The newish Apple magnetic keyboards seem pretty good for using on your lap at a conference which was one of my showstoppers for a lot of earlier tablet designs. Though I haven't had a lot of opportunity to try it in practice. And I'm just so used to laptop multi-window that I probably would need to just spend some time adapting.

A more hybrid design seems to make a lot of sense but it just seems to involve compromises on both the laptop and tablet ends. Even the Apple tablets with keyboards probably don't have a lot of advantages over the Air unless you're watching a movie or reading a book on a flight or train.

I'm not imagining much compromise on the tablet side - at least not more than Microsoft's Surface keyboard connector. I'm thinking of thin tabs attached to the hinges slotting into the tablet body.

It would still be pretty compromised as a laptop, but better in that role than current tablet keyboard solutions.