Tablet PCs or touchscreen laptops were once touted as the impending standard for laptops, though that mantle has probably been taken on by the netbook, which is the only PC to increasing sales this last year.
As their name suggests the screens are touch sensitive, allowing users to write on them with a stylus or to open applications and move things around with your fingers. In the right situations, it's a useful function and one that the Windows 7 operating system will boost when its released this fall, so there's still some thinking that the touchscreens sector will continue to grow.
The screens swivel 180-degrees to face away from the keyboard, which is cool for presentations or for watching movies in a dorm and can fold down on top of the keyboard putting them into full tablet mode where they act and function like a clipboard.
In business, tablets are useful for filling out forms in the field and making notations on standard documents. In education, they're useful for note-taking. They're also helpful with younger students who've yet to learn to type.
Tablets can also translate script to text, though there's a bit of a trick to teaching the software your handwriting style.
As such, a tablet PC is the just the solution prescribed for University of Ottawa pre-med student David D'Souza, 24, of Toronto by the school.
"The whole program is laptop-based so having a laptop is mandatory and they are recommending the Dell XT tablet," says Mr. D'Souza, who just wrapped up four years at McMaster University. "Everything online, books and all. It will save me thousands in books alone. I can take all my notes on it and cut down on paper."
The XT, however, is expensive at around $3,000 so he's been looking at the HP tx2z which is selling at about a third of that price. Also catching his eye is the Lenovo x200, which though a little pricier at $1,850 is also extremely robust, though doesn't come with a DVD drive.
"If you buy the Dell from the school repairs are free," he says. "But it's a lot of money."
All top selling PC makers offer tablets and we looked at three new models to give you an idea of what's on the market.
Dell Latitude 2100 with optional touch screen.
To be frank, this really isn't a laptop. With its Intel Atom processor, the Latitude 2100, which starts at $642, is really a netbook with an upgraded screen but Dell thinks its rugged features and user-friendly interface is robust enough to place it in the Latitude line up. However, it is simply a touchscreen and doesn't fold flat for tablet function.
It's certainly a little more costly than a standard netbook depending on how you load it up but a lot less then a full blown tablet.
What you get is a 1.6-GHz Intel Atom N270 with Windows XP Home with 1 Gb RAM, a 16 GB Solid State Hard Drive (SSD) which can be upgraded, a 10.1 inch display at 1024 by 576 and a Intel 950/128Mb shared graphics card. It also comes in a series of eye-catching colours: School Bus Gold, Chalkboard Black, Ball Field Green, Blue Ribbon, and School House Red.
The machine is designed for K-to-12 students and features a rubberized case designed to absorb the trials and tribulations of that age range. It's a little heavy at about 31/2 pounds and a little more hefty with its charger.
In reality this has been designed more for school board purchase rather than parental purchase since it's hard to see little Johnny toddling off to K1 with a laptop in his backpack. The machines also have a light on the front of them that glows to indicate a student is surfing online and not listening - something teachers will undoubtedly appreciate.
As a stand-alone purchase however, it could be a good option for some students in the Grade 10-to-12 range and is a step up from netbook.
Lenovo ThinkPad x200
The good news is that in stock mode with the standard battery it weighs in at less than three pounds and is a veritable power miser, consuming 20 per cent less power than previous models.
As we've come to expect from Lenovo, the styling is functional and no nonsense, with a latch-secured screen in either standard or tablet mode. There's also an efficient dock for the included stylus.
Inside the ThinkPad x200, which starts at $1,889, there's an Intel Core 2 Duo SU9400 processor ULV (1.40GHz 800MHz 3MBL2 ) a 12.1 inch WXGA screen, Intel GMA X4500 graphics chip and a 250 Gb hard drive, about what's you'd expect for the price, including fingerprint access control.
It also has dual-array digital microphones, which Lenovo claims produces clearer sound when combined with the onboard noise-cancelling software for Internet voice calling through programs such as Skype. It also has a built-in camera.
Bad news? No optical drive and for the much hyped nine-hour battery life you'll have to go to the nine-cell cylindrical battery, which in turn pushes up the weight factor to more than 31/2 pounds.
Toshiba Portégé M750 starting at $1849
The thing you first notice about the Portégé is that it's a hefty machine and about 300 grams heavier than the Lenovo x200. The Toshiba's silver metal styling, however is a little more flashy.
It comes with a 12.1 inch screen, IntelP6570 2.1GHz, Vista Business, 2GB memory, and a 160GB hard drive, DVD-CD writer and an integrated web cam and fingerprint-reader. It also has a dock for the stylus.
Taking it for a test run I found it handled just about the same as the Lenovo x200 with no noticeable differences, though I do find Vista more annoying than XP.
Otherwise, battery life was a little shorter than I would have liked, though it did recharge quickly.