When I went to college I found that the amount of gaming you do will drop. After my first year of college I did practiclally no gaming except the ocasional xbox game. But it's always nice to have the option to game. I also found that portability is a bigger factor when on a college campus than when you just use your laptop at home. To fulfill what I think a college student needs I would suggest these laptops.
a) Sony SZ Series - this has dedicated graphics card (7300 I think) and is quite small at 13.3 inches. It is equiped with the new Core Duo so it will be plenty fast. It can be nicely configured for under 1500 or you can look on various E-stores. I also think most Best Buys keep them in stock.
b) Asus W3J - If you are really dedicated to not loosing your gaming abilities I would suggest this. It will give you mobility with it being a 14.1 incher but it is one of the few, if only notebooks that are under 15in and still have an X1600. Also includes Core Duo Can also be had for under 1500.
c) Asus A8Jm - pretty much the same as the one above but the graphics. If you prefer Nvidia graphics over ATI then this would suit you. It is about eh same price too.
d) Asus W7J - very similar to the Sony SZ, Core Duo, Nvidia 7300 13.3in wide.
e) Dell XPS M1210 - Although I'm not particularly fond of Dells because I think they use too much plastic, many people are very happy with theirs and this would certainly fit the your bill. It is pretty small at 12.1 inches so it will be very mobile and this also can do some gaming with it's 7300. Because it's a Dell it is still pretty afordable. Can be had for under 1300 from Dell If you use coupons it can be more affordable yet. Get coupons at
www.gottadeal.com/dell.php
f) Macbook - this is just my baby and you don't nessicarily have to look it. I just like OS X and find this to be a great laptop. 13.3 inch screen but a bummer for some is the integrated graphics which will really limit your gaming. Not a biggie for me though. If you look at the educational discounts it is a pretty afordable laptop and can be nicely configured for under 1300 but still not the best bang for your buck as far as hardware goes but I'm into this for the software.
These are the ones that I can think of right away that you should look at. I stress go smaller than 15in and don't eyeball just the GPU. Nice thing about all the laptops above is that they all have Core Duo. Another option is to wait a little bit for Merom, a processor similar to the Core Duo only it is a 64-bit capbable processor and probably faster and more efficient and is due out later this fall. That would also mean you would be without a laptop when school starts most likely.
