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well, there is a difference between portable, and luggable. as someone who spends a good part of the year traveling for work and pleasure i've learned how to pack quickly, with the least amount of appropriate devices necessary for my trip and any unexpected emergencies. that extra battery doesn't seem like a lot to pack now but weighs you down on a 20 hour plane trip overseas through multiple airports.
i often traveled with a laptop (currently a work-issued compaq with a 15" display) and frequently brought along a netbook (eeepc 1000ha which was modified and upgraded). then you have to pack in both chargers. the laptop went into the laptop part of my current backpack/messenger-bag/rollerboard (i go through a lot of bags and suitcases) with the netbook in the slipcover it came with just in a general storage area. some times one or both of the units had an extended battery along with the regular battery.
is the whole setup portable? yes. heavy? yes
the ipad, on the other hand, is thinner, lighter, and does pretty much everything i lugged the netbook around for. personal email. movies. offloading-photos taken with a camera. light gaming (yes, even old farts like games other than freecell). add in e-reading which i couldn't get into it on my netbook, and why i had bought a sony 600, which now also stays at home. actually the big win for the ipad is how much thinner it is and doesn't cause my backpack to bulge out, stretching the seams to the limit. add in i only need to carry one charger (same one i charge my iphone with) and i've cut out a lot of bulk.
so yes, my ipad doesn't fit in my jacket pocket, but it also doesn't make me look like a hunchback with my backpack either. but i'd say the size is very important beyond just that pocket.
other tablet devices coming out there, they are going to have to be thin too. after the ipad no one is going to call an inch thick brick a "tablet".
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