The Archos 9 tablet has a 9-inch screen yet weighs less than 2 pounds. It doesn’t support multitouch gestures like pinching or zooming, but it has a large onscreen keyboard for tapping out web addresses and e-mails. It also comes with a 1.3 megapixel webcam for video chats. Cost: $500 for a 1.2GHz Intel Atom processor, 1GB of RAM, and a 60GB hard drive
Lenovo’s new SimpleTap application lets you double tap anywhere on the ThinkPad’s 14-inch screen to launch a control panel and adjust the settings on the 4.5-pound PC or put it to sleep. You can create shortcut tiles and rearrange them with a flick. The best feature: the screen’s antifingerprint coating. Cost: $1,999 for an Intel Core Duo 2 processor, 2GB of RAM, and a 120 GB hard drive
This versatile 4.5-pound tablet lets you use either a pen (for writing, editing, or annotating) or your finger (for zooming, rotating, or flicking) on its 13.3-inch screen. Thanks to a bidirectional hinge, the tablet easily converts into a notebook when you want to use a full-size keyboard. Cost: $1,859 for an Intel Core Duo 2.4GHz processor, 1GB of RAM, and an 80GB hard drive
The new TouchSmart doesn’t seem much different from its predecessor until you touch its 12.1-inch display. The 4.65-pound convertible tablet features touch-enabled apps such as Twitter and Hulu and lets you organize photos, play games, and check the weather with a finger flick. Cost: $799 for a 2.2GHz AMD Turion X2 processor, 3GB of RAM, and a 320GB hard drive
The sequel to the ASUS T91 has multitouch capability and double the storage space, and it comes loaded with ASUS’s new TouchGate software. The 2.1-pound netbook has a touch-friendly Web browser and a 3-D interface that lets you flick among three floating panels on the 9-inch screen. Cost: $459 for a 1.33GHz Intel Atom 2520 processor and 32GB of solid-state storage
Touch is a bonus on this sleek 4.7-pound notebook, which has a 13.3-inch LED display that takes full advantage of Windows 7’s multifinger gestures. It also includes a backlit keyboard for old-fashioned typing and USB ports that can charge gadgets even when the laptop is asleep. Cost: $1,049 for a 2.2GHz Intel Core Duo T6600 processor, 4GB of RAM, and a 500GB hard drive —Mark Spoonauer
