I think I'd have the Dell. The extra 1.3 inch would be better for books, browsing, etc and now it has 2.2 it has to be better than the original. My only concern is looking like a cock putting a 5 inch device to my ear but then I'd be prepared to compromise for the other benefits and/or use handsfree.

Unless you're doing video encoding on the go - in which case it apparently pisses all over a laptop - http://appadvice.com/appnn/2011/03/ipad-2-beats-macbook-pros-imovie-speed-tests.

That's probably because when you try to encode a video on a Mac, this happens:

Been doing a lot of that over the last 5 years, and no it doesn't.

Ok, what about this:

http://www.mobiles.co.uk/orange-samsung ... ou-go.html



£230 including a tenner I'll waste, and then I need to get it shipped here. Were you in my position, would you buy a phone online, have it shipped to your parents (i.e. my billing address) then get someone to ship it here? Or do you think that could be problematic?

It's ludicrously cheap though!

Which? rated the iPad as the best value, with the Xoom coming a close second.

checking flights
general browsing
light spreadsheet
wifi
movie/TV watching
music playing

You say you don't really game any more, I'd say disregard that then, it pretty much limits you to a full-on laptop, no questions, only a laptop can play games with full portability. If you really want to play games (not just flash games, proper games) your choice has been made for you.

OK so you can strike these off as irrelevant:

checking flights
general browsing
music playing

Anything can surf the internet, music is all about the speakers, I would suggest a good set of in-ear headphones.

So, we're left with:
Spreadsheets
Movies
WiFi

The big thing here is movies, movies don't need a massive screen, but I would say anything less than a netbook would be too small.

OK here's my list of options.

If you game: get the best full-fledged laptop you can afford.

If you don't want to game: A netbook, or a tablet.

Out of these I would strongly recommend a netbook, high resolution screen (doesn't have to be large, just dense pixels) you don't need a disk drive, or a massive hard disk - also a netbook allows you to plug in a lot of peripherals just seems more practical and less gimmicky than a tablet, built in webcam, music through headphones, decent screen, wifi, sounds like the ideal choice to me. http://www.microdirect.co.uk/Home/Product/46510 something like that has a higher res screen than normal (the same as a Macbook Air), more virtual deskspace while physically only slightly bigger.

That's a remarkably well thought out post. I need to really think about this and not just buy a shiny toy to cheer me up! Thanks.