Microsoft Surface or Sony Vaio?

[Doug k]

The Surface RT (the one that's out now and starts at $499) would work well for a high school or college student. It does come with MS Office Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. Those will get you through any research paper prep / project that I can think of. (I am a teacher by the way).

Don't worry about getting the Surface Pro. Many people are really hung up on being able to run old Windows programs (called legacy apps), but I don't think that'll be an issue for you nor would it be one for the vast majority of home users. I agree with you that the CD drive is generally not needed anymore.

You have to ask yourself two questions. If you had to spend a 10 or 15 hour, last minute jam session to get a project done, would you be physically comfortable with a tablet instead of a larger screen laptop? If the answer is no... ask yourself... Is thie loss of ergonomics / screen size offset by the massive portability of the Surface?

My personal thought is that the Surface (since it comes with MS Office) is a better value. I think the increased portability will indeed offset the loss of screen size.