While Windows XP and Vista supported Tablet PC’s the interfaces were clunky and unreliable. All that has changed now with Windows 7 and many industry think tanks feel Tablets are going to be making a huge comeback.

While many companies have been making higher end laptops, HP has consistently had one or two consumer level tablets on the market. I recently picked up their TouchSmart tx2 and while it came with Windows Vista, a quick 20 minuets later it was running Windows 7 with ease.

This HP TouchSmart model is surprisingly well equip for the price. Here is a quick breakdown of it’s specs:

4GB Ram
320 GB SATA Hard Drive
12.1″ Dual Input Screen (input with pen or finger)
AMD Turion 2.10 GB Processor
ATI Radeon HD 3200 Graphics Card
Wireless A/B/G/N Card
DVD Burner with Lightscribe.
Fingerprint Scanner
Webcam
4 USB Ports

All for under 1200.00.

While there are better Tablet PC’s on the market, I would hazzard to say there is nothing better for the money.The higher end Tablets run Intel processors that run cooler and require less cooling. They also have better screens that are easier to read in daylight. The tx2 screen is nice but it is almost impossible to read outside and annoying even in the car on a sunny day.

The Good:
Great hardware specs.
Tablets run great under Windows 7.
Lots of expansion ports.
Great overall performance.

The Bad:
Screen not good for outside.
Runs hot.

The first Netbook was released by Asus and most people will agree, they are still leading the pack. Featured here today is one of their higher end Netbooks. Incidentally, if you are not familiar with the difference between a Netbook and a Notebook, please feel free to read “To Netbook or not to Netbook” in our Articles section.

Quick Specs:
Monitor: 10.2″ LCD with 1024×600 WSVGA
Processor: Intel Atom 1.6Ghz
Hard Drive: 160GB
Ram: 1024MB
Weight: 3.20 lbs
Wireless: 802.11 b/g
High Definition Audio
Operating System: Windows XP

This Netbook reaches a near perfect balance between price and performance. While it is not a laptop replacement, it is one of the more capable Netbooks. With three USB 2.0 ports, you have lots of room for expansion. It also has VGA out for connecting to an external monitor and a built in card reader.

Netbooks are not known for being the prettiest kids on the block and this one is no exception. While it’s design is boxy, it does feel sturdy. Sporting a 10.2″ screen, the Asus Eee PC 1000HA is the largest Netbook yet. The company has also confirmed that it is the largest they will make.

Of all of the available Netbooks, I find this one to be the most balanced and useful on the market.

This product is available for purchase threw P.C Tantrums.

With Laptop computers becoming more and more powerful, they are staring to replace Desktop computers at an alarming rate. 2007 was considered by many as the year of the laptop as we watched their sales skyrocket by 21.6 percent with 31.6 million units sold. This almost eclipses desktop sales at 35 million units. Experts agree that while all of the numbers are not in yet, 2008 could be the year laptops finally out sell desktops.

This comes as no surprise to those that watch the market. We have seen laptops go from being almost exclusively work and text based to multimedia laptops with large screens perfect for watching movies, playing video games and even video and photo editing. The advancements in laptop processing power have been staggering.

One of the companies at the forefront of this revolution has been Asus. They were the first to release the industry changing Eee series of Netbooks and carry some of the most powerful high end laptops as well. The M70Vm is one of them.

Quick Specs:

Intel Duo T9400 mobile processor
Up to 1TB (terabyte) of storage
4 Gigs of DDR3 Ram
1920×1200 full High Def 17” screen
Blu-ray player
8-in-1 card reader
HDMI out (use your High-Def TV as a monitor)
Built in TV Tuner

This laptop is a joy to use. Here are some of our favorite features:

Warranty: Asus has one of the best warranties on the market. With a total of three years, the first two are their amazing “Accidental” warranties. It covers spills, drops or any other type of torture you may inflict on it. They also have a 24hr turn around for replacement or repair.

Facial Recognition: Turn on the laptop and the webcam kicks into gear, it recognizes the person sitting in front of the computer and automatically logs into their account.

Finger Print Scanner: This is great for online banking and other websites where you have to enter sensitive information. Just swipe your finger over the scanner and all of the information is entered for you, no typing, no hassle.

Dual Hard Drives: It’s one of the few (very few) laptops on the market that can store two hard drives giving you up to 1 terabyte of storage (500gig hard drive x2) giving you more room than most desktops.  

The Good:
Just about everything

The Bad:
I like the full-size keypad but the decimal point is above instead of below and that can really throw you off.

This product is available for purchase threw P.C. Tantrums.

Detailed Specs: