My journey in the tablet world. Wife has a Ipad can not fault just the price. Archos 80 g9 - brilliant spec, nice screen size I had a couple of faulty ones, however still have family members with theirs, not a bad price either.
I know have the failure of rim. Not looked back really, build quality on par with the Ipad, internet surfing a big wow and fast. Every flash based website i have visted works no problems. Though screen size would be an issue but its not. Its just as fast as my wifes Ipad2.. Theres not as many apps, but if your just using email, twitter and surfing as I do, I dont really use that many apps.
All depends on your budget. The tablet world has turned into the laptop world from a few years ago the market has that many now, its a minefiled.
Overall if you want something that just works out of the box, no hassle to set up and you have the money the ipad, you can also link apps with you friend.