What tablet should I buy?

[tiglionabbit]

Yesterday I went to the Microsoft Store and tried out a few tablet PCs. The Samsung Series 7 seemed pretty promising, though I was disappointed that it had no programmable physical buttons on it like my old tablet. Also it's ridiculously wide-screen. I like the form factor though, since it's thin like an ipad and not chunky like the Acer next to it. Also it's quite fast and responsive to my brush strokes. They only carried two models at the store though. There must be better things out there!

Here's what I want:
- A thin slate. Pretty much an ipad with a wacom digitizer in it.
- Standard aspect screen, or at least more square than the Samsung Series 7. I need more space to draw.
- Decently fast. Comparable specs to the smallest, cheapest macbook air would be ok. Will mostly be used for Flash and Autodesk Sketchbook.
- Programmable buttons. I mean, I have to disable the touch feature if I want to draw without my hand confusing the thing, but if I do that then I have to hit things like undo, redo, forward/backward a frame of animation with the pen every time I want to use them. Maybe I'm spoiled, but my old tablet (that fell apart) had some programmable buttons on it. Alternatively, some way to disable touch for most of the screen but still allow touchable buttons on the side somewhere.
- Decent battery life. Something comparable to a macbook would be nice.
- Doesn't fall apart. No convertible hinge, no little plastic audio jacks that are easy to shatter, no shitty power port that gets all wonky and wont charge anymore after some use. I'm kind of rough on my machines and I've never had a non-apple laptop last me more than 8 months without breaking. I do have one of those tough motion computing things though, but it's just so heavy and slow I never carry it around with me.

[jnjroach]

Sorry all of the modern slates and convertables are wide screen, either 16x10 (1280x800) or 16x9 (1368x768). With the 16x9 being the one will see more of in the future as Microsoft has deemed necessary for Windows 8 Metro UI.

I'm using the Samsung Series 7 and it the best Tablet I've used...

[Michelle Mastin]

Thin - Samsung wins. There are some other slates that run fairly thin and lightweight, like the Fujitsu Q550, but they are packed with netbook guts and have n-trig digitizers. There are more powerful wacom based slates made by Motion (j series) and TabletKiosk, but they are thick and heavy.
Screen aspect ratio - the Asus EP121 is at least 16:10, 1280x800. There are no more being made at 4:3. The most modern 4:3 candidate is the Motion LE1700 at 1400x1050, but that's an older core2duo. The best you can do in a modern slate is 1280x800.
Decently fast - the netbook slates that are thin, light, and have good battery life will be annoyingly slow. The Samsung Slate packs the same SnadyBridge i5 that's also in the macbook air.
Programmable buttons - I hear that some people attach a USB number pad, or similar add-on to get the buttons. The pricey and bulky Motion Js and TabletKiosks will have more buttons, but they are way thicker and heavier than I think you're looking for.
Decent battery life - the Samsung has the Asus EP121 beat by about double there.
Doesn't fall apart - here's the real sticker with the Samsung. The early batches are having problems with screen separation from weak glue holding the screen glass down.

I'm also pretty tempted to pick up a Samsung slate myself, especially with the 25% off deal the Microsoft store is having right now. It seems to be the only option right now in the thin, light, powerful, decent battery life, with wacom category.