A follow up for those of you who may be making the same decision. I ordered a MBP 17. Macbook Pros are a little skimpy when it comes to ports so the additional USB port, and the advantages and potential future proofing re: the express card slot were a couple of the advantages that tipped the scales for me. The express card slot allows me an eSata option as well as USB 3 when it comes out. In addition the larger screen and resolution I found to be much better suited for photography as well as working on things with multiple open applications. The trade off regarding size and weight, for me was not enough to overide the other points. The MBP 17 also gets a little bit longer battery life, not much say 15 to 30 minutes depending, but every bit helps. The price difference between an equally configured (CPU, HD, & RAM) MBP 15 is $200, so given these considerations I think that is incidental. If the Macbook Pro 15 had a 1680 x 1050 screen and an express card slot, then I would have gone with it. This is going to be my only computer for the immediate future so this is definitely a "desktop replacement" for me. Finally I had to get this now as my 6 year old workstation died and needed to be replaced. If I could have, I would have waited. I would advise anyone who can wait for the next generation Macbook Pros to do so.
