Before you order your new iPad, you should know that there’s some pretty decent alternatives out on the horizon. First up, the incredible looking Courier. The below video comes courtesy of engadget.

Despite being built by Microsoft, who aren’t usually able to match Apple’s style, the Courier appears to be able to hold it’s own against the iPad. At least, in the concept video – we have no idea how well it’ll perform in the real world, but we’re definitely looking forward to it.

Also on the rumour mill is the idea of a tablet from Google, or perhaps just a tablet that runs on a touchscreen enabled version of their in-development Chromium operating system. Check out the concept video that was allegedly leaked by a Google employee (the video comes courtesy of the lovely people at thechromesource.com)

There are, it should be said, alternatives that will be out sooner – or at least that have been confirmed. Tablets like the HP Slate and the new Dell Mini 5 are all throwing their hats into the shiny, touch-screen ring and will all be trying to offer something similar to the iPad, and usually at a slightly less Apple-sized price. Gizmodo are currently comparing all the contenders.

A touchpad allows you to pinch, zoom and scroll through documents easily with the touch of a finger. People who have superior hand eye coordination will be able to make efficient use of this new feature. There are also many connection options on the Toshiba Satellite T130 that help you connect a great many peripheral devices quickly and easily. Bluetooth connectivity, multiple USB ports and the ability to hook up a webcam for easy chat access are only a few of the advantages of owning this new laptop.

Face recognition technology eliminates the need for password protection. This innovative invention has changed the way users protect their sensitive data using multiple point facial feature verification. The security is hard to beat and provides sound peace of mind for security minded individuals.

With a glossy exterior, the many fans of photos and virtual scrap booking will fall in love with its design. It looks like a picture in and of itself, making for a stylish computer experience whatever the environment.

It’s available in your choice of three different colors: black, white and metallic red finish. If you have a work environment that’s color coordinated, you have a good chance of being able to mesh well with it. All three finishes are textured, offering a more enjoyable visual experience.

Nearly 11 hours of battery life get you through your workdays without having to waste time recharging the battery. Imagine, an entire work day going smooth and uninterrupted! The Toshiba Satellite T130 offers this functionality at an affordable price.

A 13.3″ TruBrite LED backlit display provides a large enough display to put on presentations, play video games and watch full screen video. TruBrite technology makes efficient use of the T130’s battery life so you can enjoy more of what the computer has to offer.

The Core 2 Duo processor is also compatible with efficient power consumption. Laptop processors of our present day are ultra efficient at processing data and utilizing the computer’s power saving features!

This laptop represents a great choice for active users who desire a paper light computing solution with hard drive protection. The hard drive protection on this laptop is second to none, providing shock absorbing capability and carefree computing time. Even if you drop it, the data is protected by the enclosed hard drive and software data protection ability.

You can make your choice of Intel ultra-low voltage processors too, allowing you to customize your laptop to exacting specifications. Background and foreground utilities to help conserve power allow this laptop to tackle resource intensive applications for long periods throughout the day.

We highly recommend the Toshiba Satellite T130 for people who handle highly sensitive data. The facial recognition feature renders the computer useless to everyone but the owner of the laptop. Not bad, Toshiba. Not bad at all.

Processor – Intel Core 2 Duo T5870 2 Gigaherz Dual-Core

RAM – 2 GB stock – 8 GB (maximum) – DDR2 SDRAM

Hard Drive – 160 GB

Operating System – Microsoft Windows Vista Business or XP Tablet PC Edition

Screen – 12.1 in TFT active matrix 1280 x 800 resolution

Optical Drive – DVD±RW (±R DL) / DVD-RAM Drive

Graphics – Intel GMA 4500MHD Dynamic Video Memory Technology Version 5.0

Bluetooth Enabled

3 years warranty

Not a bad package but the £800 price tag comes from the Touch Screen technology. Touch screens are amazing – they provide users with an additional way to operate their laptops. Instead of using traditional input devices like your standard mouse, simply use your fingers to zoom in on pictures, scroll through documents, and access your files at lightning speed.

