hi entry,
you are right, both does the same job but the advantage of using the .htaccess redirect helps google to understand that you have made a 301 redirect which is a permanent redirect for that particular page.
in this method the redirection happens from the server directly.
the second one only helps to redirect to another page and not other information is given. as per my experience the 2nd method is not liked by google.:p
in this method the redirection is done via your browser and if you have virus in your computer then it can also affect the redirection.
if i have to select out of the two options then i would definitely use the 1st one with .htaccess