Seeking some advice for my second Tablet

So when I first saw a convertible tablet I fell in love with the design, it's neat and interesting, a really eye catching feature. I decided I had to get one. I ended up grabbing a used Toshiba Portege M205-S810 off of ebay, which I've enjoyed a lot, but mine is getting old... really old. It came with some wear and it hasn't exactly gotten any better over the years. When I first got it I have to admit the tablet features were just a gimick to me, I didn't really take advantage of them. But as time has gone on it actually has become an important part of my productivity.

So its finally come time to replace it. I've been looking for reviews and round ups but i'm surprised at how much information out there is completely out of date. A lot of review sites are full of "best pick" articles that are from 2006 and 2007. I want a NEW laptop this time, i've already gone through the unpleasant experience of getting a used one last time. I've got the budget this time so I want something really slice. So I present my case before the Tom's Hardware community can you help me out?

I read the FAQ around here so i'll use its format as a template and try my best to present my desires:

1_What is your budget?

Theoretically $3000... Canadian. I'm from Canada. But if i have to spend 3000, it better comb my hair in the morning.

2_What is the size of the notebook that you are considering?

11-13" i want something light. Its not that I want to use it in my arms a lot, but I don't want it to feel like a burden to bring along.

3_What screen resolution do you want?

Better than what I've had. I'd have to say my number one complaint with my Portege was the screen. Max res is 1400x1050, which I guess isn't bad actually but I guess this question is the best place to mention that it has bad viewing angles and a lot of colour shifting and backlight bleeding when one moves it around... particularly in tablet mode :-/ Thats primarily what i was dissatisfied with.

4_Do you need a portable or desktop replacement laptop?

Portable, but this is my only computer. In general though when I'm at home I can hook it up to an external monitor, and hard drive if I want to get a desktop kind of feel out of it.

5_How much battery life do you need?

I'd like to get a lot better than I did. Maybe one that can swap out the disc drive for an extra battery. If I was the only one of my friends who wasn't always looking for a power outlet immediately upon pulling out my laptop, that would be worth paying for

6_Do you want to play games with your laptop? If so then please list the games that you want to with the settings that you want for these games. (Low,Medium or High)?

Not really. Nothing current anyway. Nothing passed maybe WoW and Half-Life 2. And HL2 doesn't need to be on full settings

7_What other tasks do you want to do with your laptop? (Photo / Video editing, surfing the web, playing music, watching movies, Etc.)

Adobe Acrobat, Campaign Cartographer (a CAD program), some imaging editing, lots of surfing the web and playing music... preferably all at the same time...

8_How much storage (H.D.D Capacity) do you need?

Not a lot really. Whatever is economical. 120-160 as a middle of the road.

9_If you are considering specific sites to buy from, please post the links to them.

Thats actually the problem. I don't really know where to buy. I'd love to find a store I could go to and actually get to touch the machine before I buy it, but I may have to give up on that dream.

10_How long do you want to keep your laptop?

I had this one for about 3 and a half years and its painful now, so ideally less time this next time, but I get 3 years out of it I won't be complaining.

11_If you would like to mention some other things about purchasing your ideal laptop, post them.

I got a chance to lay my hands on a current low end HP at a store recently. One of the few tablets one can find in stores like Futureshop. I was really smitten with the touch screen. I'm familiar with them from having a touch screen phone and I thought it would really make using the on screen keyboard in tablet mode a lot easier if I could use my fingers instead of hunting for one letter at a time with the pen. I wasn't impressed with that HP's pen though. It wasn't pressure sensitive and wasn't quite the same pencil on paper feel as my Toshiba and it didn't have an eraser on the end. So i only want touch screen if I can keep my solid pen performance.

12_Please tell us about the brands that you prefer to buy from them and the brands that you don't like and explain the reasons.

My Toshiba has treated me well. I'd buy Toshiba again, but I don't feel any strong brand loyalty over the issue so I'm open to anything. I've been looking at the Fujitsu T5010 a lot, but it strikes me as really expensive, reasonable aesthetic though. The new Toshiba stuff seems nice, but I just feel hesitant some how, I guess I wished they looked nicer, or at least kept the look from the R400 they used to make. I must say performance and features come before it all, but if it was cool looking as well it would really seal the deal.

13_What country do you live in?

Canada as I mentioned before. In Victoria BC.

So I suppose I'll have scared away people with this posts length, but I guess composing it has at least helped me think about what I'm wanting and thats the best I can hope for.

On the other hand If someone were to swoop down upon this post and tell me about a laptop in the just under $2000 with tax range, that was all around good performance with a nice touch screen and good pen, with wide clear viewing angles and really sharp resolution, 6 hour battery life, durable but uncompromisingly sleek angles, that managed to not look like a black brick, that got up before me and made me a cup of coffee and layed out my clothes for the day then logged on to all of my forum posts and corrected all of my ridiculously run on sentences.
That would be great.

Thanks in advance