Netbook or a cheap Compaq for students?

At $399, Compaq's latest inexpensive laptop offering starts looking pretty attractive. When most netbooks are in the $250-$300 range, doesn't it make sense to just get real laptops for those 1:1 programs? How about making sure that teachers have portable computing facilities so they can work from home or roam between student groups with a wireless PC? Is the downward push of prices on "real laptops" going to make netbooks irrelevant where they once appeared to be the answer to sustainable and realistic 1:1 efforts?

Teachers will certainly be asking about these ultra-cheap, full-sized laptops. Netbooks are still seen by many as a way for us IT folks to cheap out. How can anything so small serve students' needs as well as a "real laptop"? Those of us who have rolled out netbooks (whether vanilla netbooks or Classmates) know that both teachers and students often view them as compromises.

Of course, even that $399 Compaq is a compromise. Dual core? Who needs it? It does have Windows 7, so relatively anemic hardware (comparable, in fact, in many ways, to netbook hardware, or at least to the new class of thin-and-light uber-netbooks) will run fairly well. The full-sized keyboard will be appreciated, as will the larger screen. In fact, this would probably be a solid choice for teachers who simply need a low-profile computer on their desks that they can occasionally take to staff meetings or professional development.

However, $100 savings aside (assuming we're talking vanilla netbooks and not Classmates), netbooks have added value for students. For younger students, the smaller keyboard is an advantage as they develop keyboarding skills. The form factor overall lends itself to residing on a cramped desk, in a backpack, in a locker, and to what Intel calls "micromobility" (the tendency of kids to grab their computers and move around with each other).

That $100 savings is an issue as well. For a small deployment, it isn't a big deal. For hundreds or thousands of students with periodic replacement (outside of a normal refresh cycle) due to breakage or theft, $100/machine becomes quite significant.

Netbooks are more than just cheap, underpowered laptops. They're a new breed of computing devices particularly well-suited to classroom environments and 1:1. Cheap "real laptops" are all well and good, but my money is still on the netbook in Ed Tech.