Don’t fancy the iSlate? Have a look at the other tablets: Vega, Courier, SABRE, and more

As always, it seems Apple’s new product is announcing itself - all we need now is for the dudes at Cupertino to catch up and let us know which of the iSlate’s expected features we won’t be getting.

Currently there seems to be little demand for tablet computing. There was a brief flirtation with it a couple of years ago, but the high costs, flaky OS handling and limited usability really didn’t justify buying a touchscreen over a laptop or netbook.

The tablet looks set to return to the world of portable computing with a vengeance, however, and not just because Apple is on the case.

A host of touchscreen devices have reared their heads in the wake of the iSlate’s imminent arrival, so we thought we’d take a look at the tablet alternatives in case the large form iPod touch doesn’t float your boat.

This is the big one. Microsoft ‘leaked’ videos and concept renders of its forthcoming entry into the tablet market, which isn’t really being touted as a tablet at all. The Vole (in league with HP, it now seems) has instead coined the term “booklet”, since the Courier is essentially two 10 inch tablets joined in the middle.

The potential here is massive. Not only has it been seen running a proprietary operating system based on a unique (and beautiful looking) “pen and paper” interface, but the dual screen could easily allow the Courier to be turn around and used as an ordinary laptop, with one screen serving as the display and the other as a virtual keyboard.

It might not feature the gaming angle that Apple is probably gunning for, but in terms of portable computing the Courier looks to be the Agent Smith to Apple’s Neo.

Ever since the Android platform first appeared it’s been clear that this is an operating system that really needn’t be limited to smartphones. Indeed, for quite a while it looked as though Android could be better suited inside a set top box, TV, or laptop.

The Vega from Innovative Converged Devices looks to find a halfway point in this touchscreen tablet. It’s not exactly feature rich, but its purpose seems to be more for the casual market than the silicon-hungry technophiles.

Geared up very much for a bit of music, video, basic gaming and web browsing, the Vega would be the perfect connected device for the kitchen counter or bedside table.

It’ll have enough connectivity to make it simple to use at home, with wi-fi, Bluetooth, and optional 3G, and with a Tegra chip in its brainpan it’ll cope with most everything a laptop can offer.

And with a forward facing camera there’s even the option for easy, VoIP video calling. It certainly won’t be an iSlate killer, but with the right price tag the Vega is the idea next generation kitchen TV.

While this isn’t exactly a production model, what Freescape has attempted to do is capitalise on the tablet train that’s about to pull into the station and provide a cheap and easy ticket for any hardware vendors who want to jump onboard.

This is the first model in the SABRE line (Smart Application Blueprint for Rapid Engineering), which will offer OEMs the opportunity to customise a core tablet concept and get it on the market quicksmart. And the core design isn’t half bad.

It comes from a round of research conducted by the Savannah College of Art and Design's industrial-design program into what end users would want from a tablet. Naturally, cost was at the top of the list, and there are loud rumours to be heard about the SABRE coming in at under $200. At that kind of money it’d be madness not to buy one.

Its core features will include a three axis accelerometer, persistent connectivity (wi-fi, Bluetooth, 3G), external optional keyboard, Android or Linux OS, 10 hour battery life and a choice of colours. It won’t outperform Apple or Microsoft, except where it counts - in the price.

As you undoubtedly know, HTC is the manufacturer behind Google’s Nexus One smartphone, and rumours are filtering through that the Taiwanese company has drifted away from its research into netbooks and is now looking toward a range of tablets instead.

These rumours are pretty solid, too. HTC now has some experience with the 1GHz Snapdragon power processor that’s perfectly suited to tablets, as it also powers the Nexus One. Adobe is also apparently involved, and with the possibility of a Chrome OS version as well as an Android operating system running this HTC tablet, it’s not unlikely that Google will be involved once again.

Indeed, what these rumours point to is just what Apple is expected to do with the iSlate - a large form factor version of the smartphone. Strap a larger touchscreen to the guts of a Nexus One, and the Nexus Two could turn out to be a very useable Google tablet. (By the way, that's a concept image below. Just a guess, like.)

Despite churning out desktops by the millions, Dell has struggled to get in on the smartphone game. It’s apparently got a small tablet in the works, tentatively called the Dell Streak (no worse than the iSlate, I suppose), which will also make use of Android, though it’s likely to be quite small in the touchscreen stakes.

This 5 inch display is expected to be announced shortly, though at that kind of size it’s probably going to be more of a web surfing device than good portable computing, and knowing Dell it’ll probably go neck and neck with Mac Books on price.

But its specs are still decent, and comparable to the Nexus One, with wi-fi, 3G, an SD card slot and a 5 mega pixel camera - at least, that’s assuming this video is real (it looks real).

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But a small display isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Even a small tablet has a much larger screen than a smartphone, such as the Archos 5 Internet Tablet, which has grown a dedicated following since its release.

The feature list was decent when it launched, but it’s aged quickly since the iPod touch came along. Android 1.5 is running the show, but there’s no access to the Marketplace and the majority of the software catalogue the Google app store brings, and that’s probably the major downer with this small tablet.

It’s unlikely to weather the coming tablet storm (in its current incarnation, anyway) but its media playback is excellent and you could waste money in far less imaginative ways.

This one’s included more for its novelty value. What’s going on with the Modbook is the company takes an ordinary Mac Book and retro fits its guts into this touchscreen tablet.

The result is some pretty damn decent hardware and very impressive engineering, but the cost, weight, battery life and size make it a bit on the impractical side. Fascinating wee beastie, though.