I would look at the Lenovo netbooks like the X-120e. Small and portable and the best keyboards and include a camera for video over the internet. Best part is the service is provided by the IBM employees based in Atlanta after IBM sold its PC business to Lenovo.
Get one with Windows 7 Pro and you are good to go for the next several years.
A comparable tablet costs twice as much as a netbook and has less storage for pictures and less memory and slower graphics processing for video and no card reader and no Ethernet port and usually no USB ports. Tablet are good add-ons but do not replace a laptop.