Yea, that's a decent price. The nearest competitor (IMHO) the HP 4700 is listing for $649. I'd get some money together though, becuase Dell specials come and go and you want to be able to jump on one when it shows up....or wait a week when a better one happens
Yes you can install programs to the ROM, but it acts more like a built in Flash than extended RAM. That means there are some things that may not work when installed there. Typically things like OS extensions (SIPs), or Today Screen add-ins. The problem is sometimes the ROM area not being quite 'up-to-speed' when the OS tries to load one of these things after a reset. If the Dell has 64M or more of this space for user use, you'll be surprised at how many programs you can put there, leaving the SD and CF slots totally free for data files and peripherals.