FaceTime on iPad and or iPhone is really good, better than Skype. Very portable, you can put it in your handbag to go out and use free wifi.
We have actually replaced our broken laptop with an iPad on a contract from three, £100 down and two years at £25 month loads of data, didnt work out any dearer than paying outright and then buying data. You only need data allowance tho if you have no wifi in your house which we haven't.
Only con for us is you can't print from it, but our society is getting towards being paperless so we are moving with the times. On the odd occasion when we needed something printed out, we went to the library and used their free wifi to email the boarding passes, then used library computer to print the, out. (Waste of time as it turned out, you can print them yourselves when you get to Heathrow)
Ps you have to watch the iPads auto correct, sometimes it is hilariously wrong!!!!!!
I love the iPad, I can be looking at my baby grandson the other side of the world in seconds wherever I am and it's easy to use lying in bed. I'm a convert!