IPad instead of a laptop; what are the pros and cons?

Would only use it for surfing the web, email and netflix.

I’ve never had an iPad or other tablet, because my work is so keyboard-heavy, but everyone I know who has one and loves it uses it for exactly the things you’ve described, so it sounds like the move might be a good choice for you.

I would take some time to try to objectively observe what you use your laptop for – it’s easy to think of the top three things, but there might be a zillion other things that you might do without realizing it.

Find a friend and use their iPad for the afternoon to see if have requirements that the iPad does not cover. If you surf and read emails it would be great, if you print a lot of stuff you can buy a print app from iTunes.

If you enjoy playing games, I would stick to a laptop or buy yourself a Samsung tablet.. Ipads don’t have Adobe so you cant play any web based games. Ipad is perfect for surfing the web, email and watching movies on.

if you really want it to be a laptop replacement get a keyboard for it. I have the logitech http://goo.gl/KOEy3

it is great to type on. I would also recommend setting up remote access to a machine that will always be on. i have the data plan on my ipad and with a win7 VM that is always on I can always RDP into a full windows install if the iPad won’t cut it.

If you only plan on using it for web, email, and netflix, you might want to look into some of the alternatives that provide more functionality in those areas (email and web). Check out the Nexus 7 ($199) or even the Nexus 10 if you find that the 7” tablet doesn’t work for you. The 7” is so much lighter and easier to work with in my opinion. You can still get a cheap bluetooth keyboard and do your typing the virtual one doesn’t cut it. But iOS does a few things really well – and you might not be able to take advantage of those. It’s really good at handling music apps with low latency. It’s also apparently a better gaming platform (although I hear that is changing). But for web and email, iOS is an inferior experience to Android. Plus, why spend all that money? Note: The Nexus 7 is on sale here for $179 in stores. Rumor has it that the next version is coming soon. So, you might want to play the waiting game if you’re interested.

Depends on what you want to use it for. An ipad is purely a consumption device. It is not a creation device. I use both.

Love my iPad but would not use it for my only computer. I find a deskstop and an iPad a winning combination.

Have you checked out a Chromebook?
http://www.google.co.uk/intl/en/chrome/devices/

@PointandStare – Actually, this is a great option for most people. I didn’t mention it before because I was under the impression that it still didn’t support Netflix. I was apparently wrong. 90% of non-techy, non-gamers would do better with one of these than a Windows or Apple notebook.