Cheap notebook for writing and internet

[chazus]

Surface RT could do it, you get Office for free with it, costs £280 not sure about USD

They start at about $320, with limited capability, and no keyboard ($60 extra at least). I wouldn't recommend one even if it was cheaper.

[lizon]

If $280 is too much for a laptop then you aren't going to get many options. Your only option under that would be to find some Netbook on Ebay with an Atom processor. It won't function very well though. A quick search found several used ones for between $120-$180 with only a single GB of ram. I would highly recommend upgrading the ram on any of these options.

I don't really consider Chromebooks to be a suitable primary computer. They are good second units but I wouldn't use them for primary work. Plus you never know if a class down the line will require him to use certain software which won't work on a Chromebook but will work on a Windows PC.

Truthfully you have to consider, you want to pay $150 for a laptop, but if you hold off on it and save up another $100-$150 extra you can get something that will really run well and hold you over for a much longer period of time. At the price point you are looking for you will be basically getting a throwaway machine that will only last at most a year or 2. Where as the option I originally showed you will last much much longer. You could even sell it down the line and use that money towards something much better. Where as the Netbook/Chromebook option will have very little resale value.