Staying in touch when travelling?

Ames

Hi all,

I'm going travelling in December and want to know the best (cheapest) way of staying in touch with people at home. I'd rather do it through email, so I've been looking at tablets, but got completely confused. I don't need anything fancy. I'll have my mobile for calls in emergencies, but it's just a PAYG cheapy. So, my criteria are, in order of importance:

Cheap (Ideally less than £100) and no monthly charge - so no iphone.
Light (as I'll be carrying it round with me all day - so ideally not a netbook).
Battery life long enough to check emails a couple of times between charges.
If it could do some basic browsing - facebook etc - that'd be a great extra.

I've seen some tablets on Amazon for £60-70 which look ok but the reviews are really mixed. I suspect though that as I want something so basic they'd do for me.

Please be gentle, and explain things simply - the average Amish knows more about technology than me!

Angelic

Can you not buy an older phone that has internet capabilities and use it to keep in touch?

NeverAgain_2

Text entry on a 7" tablet will be hard - the 'keyboard' will take up half the screen, but still be too small, and will leave little room to see what you are typing.

This keyboard/case only costs a tenner and would transform the tablet into a mini-netbook:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Leather-Keyboard-Stylus-Feature-Protection/dp/B004OYXMEO/ref=pd_bxgy_ce_img_b

You may need a full-size USB to mini-USB lead to plug it in, which will add another couple of quid:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_0_10?url=search-alias%3Dcomputers&field-keywords=usb+to+mini+usb+cable&sprefix=usb+to+min

JasX

What parts of the world are you likely to be travelling to?

The correct answer for the depths of the Amazon rain forset will probably differ to the correct answer for a major US metropolis with city wide free public wifi