This ol’ laptop (Dell) of mine is slowly dying (CMOS battery, CD drive is dead, other wonky stuff). So, of course, I’m pondering getting a MacBook before I head back to Africa in February since I’ll be gone for four months. I guess my biggest question is MacBook vs. MacBook Pro (I like the glowy keyboard in Pro) … but for a basic/average user, do I need what the Pro version has to offer and is it worth the extra cost? I guess the other thing I wonder is would you recommend a refurbished one from the Apple website or stick with a new one?

I’d say that most people really only _need_ the MacBook. Especially the new (as of this posting, October 2008) models. Unless you’re desperate for the larger screen. For the price, I think the MacBook is the way to go these days.

The major feature that it’s lacking is a firewire port which is what you’d use to hook up older (and some current) tape-based video cameras. Pretty much anything else will be able to hook up through a USB port.

There’s this comparison page Apple has for their MacBooks. There is also a great guide over at macrumors.com that can walk you through most of the features on both the MacBook and MacBook Pro models.

The refurb store is just as good as the “new” store. You get a 1 year warranty with most purchases and the machine has been checked out by Apple to be good as new. Although I don’t think they have any of the new (October 2008) MacBooks in there yet.