I’ve got a tough (well, from a geek point of view) decision to make – I’m going to upgrade my MacBook, but do I upgrade to a new aluminium MacBook, or go all out and get a MacBook Pro?

My wife has just bought herself her first Mac – one of the new aluminium MacBooks (the top one), and it is very nice indeed. A bit lighter and slimmer than my current MacBook (a late 2007 white one), and a touch more powerful – 2.4GHz compared to my 2.2GHz. The thing is, it used to be very easy to decide between the MacBook and the MacBook Pro – the Pro had a ‘proper’ graphics card, whereas the smaller one had ‘integrated’ graphics which weren’t really capable of 3D-type stuff.

Now, though, both MacBooks have 3D-capable graphics chipsets – the GeForce 9400M. Suddenly it’s harder to see why spending the extra £250 is worthwhile.

My first thought was to get the same MacBook as my wife – not for any soppy his’n'hers reason, but because it’s a stonkingly good spec for the money. Sure, there are PC laptops of equivalent spec for less, but they don’t have OSX (legally) and they don’t have the same stylish design as the MacBook. Plus the main reason why Peggy got her MacBook is because she was fed up of Vista and a bit jealous that I never had the same frustrations with my MacBook! So anyway, I was originally going for the 13″ 2.4GHz aluminium MacBook. The illuminated keyboard – previously found only on the MBP – is very handy; it’s well equipped in terms of processor, graphics and memory (2Gb); it’s got a decent, LED backlit, screen; it’s slim and lightweight; has a dual-layer DVD burner; and is generally a nice package.

But then…

There are some nice extra touches on the MacBook Pro. First off, it has a larger, higher-resolution screen. The 1280×800 of the MacBook is fine, but 1440×900 is better. I’ve been doing more video since getting my first MacBook and it would be nice to have a bit more screen to play with. However, although the larger screen means it has to be bigger than the MacBook, it’s not that much bigger. Then there’s the option of turning on the more powerful graphics card for some gaming – I was quite happy with the performance of my desktop PC for games – the MacBook Pro beats it hands down. Finally, on-the-go gaming is a reality. The MBP has a Firewire socket – that’ll come in handy for a Firewired Final Cut scratch disk.

All of that is nice. It’s worth a few extra quid. But there’s one thing on the MBP which, as soon as I realised it was there, made it a must-buy in my eyes – and it’s something I’d never paid attention to before.

It’s called an “ExpressCard/34 slot”.

If, like me, you hadn’t come across that before, you might be wondering what in blazes it is. Well, basically, it’s like a PCMCIA (also known as PC Card) slot – which has been around for years – only much faster. The MacBook doesn’t have it, and this means that the one flaw in the MacBook’s design can be overcome. There is one thing the MacBook is crying out for, and for some reason Apple still haven’t included – a memory card reader. However, stick an ExpressCard/34 card reader into the MacBook Pro’s ExpressCard slot, and memory cards are yours for the reading! No more having to lug around the USB cables for your camera and camcorder and so on – a feature that PC laptops have flaubnted for years is now available to Mac owners too!

So, for the sake of my sanity, it’s got to be the MacBook Pro. Are the larger screen, better gfx option and ExpressCard slot really worth £250? It’s a tough call, but I’m going to pay the extra anyway – I don’t want to go on holiday, realise I’ve left the stupid Kodak USB cable behind and wish I’d bought the Pro instead!