With a bunch of new Apple stuff announced today, people are scrambling to figure out what’s the best purchasing decision. I just answered a question over on the Figure Four Online message boards [yup, there are wrestling fans that can afford Apple computers!] where I compared the hardware features of the sole remaining MacBook to the 13″ MacBook Pro. Here’s the rundown:

MacBook is $999, MacBook Pro is $1,199. US Dollars.

Not counting the body design, the MacBook Pro has, in rough order of importance to me:

• The totally awesome giant glass trackpad that uses 4 finger gestures.
• LED backlit screen [supposedly lasts longer, uses less power, better for environment]
• 8GB maximum DDR3 RAM [4GB of DDR2 is the max on the MacBook]
• Supposed 2 hours better battery capacity [7 as opposed to 5]
• A SD Card slot! [Because if you need to use a SD Card, you obviously don't already have a $15 USB widget that can be gang-banged by a half-dozen different cards at once]
• Illuminated keyboard
• Mini DisplayPort output instead of Mini-DVI output
• .5 less pounds
• .13 inches thinner
• 1 firewire 800 port

I love the glass multi-touch trackpad. Along with that, the important factors are the monitor [the LED ones are very nice] and the better battery capacity [might be better by 30 minutes in real working conditions, but that's just a guess.]

Features that the MacBook has that the MBP doesn’t:

• Removable battery
• 1 firewire 400 port

Personally, I think the choice is clear. For $200 more, take the Pro. AppleCare for either machine is $249.

January 13th Edit: Since I was very flip about battery life above, here’s the AnandTech review that discusses battery life and tells me that I’m totally wrong.