Tablet PCs or "slates" are sharing the buzz with 3D TV at this year's Consumer Electronics Show, now running in Las Vegas. Microsoft, Motorola, Lenovo and Dell all unveiled prototypes with Wi-Fi and 3G connectivity and a range of display sizes from 5 inches to nearly 12 inches. All of the tablet devices are somewhere between a phone and a laptop in terms of portability and functionality.

Lenovo's IdeaPad U1

And all of them are somewhat overshadowed by one that doesn't officially exist yet: the Apple iSlate. So far, it's only a lot of rumours, including specifications: 7.1-inch multitouch display with fingerprint-resistant coating, 2.26GHz Core 2 Duo processor, 2GB DDR3 RAM, 120GB hard drive, built-in projector, all running on the MAC OS X 10.7 Clouded Leopard. The iSlate is rumoured to be set for launch in late January.

The Dell tablet concept has a five-inch display and runs the Android OS. It is being marketed as a companion device to a PC, delivering a "full Web experience."

Lenovo's new offering, the IdeaPad U1, is a hybrid laptop/tablet, each with its own processor and operating system. The 11.6-inch display detaches from the laptop to become a multi-touch tablet. It gives users the advantages of a laptop—physical keyboard, decent sized screen, Intel  Core 2 Duo processor—and the ability to detach and continue in more mobile mode. Good for students, some say.

All of the models shown so far cost just under a thousand dollars. Opinions on their marketability range from "2010 will be the year of the tablet" to "it's been tried before without much success." It remains to be seen whether consumers will go for them, with so many different types of screens out there to choose from—smartphones, electronic book readers, tablets, slates, Blackberries and netbooks. Do we need another kind of screen device? 

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