I am considering getting a MacBook as my next laptop, making the giant leap from a Dell Inspiron (with which I have very satisfied) to the Mac world. My mother is actually also making the leap to an iMac; she especially enjoys the lack of cables (she even decided on her own to get the Bluetooth mouse and keyboard, as well as AirPort) and likens the design to Gaggenau or B&O.

But I'm not quite sure exactly what the differences are between the MacBook Pro and the regular MacBook. As far as I can tell, the obvious differences are price and design. The speakers on a Pro also look larger, but I'm not so sure that option would be important for a laptop. Some people claim the regular MacBook is better for people who travel frequently (because it is comparatively small and light?) and/or do not often run very hungry/intensive processes (gaming). However, the 15" Pro does not seem especially larger than my current Dell Inspiron E1405; it is certainly thinner and weighs slightly less.

My guess is the main differences lie in performance, but even there I cannot see anything glaringly obvious that distinguishes the two. I generally do not do any gaming, and the most "powerful" application I run is Adobe Photoshop (I think). I do a lot with pictures and movies, however (but that goes fine even on my ancient 1.5 year old Dell).

So what exactly are the differences? Which one is the better option for performance along? For mobility alone? For price/quality relationship?

I tried doing a search, but "Pro" is too short a word. So I did not come up with any threads that specifically put the two side by side. Apologies if this has already been discussed.