I personally perfer Sony Viao or a Mac when it comes to laptops. I actually have both, and they are great. The only think is they tend to be on the pricey side near the $2,000 range. My experiance is if you really only use a computer for the internet and occasional other applications go with a PC. If you use a lot of applications go with a Mac, (in my experiance Macs tend to be a little slower on the internet and have some browser compatibility problems). You may want to consider a desktop since it will be cheaper. I realize laptops are great due to their portability but I never used that function when I was in college (although I do now). So if you really are going to use it in class and tote it around campus go for a laptop. Anyway thats my 2 cents.