Doubling as a tablet PC, this laptop computer is one of the most versatile we’ve ever seen. Wireless capabilities and an integrated webcam make conferencing a snap and you never have to worry about being locked into a slow, standard input work station.

Taking this computer with you on the move is easy. 800 MHz data bus speed, enhanced SpeedStep technology, Execute Disable Bit and Intel Virtualization technology are some of the new features available on this laptop/tablet PC.

The Mobile Intel GM45 Express chipset is one of the highest quality chipsets in the business and is rarely spoken about by less tech savvy individuals.

All in all, this tablet PC/laptop is worthy of high marks because of its high quality components. Tablet PCs offer extreme portability and the ability to travel with you anywhere is definitely not something you should take for granted. Built to the hilt with extras, you can’t do much better for a state of the art tablet PC/laptop.

With a 3 year warranty, you can get accustomed to operating this computer without having to worry about damage. If something breaks and it’s not your fault, the warranty will cover you 100%.

Do we like the Toshiba Portege M740-13C Touch Screen? Most definitely! We highly recommend this PC to anyone looking for a tablet PC/laptop with all the bells and whistles to come standard. Even though it’s a bit pricey at £800, the features it includes make it a surefire winner and amazing value for money. Pick this laptop up if you get a chance to, it’s worth every penny.

Processor: Core 2 Duo 1.3 Ghz
Ram: 4 gigabyte DDR3
Hard Drive: 500 GB
Display: WXGA TFT Active Matrix – 15.6 inch screen
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium – 64 bit technology
Weight: 4.6 pounds

The Asus Ul50VT’s strong point lies in its ability to sustain long hours of resource intensive computing. The battery lasts an incredible 12 hours on a single charge. Sporting 8 separate cells, it’s easy to understand how such a big battery can provide such long sessions. This is a huge advantage for anyone who spends long periods on the road with little access to a charger. Convenience and ability is the name of the game in business, and having 12 hours to work increases productivity levels dramatically. Part of its ability to withstand long hours of continuous use comes from the Core 2 Duo’s CULV processor and efficient power usage.

Thin, lightweight, and full featured, this laptop is only 1″ thick, weights just 5 pounds and comes with a HDMI port. Available in brushed aluminum, the laptop also comes equipped with some dynamite speakers: 30% more powerful than the accepted standard for a speaker on other notebooks, the sound will absolutely amaze you.

The Asus UL50VT also offers two different graphical modes. For more resource intensive graphical applications, this laptop uses a NVIDIA GeForce G 210M graphics card. For less intensive computing sessions, when less power is needed, the computer switches to an integrated graphics processor that saves energy. Pretty interesting, wouldn’t you agree? With this option enabled, you are guaranteed the most efficient experience the computer could possibly offer.

A numeric “chiclet” style keyboard provides all day typing ability. The spacious design is incredibly appealing to the eye and typing with it is as effortless as it gets. A multi-gesture touch pad provides the ability to zoom in and out of pictures, navigate up and down pages of content and more. A super hybrid engine provides the ability to conserve even more energy and adds to its ability to operate for 12 hour sessions.

A LED backlit screen provides an incredibly smooth cinematic experience. Supported by the Intel 4500 MHD processor, this machine has graphical prowess that’s ready to rock and roll.

2 years of global warranty coverage allow you to operate your Asus UL50VT without having to worry about anything. 1 year accidental damage warranty adds to the total package and will keep your machine in tip-top shape no matter what.

So what do you think? The collective response to this laptop has been very positive. We think it’s a good buy and worthy of high marks. 12 hours is a long operating time and the ability to switch graphic processing options is incredibly interesting. What will they think of next?

First, you start off with the beautiful black and brushed aluminum case. This is meant to show some of the beauty of this computer. Not only is it beautiful, it is also powerful! It is resistant to many of the small scratches and dents that other computers are. This is because the competitors use plastic which is simply not durable. The matte finish also protects against small scuffs that can occur in day to day use of the computer and moving it around.

