Laptops are dirt cheap now

I went to Best Buy yesterday because I wanted to see the $249 laptop they had in the paper. Not only did they have that, but they had a comparable Toshiba model for $228. I got home and found out Amazon has Dell with similar specs for $248. The specs are all 15.6 inch screen, 500GB hard drive, 4 GB of Ram, newer Celeron Processor and no optical drive.

You wouldn't want to use these for video editing, but for word processing, email, Internet they are perfectly fine. I always use to fret taking expensive laptops through the airport. If all I had invested was the price of one of these I wouldn't worry about it.

So how much would a real nice laptop run me? What would you recommend for under $800. I need a backup laptop, but I still want it to be a good one but not the best/most expensive either.

I need to buy one for my son going to college in the fall. The ultralight touch screens running windows 8.1 are nice but cost $1200.

The Dell I mentioned actually gets good reviews. It is fully functional especially as a backup laptop.

For a college student I would recommend the ASUS T100 or the newer T200 coming out in August. It can be broken down into a tablet or used as Laptop. It has a touch screen with Windows 8.1 A full version off Office Home/Student edition is included in the price. The 10 inch T100 is $349. The 12 inch T200 hasn't been priced yet, but it is supposed to be just a little bit more.

I need to buy one for my son going to college in the fall. The ultralight touch screens running windows 8.1 are nice but cost $1200.

Check this out T200

It should be out by the time your son starts College. Most people seem to think it is going to be in the $400 to $450 price range it includes all of your requirements. It has a touch screen, it is ultra light and has a long battery life.

I bought the HP d035dx for less than $350. 15" screen, win 8.1, 4GB mem 700GB hd. The only complaint is the memory can't be increased.