My old faithful Macbook is showing signs of age and I’m thinking about replacing it. I can’t justify a new Macbook Pro, but could afford up to about £500 for something so could get one second hand. I don’t run any programs apart from photoshop which I have an iMac for (although if I bought a Pro 17″ I would sell the Imac), so really I just want something to surf the net, email, Fickr etc. Is an Ipad the best option or are there other tablets which are just as good ?

iPad.

if you dont have access to A.N.other computer an ipad/ other tablet will frustrate you.

there are work arounds for most thing but even a simple thing like linking a photo onto here from picasa or flickr is hardwork compared to an actual pc ….

heaven forbid you actually want to do something productive 😀

but i do like my ipad for mindlessly surfing the net when i get up and reading the news with breakfast.

and watching the giro on eurosport player – best 2.99 a month i ever spent….

and watching the giro on eurosport player – best 2.99 a month i ever spent

This sounds good

if you have the iMac, the iPad is definitely the logical solution

When surfing forums I tend to scan a page, middle click the topic and open that into a new tab. Finish scanning the page, and then move on to the next tab. Doing this on a tablet takes 10 times longer.
General web surfing is fine though.

Doing this on a tablet takes 10 times longer.

Takes about a second longer to open a link in a new tab on this iPad I’m using right now…