Tablets don't excite me either, it makes me appreciate the tactile feel of a keyboard and the benefits of using a mouse (you can't hover like you can with a mouse with touch input on an ipad).

I use a hp touchsmart, which is an affordable laptop-tablet hybrid. It's a fantastic input device due to wacom technology (shame ipad doesn't excel at pen input), but using the touch screen with my hands is only really convenient when I'm laying back consuming content leisurely.