My experience:

I own a Compaq full size laptop for work and other hobbies. $400.00, has all you need for college but IS rather bulky (3mhz CPU, 1GB Ram, 60GB storage)
Unless he's studying Multimedia, the specs are good enough.

My daughter's in her 3rd year of college and is sick of lugging around a large laptop. So as a surprise, we bought her a 10" Acer just like my other notebook ($299). She loves it. The size is perfect for her and it does 90% of what a Laptop can do. 2.? CPU, 2GB Ram, 160GB Storage.
The only catch is.... on the mini's, there's no cd/dvd drive.
I get around this easily cuz I have a CD/DVD external that I can plug in via usb anytime I want and install programs (externals run as low as 50 bux)
My daughter recently called from college (9 hours from us) and asked me how to install Word Perfect from her disc (she doesn't have an extrernal drive).

Continued.....

Here's how I successfully had her install her program.

Step 1. Insert disc in a PC or Laptop that has a drive. Cancel when it asks you to install. Go to "Computer" (or "My Computer") and left click on the cd drive, choose "Open". It will give you a file of all contents of the disc.
Step 2. Be sure to change file settings so that the PC SHOWS ALL files including hidden files. (can give you steps on that if u need them)
Step 3. Select all content on disc and copy to a Flash drive with enough space
Step 4. When content is finished copying, safely remove flash and plug it into the mini.
Step 5. "Open" contents of file from disc, create a file on mini, and copy ALL files to the new file on mini.
Finally, find the file that's called "Install", or "Auto Run" and click it. Should work just like having the CD or DVD. Put in the serial # or whatever other steps it asks for.

Worked perfect for my daughter.... but that's not to say you would never run into snags with this method.

Provided the netbook has Windows, I think that would be good enough. If he were doing MAJOR work and needed more computer I would suggest the laptop.

My first questions always are...what are the three things the user will be doing the most and/or is the user an avid gamer/graphic editor?

If your son is only going to take notes, use an office program, program html etc...then a netbook with adequate RAM (2GB when using Windows XP) will do. But, I don't know of any college student who can resist the urge to play the latest PC game on his or her free time, which means you are going to have to purchase a more powerful machine such as a Laptop. Also, keep in mind the type of classes your son is taking. For example: if your son is learning graphic animation, video editing, heavy photoshopping (such as Adobe Photoshop), CAD for architects or engineers etc. These are graphic intensive courses that require a laptop with a good video/graphic card, fast CPU and adequate RAM (4GB).

I don't know about the U.S. but an average but good laptop will cost between 700 and 1000 Euros in Germany. A netbook with 2GB RAM will cost the same as a low budget Laptop. The catch is that the Laptop has a DVD burner included, with most netbooks it is not included.

If you are looking for specific specs then just ask here or PM me.

After wagging a laptop around Vandy for the past 2 weeks with my dad being in the hospital there, I would recommend the Netbook. They are just so much more portable. If your son carries a backpack, it will fit in there with all the rest of his stuff.

I'll add to the confusion and say I'd prefer the laptop. It doesn't need to be one of the larger widescreen ones. I just plain wouldn't like the smaller keyboard and monitor size of a netbook. I don't see how people deal with using the internet on PDAs either. Unless your son is a wuss, I can't see why the extra pound or two would make any difference to him. He can carry his books in his laptop case and they also make backpacks for laptops.

Not knowing his course of study, I couldn't say how much power he would need. However, I'd recommend you get as much CPU and RAM as you can afford as anything you get now will be outdated by the time he graduates. I still run all but one of my PCs on Pentium III (mostly 800MHz) though. They are slow but still work, but I try to stay away from MS apps.

I would also stay away from Vista if possible. HUGE resource hog - our cutting edge church PC runs it and is slower than my Pentium III's. Wait for Windows 7 if possible or stick with XP.

Just thought I'd throw the opinion of a college student in there too...

I have a laptop with windows vista on it. I would agree that vista is not as good as XP, it's pretty slow. In terms of size I upload a lot of CDs onto my laptop and I also require a fair bit of space for music composition software and other music related stuff for my program/courses. I don't think getting a notebook is really worth it for the size difference. There are tons of laptop cases and backpacks out there that fit a fairly large laptop - no problem.

I know for myself that I only take notes on my laptop in one of my courses, otherwise I write everything by hand so I just leave my laptop plugged in at my desk in my room, also making size no big deal.

Good lucky Yvonne!!

Sorry Sue, just realized about 3 hours late that I wrote Yvonne instead of Sue! Opps!

Whatever you do dont get a Dell Studio Laptop I think Dell's entire Studio line was a big mistake, at least from my viewpoint I do warranty Repair on Dell PCs Ive heard HPs are good

I know they are very expensive, but the Lenovo (used to be IBM) Thinkpads are good. They have several different series for different users. All 5 of my laptops are the T series.

I honestly don't know what I'd trust of the less expensive ones. You may find it useful to ask on a couple PC repair forums which brands give the most trouble.

definitly research it