At this moment I'm seeing a Macbook Pro with a gorgeous bright screen compared to my dull T61 SXGA+ which cranked at maximum brightness it seems as if it's on the lowest brightness setting in the Mac.

Which of the new Thinkpad models sport a screen comparable in quality to those found in a Mac? I like the high-res display on my machine, but working with lots of indoor lightining makes you feel the machine is 'old'.

W510 FHD Screen is the bomb. Its also being offered on the T510s now

At work one of the laptop models we support are the T400's. That particular model featured a LED backlight inside the LCD display. For us, that model was the first Lenovo laptop to feature this. I always thought the screen on those was nice and bright when compared to our other models (T60/T61). But seeing as I am not a Mac person in general, and we are not a Mac shop, I can't say how this compares to your Macbook. But I would think anything as new as (and newer) than a T400 with a LED backight would yield a brighter screen.