An iPad in the field? Personally, I don't want to put my grubby hands on my screen be it a tablet or phone. I just don't want to hold the thing. For considerably less money, with a netbook, you can get a legit keyboard, a screen that folds open and stays put, and as much battery life as an iPad. If you know what you're doing, you can run some flavor of Linux (Ubuntu's a good place to start) to sidestep the Microsoft tax.

I'm going to give my Asus EeePC 1000HE a hug now.