Get an Acer Aspire laptop for $299.25
OfficeMax gets in the sub-$300 laptop game with a nicely equipped Acer. It has everything most users--especially students--need, so it'll probably sell out fast.
Update: Wow, strike two for me this week. This sold out almost immediately after I posted it. Sorry about that!
Update #2: Some readers have reported that it's still available, meaning stock is probably dependent on where you live. Click through to see if you can get one!
Having trouble finding one of those sub-$300 laptops from Best Buy and Walmart? OfficeMax has something comparable: an Acer Aspire AS5515-5187 laptop for $299.25 shipped. (Sales tax applies in most states.)
On the spec front, the Aspire compares favorably with Best Buy's Acer and Walmart's Compaq Presario. It features a 1.6GHz AMD Athlon 2650e processor (single-core, alas, but at least it's not a Sempron or Intel Celeron), 3GB of RAM, a 160GB hard drive, and a DVD burner.
All that comes wrapped around a 15.4-inch LCD with a built-in Webcam, stereo speakers, and the other usual goodies.
In short, it's more than suitably equipped for students of all stripes, from junior high to college, as well as casual users who rarely venture beyond e-mail, word processing, and Web browsing.
And it'll probably sell out in a hurry.
One important note: The product page shows a prominent "Windows 7 Upgrade Offer" link, but the Acer, which includes Windows Vista Home Basic, doesn't qualify. Bummer.
Other than that, it's hard to argue with a full-blown notebook selling at a refurbished-Netbook price. I'd be surprised if these last the day.