When you purchase a computer like the MSI GT640, you are going to want to take full advantage of connectivity. This is why the computer includes many different ports and features to ensure you are able to connect to anything and everything. For example, you are able to use both HDMI and VGA video out ports. The DC-IN line is also in the rear of the laptop. Bluetooth 2.0 and WLAN a/b/g/n is included with your MSI GT640. Wireless N speeds are simply astonishingly fast. After you have used a wireless N router, you will not want to go back.

After you have connected your MSI GT640 to monitors, the Internet and even your Bluetooth headset, you can truly begin to experience the power of this machine. While MSI decided to only put the starter model of the Intel Core i7 processor into the MSI GT640, this does not take away from its ability to truly process data. The processor at idle rings in at 1.6 GHz per second, with a 2.8 GHz per second speed clocked under heavy computing. This is a four core processor, showing that it can truly handle anything that is thrown at it!

There is also 4GB of ram in this beautiful machine. You are never going to experience slowdowns with all of the great hardware support. Also, the 4GB of ram is DDR3 RAM, the latest and greatest type of memory available. MSI has only taken advantage of the 32 bit version of Windows 7 Home Premium. This leaves a lot to be desired, because of how the 64 bit version would utilize system resources. The MSI GT640 could use a better hard drive. While it is Western Digital’s higher range of hard drives, it still lags quite a bit on data transfer and several other levels. With some improvements to the hard drive in this system alone, it would be a much better buy. Still, for the price that you are paying, you can always swap out the hard drive by yourself.

What does this laptop have to offer? As a small introduction, the system specifications are as follows:

Processor: Your choice of Dual Core, Core 2 Duo, and Core i5 processors lets you decide how much processing power will fit your budget. 1.50 Ghz, 1.30 GHz, 2.13 Ghz, 2.26 GHz speeds and more are available.

RAM: Your choice of 2, 3 and 4 gigabyte options for stock RAM inclusion. PC2-5300 DDR2 SDRAM 667MHz RAM type chips are used in these laptops.

Hard Drive: Your choice of 250 or 320 gigabyte hard disk storage capacity.

Display: Your choice between 13, 14, and 15 inch display models.

Battery Life: Up to 8 hours on some models. This is an exceptional improvement in the battery life of your average laptop. You can be sure that your experience with a Lenovo Think Pad Edge will be offer a long enough battery life to be competitive and cost effective.

Cost: Starting at around $600, prices go up to about $799. Not a bad price considering the exacting standards these computers live up to. The Lenovo series of computers has always been all about affordability and quality.

Purchasing these computers as a bulk business decision can do wonders for your bottom line. There is not a lot of overhead cost associated with these machines and you can’t beat their quality for the price.

These laptops come stock with the Windows 7 operating system and conform to today’s technology standards. Other editions of Windows are available to be loaded on request. Just because these laptops carry a small price tag doesn’t mean they are part of the bargain basement, actually the exact opposite is true. Lenovo found a way to mass produce a laptop design that gets results for a fraction of the price of their competitors. You can’t do better than that if you’re looking for an affordable computing solution that won’t leave you up the river without a paddle.

Some of the models even come with a built in fingerprint reader for secure access and storage of your files. If you aren’t the owner of the computer, the machine is virtually useless. This will cut down on theft and worry about insecure file storage. A 7 in 1 card reader is also an option. This allows you to access media through various input sources without having to worry about compatibility issues. 7 forms of media transfer is a healthy alternative to being without the option should you ever need it.

All in all, we love the Lenovo Think Pad Edge. It’s affordable, stylish, high performance and adequate enough in features to get the job done right. What more could you ask for, check out the Lenovo website today!

