Get a refurbished Acer laptop for $299.99
The Acer Aspire AS5515 is now priced as low as a Netbook, but offers a full-size screen and keyboard, a DVD drive, and Windows Vista Home Basic. (Never said it was perfect.)
Remember the $350 eMachines laptop from last week? If you don't mind a shorter warranty and smaller hard drive, you can scoop up a refurbished Acer Aspire AS5515 notebook for $299.99. Shipping will run you a mere $1.99.
Usually when I see notebook for under $300, it has a Celeron processor (barf), a Linux OS (fine for some, but not ideal for all), or both.
The Aspire isn't dramatically better in either respect--it has a 1.6GHz single-core AMD Athlon 2650e and Windows Vista Basic--but it should run at a decent clip thanks to its 3GB of DDR2 RAM.
Other noteworthy specs include a 160GB hard drive, 15.4-inch screen, DVD burner, and 6.2-pound travel weight.
In other words, it's an entry-level notebook. And because it's a refurb, it has a 90-day warranty.
But did I mention the $299.99 price tag? Because, seriously, that's a ridiculously good price--especially considering that your average Netbook costs about the same and does a lot less. (Yeah, I went there.)
CompUSA frequently sells out of items like this, so if you're in the market for a new lappie, I would hesitate not one bit.