In my experience with Dell and HP laptops, their versions of the trackpoint cannot match the smoothness of IBM/Lenovo's at all. Very noticeable difference that really ruins the experience for me. However, ASUS may have done better, not sure.

It's a bit cheaper than a Thinkpad, but the battery life is disappointing:

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Asus-ASUSPRO-Advanced-BU201LA-D...