The Samsung N110 is an incredibly high performance netbook (not as powerful as a laptop, but has more power than most netbooks). It’s 1.6 Ghz Intel Atom processor is capable of running multiple programmes with ease, and it boots up and shuts down really quickly. The 10 inch display is bright and easy to see and colours appear nice and crisp. The trackpad is easy to use and the keyboard is superb for a netbook of this size, with well sized keys that are comfortable to type on and are perfectly responsive. The battery life is also impressive, and can cope with around 8 hours of regular use which is perfect for people that are on the go and don’t fancy taking a charger with them.

It’s very difficult to fault the Samsung N110 – it’s incredibly well designed, runs brilliantly and is extremely lightweight and easy to carry. If you’re in the market for a netbook, the Samsung is definitely one to consider.

The laptop has been built with gamers in mind too, even the W,A,S and D keys (sometimes used as second controls) are marked with little up, down, left and right arrows which is a nice touch, even if it isn’t groundbreaking. More usefully though, the machine comes with an ATI Radeon HD 4850  3D graphics card with a full 1GB of VRAM. In simple terms – it’s a very, very good graphics card that can make handling the latest games lightning quick and incredibly easy.

With all of that in mind, the obvious point to note is that it’s an incredibly hefty piece of kit, it’s not something you’re likely to take to the park if you fancy checking your emails. If you’re into gaming and are looking for a desktop replacement, MSI’s GT729 may be the one for you.

No idea how it’ll perform yet, although it comes with Windows 7 and has specs very similar too the current line of Asus Eee’s (namely a 1.6 Ghz Intel Atom processor, 1 GB of RAM and a 120GB hard-drive) so it should be fairly nippy.

Not content with just bringing out a nice looking netbook though, Nokia have used all of their telephony tomfoolery to make connecting to the Internet easier than ever by building in 3G and (interestingly) GPS, as well as the regular WiFi. Nokia’s Booklet also apparantly has an impressive 12 hour battery life.

We’re not sure how much this will cost though, or when it’s release date is – check out Nokia’s Booklet website for the full specs and details.

Like it’s little brother (the 13 inch HP Envy) the 15 inch has been designed with the Apple MacBook Pro in mind. It has a similar metal casing (although not unibody like the Macs), a large trackpad capable of multi-touch gestures and the same iconic black rubber keys. It even has the same black frame around the screen.

The 15 inch HP Envy is a brilliant laptop – with one major flaw. Like the 13 inch, the trackpad is notoriously difficult to use with ease, the machine struggles to recognise multi-touch gestures like pinching and zooming unless you do them just right which can be particularly frustrating. If you’re the kind of person that prefers to use a mouse with your laptop anyway then this may not bother you too much (although the lack of multi-touch gestures would be a waste) but for many this will be a glawing flaw on HPs behalf. And it’s a massive shame too, because the rest of the laptop is absolutely fantastic – easily rivalling the Apple MacBook Pro, and providing a hard-working and well designed laptop that runs Windows 7 instead of Mac OS X.

If you can get past the trackpad, the keys feel excellent and are a joy to use – just like the Macs. The screen is dazzlingly bright and crystal clear and colours just seem to pop out. The 15 inch Envy does have a slower processor though, a 1.6 Ghz Intel processor compared to Apple’s minimum of 2.53 Ghz for the 15 inch models. Despite this the Envy runs superbly, especially on a Windows 7 install, and allows you to have loads of programmes open without any noticeable slow-down until you start doing something very, very graphically intensive.

And it’s surprisingly light, too. Lighter even that the MacBook Pro equivalent – HP have decided to shy away from the unibody style of the MacBook Pro line which has allowed them to make lighter laptops. It doesn’t feel quite as sturdy as the Macs but it makes up for that with portability, it’s very easy to pick up and take with you comfortably even though it’s got a 15 inch screen.

It’s an excellent laptop that’s a bit on the pricey side. If you’re looking for a laptop with the style of Mac but are more comfortable with a Windows operating system, this could well be the machine for you – as long as you don’t mind spending some time getting used to it’s awkward trackpad.