The Asus EEE pc netbook wins hands down. I read about it and confirmed with both my friend, who is in programming and computer security, and also my daughter's father, who is a network engineer, that this is one of the best out there and an amazing value as well. It is super light (it's my 4 year old's laptop as she's used to seeing every family member having their own so she wanted one as well, plus she uses it to Skype with relatives), and she can carry it with her wherever she goes to watch movies or play with her computer learning software. It has won numerous awards and it's quite cheap for all it does. I think I got mine for $299 last Thanksgiving at Best Buy. The cover is scratch-proof so you don't have to worry about it getting ruined if it rubs with other items in your laptop case. It has a great battery life, the only con is being a netbook, there's no internal CD player, burner or DVD player, so if you plan to burn movies, play movies or music, you'll have to find an alternative way (like a thumb drive), or buy an external CD/DVD-ROM. The keys are a bit small so you may have to get used to that as well. You can also find small, thin laptops, but if you want something very portable and light and you can sacrifice not having a CD-ROM, then the netbook's the way to go. By the way, in doing my research, I did not find a single laptop that came close in price to the EEE pc, the cheapest started at $399 I believe, and you have to add tax and all so it will definitely be over $400.