I'm thinking of buying a laptop or tablet for school. I'd like to get you guys to weigh in and tell me what you think so I can balance opinions from people I trust against the stuff I've read on the web.

The first thing you need to know is : what are your going to do with it exactly ? And what is your budget ?
But at first glance I would say a 12inch eeepc (or equivalent) with a good SSD instead of the usual shitty HDD.

Were I to buy a tablet right now, I would probably get a win7 tablet. Think Acer was making a decent one for around 450

500 is about all I'd spend on a tablet. I could go as high as 800 for a laptop. It's gonna be for school Arkh. Note taking, paper writing, and lugging around campus.

Tables are really nice but for school work/etc I would rather have a netbook/eeePC/Laptop instead.

Don't get me wrong, I love my Moto Xoom 10" tablet but I don't think I could be doing schoolwork on it but that could be just because I never had such things back then.

With a USB or wireless keyboard and the various free office apps (read: OpenOffice, etc) it could be used well for papers, spreadsheets, etc.

I'm sure it could be done but having all 3 types, 4 if you count smart phone, I still use my tablet for browsing, android games, etc and haven't really done anything productive other than using Google maps/etc which is a BIG help in downtown Washington D.C.

I would say for that $ see what you can get in the range of a mid-sided laptop and I think you'll be happier but if you go tablet route maybe, as stated, a Windows tablet would be easier to transition into those critical tasks we've used desktop/laptops now for years for.

I'm a big Andy fan.. Really big but I don't think it's yet there in the way of bigger/involved tasks such as doing a spreadsheet with a powerpoint embedded, et all.

That's my 2c but did I say I *really* love my Android tab? A LOT

I'd go with a laptop .... a tablet is awsome and I love mine, but if I had to choose between the 2 I'd have to go with my laptop. there is just more options with a laptop right now. and ALMOST anything a tab can do a laptop can do as well. almost

I'm sure that maby in the future the tab will replace the laptop but we just are not there yet.

Ok, for taking notes you want a real keyboard on your thing, some good resolution, and it being 2, maybe 3 pounds.
Oh yeah, and 10 to 12 hours of battery when new so it drops to around 8 hours during the years you use it.

Do you need specific apps for your courses ? Because I'm checking the asus eee pad transformer and it looks good but it's running with Android.

I favor win7 tablets because I live in OneNote. I highly recommend giving it a shot on your desktop, and its actually designed with stylus in mind.

Just grab a KB for you win7 pad IMO.

Android isnt bad either, I just dont know of any note/wp/etc program anywhere near as good as OneNote for it.

Laptop, tablets SUCK to type on