Thanks for the great replies so far. I might go for the iPad 4, since it has just been upgraded. It's a cheaper, yet good solution i think. Then i will probably upgrade my Mac next summer when the new Macbook Air's will be released (hopefully). Thanks so far
Any other with good advice/experiences?
I have MBA 13" 2010 that I purchased for the similar reasons from a MBP 15". I originally required it for all my travel... Since then, the iPad 2/3 have totally changed my opinion.
As my evolution from engineer to more business items occurs, the apple keyboard and griffin stylus have displaced 90% of my MBA while traveling.... If I'm at a hotel overnight, then I still bring the laptop for work on tabletop, but never for my lap anymore. Logging into servers via GUI requires the MBA (IMHO) so I need to have it around. At home, I simply don't reach for a laptop.
I'm handing the MBA to my wife, and will have rMBP for 100% office time (with multiple vm environments and serious admin/coding and screen real-estate tasks), and when I do need to bring it along, it won't way me down tremendously.
In summary what works amazing for me:
- iPad 3
-- Bluetooth apple keyboard (full size)
-- the keyboard/iPad stand (works awesome on planes & restaurants)
-- griffin stylus to displaces all my physical notepads (penultimate app)
- soon to be rMBP 15" for workhorse (currently MBA, and I'm still happy!)
If I were in your shoes, I would throw an intel (my preference due to reliability) SSD in your 13", and re-assess your needs... RAM recommendation is a great and needed if you're going to keep this machine. If you feel the 13" is struggling with SSD, then it might be your graphics usage, in which you need to move up regardless. Then buy an iPad 4 with accessory to fit your experience needs. Twelve months from now, a series of great upgrades from intel will be coming out, and these machines are really going to make the 2012 upgrades salivate... You'll be prime for upgrades come 2013 Q4 - 2014.
Personally, I will never own a system without SSD as primary drive; it truly revolutionizes your workflow. You may be surprised at how your 13" performs after $200 of upgrades.