The X200 Tablet offers easy access to the hard drive and system memory through two access panels. The large panel on the bottom of the X200 exposes the two RAM slots, while the thinner access panel on the HP Pavilion DV1600 Battery edge lets you slide out the hard drive.

The new Eee PC 1101HA Seashell uses a reasonably impressive 11-inch LED-backlit display panel with a 1366x768 native resolution. The glossy screen in the 1101HA offers good color and contrast, though images looked a bit washed out at default settings. Glare and reflections indoors under strong lights or outdoors under direct sunlight can be a problem because of the glossy surface, but the LED backlighting is usually strong enough to overpower any reflections on the screen.

The 18.4" panel on the Satellite P505 has a resolution of 1680x945, which seems lacking for something this large. Most high-end multimedia notebooks of this size usually offer a 1080P display, which takes more advantage of the greater surface area. That said, the panel still looks very nice for viewing games, images, or HD video. Colors appear bright and vibrant, thanks in part to the glossy surface. Depending on the viewing situations, reflections can play a huge role in what you are viewing on the display at any given time. While using this notebook at my kitchen table in front of a window, all I saw was the bright sunlight and slates to the shade reflecting off the screen.

The screen offered on the UL30-series is a 13.3" LED-backlit 16:9 WXGA panel. The display rates slightly above average, with good color saturation and contrast thanks to the glossy surface. Black level s are good with no HP Pavilion DV1500 Battery apparent backlight bleed at high brightness levels. The area that doesn't really shine with this panel are the viewing angles.

Vertical viewing angles show a good amount of distortion with as little as 10-15 degrees movement forward or back. Horizontal viewing angles are better, but still show signs of mild color inversion past 45 degrees. Backlight brightness levels were very good, even at the 70% level we like to use for battery tests. I usually had the screen set at 70% in the office and 40-50% at home with less overhead lighting.

The touch surface is a unique feature for a notebook. On one hand you can directly manipulate objects without a mouse or touchpad, but on the other you have a fixed screen that can't rotate like a tablet. Another inherent flaw of multitouch is that since it uses your finger as the pointer, it will never be as precise or accurate as a pen-input touch surface. This means that the controls are crude at best, using gesture or tap-based commands.

One last design feature that deserves a mention is the M17x's screwless design – there are no visible screws on the M17x (other than the four holding in the name plate). That is quite a design feat and makes the HP Pavilion DV8200 Battery look even sleeker. While not everyone will like the looks, it is hard to deny the quality of the design and build. The M17x is one-of-a-kind and looks much more engaging than past Alienware machines.