Dell Inspirons leaked, promise slick design

That keyboard looks very MacBook like and from the picture appears to be backlit. Would that be a first outside of Mac laptops?

Wouldn't be a first outside of Mac laptops. Dell used backlit keyboards on the XPS M1730, and the Alienware m15x and m17x also have backlit keyboards.

If I'm not mistaken, Apple has patented the back-lighting method/process. Dell would have to struggle very hard in order to invent something as effective and attractive as MBP/MBA without infringing on the patent.

Maybe my taste is unlike that of most, but these things look pretty ugly to me. How are they different form the masses of other PC laptops?

Whatever it is, I don't think they've had too much of a problem with it; the keyboard backlighting on the Alienware m15x and XPS M1730 both look fine to me (although you can actually change the backlighting color too).

They still don't have a designer who can center a track pad properly.

The trackpad is centered to the QWERTY keys, but the user is not. No one sits to the side of the laptop!

The trackpad is centered to the qwerty keys because people who normally type have their hands centered on the qwerty part of the keyboard. If they centered the trackpad to the case, their right-wrist would always be sitting on it.

Hell, if the centered the trackpad, you'd be blasting them for making it that way.

As for the backlight, apple might have a patent on their method of turning it on/off, but that doesn't mean its a patent on backlighting.

And Dell doesn't have to spend much time inventing anything. A freakin' button to turn it on/off would be good enough. The problem I have some times with Apple's is I may want it on, but if the OS decides there's enough light, it won't let you turn it on.

Typical Dell Fugly design. looks like a 1980s sedan with all the sharp edges.

Inspiron anagram: Inprison Somehow, it's fitting.

Will it run OS X? If not, it is still a piece of $hit packaged in yet another way.

If I said it once, I said it a million times... you can package up a piece of $hit in a nice box with nice wrapping and a bow.... but it is still a piece of $hit.