Tecra (Portege) R700

Hey all, up here in Canada as many of you might know the Portege is branded as a Tecra model and we have no custom to order options so I was curious if you guys could offer me some advice on the following:

A) Is now a good time to buy a R700? I can hold of a month or two longer max but if something huge is around the corner can someone tell me? I'm in love with this laptop with the exception of the integrated graphics, but that's not a deal breaker unless there is talk of something new on the way to fix this.

B) is there a noticeable difference between the i5-450m processor and the i5-460m processor?

The 460m is $100 more for speeds listed at 2.53/2.80 ghz vs the 450m at 2.4/2.66 ghz.

The last computer I owned (unfortunately) was an Asus G1S. I'm sure many of you are aware of the Nvidia defect and unfortunately Asus is boning me and with my school commitments I don't have the time resources to put up much of a fight.

C) finally heres the stats of the build I want ($1299) What'dya guys think?


* Intel® Core™ i5-460M processor (2.53GHz/2.80GHz, 3MB Intel® Smart Cache)
* Genuine Windows® 7 Professional 64bit
* Standard Memory: 4GB DDR3 (1067MHz)
* 320GB (7200 RPM); Serial-ATA hard disk drive
* Intel® GMA HD graphics

ps. my only other conceivable option is a thinkpad t401s but that price gap is pretty steep for me...any advice on if it's worth-it?

 

$1299 canadian seems stiff for an R700 series. I don't know the exchange rate, but in the US, now is an excellent time to buy the R700 since it will no doubt be replaced with a new Intel Sandy Bridge processor, not to mention AMD new fusion line for laptop.

If you can wait for another week or so the CES (Jan 5, 2011) will bring news of new laptops and probably new price cutting of existing products.

 

Can we expect the next in the R series to have the sandy bridge? Or is that line of processors above this family's price point.