Back-to-School (and Business??) with a $299 Laptop?

How do they do this? A $299 laptop? Just in time for a flat-ish economic recovery (uh, hey man, it's not really a recovery) and the kids heading back to high school, upper Forms, college and university, WalMart is flogging a $298 Compaq laptop and Best Buy was flogging a $299 Acer. Why, you ask, and how good/useful/reliable could they possibly be? A fine question, we reply. Our answer is a resounding, "NUH-UH!" We've actually tried the Celeron-underpowered, slow-ish cheap-o laptops and found them, um, somewhat wanting. The keyboards, while larger than the slightly zippier Netbooks that are all the rage right now (but way too small and unresponsive for extended typing), are merely a larger version of the generally sucky Netbook and cheap laptop mushboards - fine for surfing and email, but awful for note-taking, report writing and other important education-like stuff and work. The three best and most reasonably priced school and small business laptops we've seen (and, more important, tried) in the more quality-realistic price range of US$600-$1200 will take the bumps & bangs of daily use, speed everything along, ease some of the stress of long hours of typing, and provide a a screen that won't burn your eyes out during hours of concentration, and with even a slight amount of care will continue to work just fine for the next couple of school years. Beat the rush at Amazon.com. They're the Compaq Presario CQ60Z, the Toshiba E105-S1602 (everybody's best buy it seems) along with the superb Toshiba L300, the Apple MacBook Pro, and last but not least the Dell Vostro 1500. Why wait? Stick a crowbar in your wallet and lever out enough cash to buy the kid a decent laptop. It's got to be done and, believe us, we share your pain.