class of laptop is pretty phenomenal). It also has the important center button.

I'd monitor Lenovo's refurbs and store just because they often have sales, especially with Ivy Bridge coming out.

As a final note, I don't think you'll be able to find any SB i5s that officially support 16GiB of RAM as I don't think any come with more than 2 SODIMM slots and I have yet to see officially supported 8GiB SODIMMS.