Mac laptops : First time buyer

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hello,
FIrst off, one of these laptops will probably last a lot longer than a year or two. Now:

Refurbished is probably a very good idea. I seriously considered buying a refurbished 2008 Aluminum MacBook (in fact, I almost did), instead of the 2009 13" MacBook Pro. You save a lot of money, and you really don't loose many features. I think the biggest updates were the SD slot, the extended (but built in) battery, and the increased color gamut screen. I personally decided to buy the new one just so I would have the newest tech available, and I really wanted that SD slot! Other than those minimal updates, I guess the processor is a little faster (mine is 2.53Ghz), and you get double memory (4GBs), on the 2.53GHz model. But on the whole (unless you really need the SD), the 2008 model is probably better for those (like me) who want to spend the minimum to get the maximum.

I would be careful of buying a refurbished laptop, unless it's on Apple.com, if you couldn't go check the machine out before you bought it. I bought mine new on eBay for $1450, minus 8% (Microsoft Bing Cashback), for a total of $1334 (no shipping or tax). It's a 2.53GHz, 4GB, 250GB 13" MacBook Pro. As I said, it's new, sealed in box, so I knew it wouldn't be scratched up or damaged. But if you were to buy a refurb, then I'd first check the person's feedback to make sure they have an excellent score, then check to make sure they have a return policy, so (if the laptop didn't function) I could return it to them. I'd then contact the seller and ask them to give a detailed description of the machine (tell me if it is scratched up or if there were ever any malfunctions), and get them to send pictures of the unit they would send to me. Or, like you said, you could find one nearby and just drive over and check it out yourself. I am not sure what kind of tests you could preform on it. I would just try everything out (run it on the battery for a while, restart it to see how fast it restarts, check the system profiler to see what the machine thinks it's specs are, and just generally look for any obvious problem). Most problems should be very obvious.

On the iWork thing: I have both office '08 and iWork '09, and they both seem about the same to me. Of course, I use office more often, because it works better with Word files, and everyone uses Word files. I have never made a presentation in my life, so I can't really compare that (though Keynote looks a little fancier), nor can I really say I've compared Excel and Numbers. If forced to choose between the two, I'd pick office, since that's what everyone else uses and there would be no compatibility problems.

Hope that info helps!