Dell Latitude XT

The screen flip button is a familiar sight, but the Latitude XT responds impossibly quickly to every press. It's enough to make most other Tablet PCs feel positively sluggish in comparison.

And, although it lacks an integrated optical drive (just like HP's 2710p), Dell tackles that problem with an optional slim, light media docking base with built in DVD writer and an array of extra ports, though this is rather expensive at an extra £169.

In some areas the Dell Latitude XT comprehensively trounces the 2710p, however. Where HP's business tablet employed an active digitiser panel, and hence only responded to the prod of a stylus, the Latitude XT is the only Tablet PC to employ a capacitive screen courtesy of N-trig.

The benefits of the capacitive screen are manifold. The first is that it responds more eagerly than previous Tablet PCs based on resistive panels, and the second is the improved image quality.

Where resistive technologies impede the brightness and clarity of the displayed image, the Latitude XT's panel is impressively free from grain or any other visual aberrations. It stretches an ample 1,280 x 800 pixel resolution across its matte 12.1in diagonal and provides a bright, clean image. It's noticeably better than the grainy, if bright, panel found on HP's 2710p.

And whether you're using your finger or the supplied stylus - which docks neatly in the laptop's left hand edge - the Latitude XT proves impressively usable. Some on-screen elements can be a little too small to poke with absolute reliability, but it soon becomes second nature to navigate Windows by touch when the stylus doesn't come readily to hand. And when you do decide to take advantage of Vista's superb handwriting recognition, inking feels natural and incredibly responsive.

It's possible to manually disable the touchscreen function or the stylus, for those occasions when you only need one or the other. There's also a fantastically handy Auto option which disables the touchscreen when you're inking with the stylus or vice versa - it can be a little slow on the uptake at times, but if you've ever struggled to stop your palms interfering with the cursor while using a stylus, you'll think this is a stroke of genius.

And with Dell promising firmware and software updates to enable the screen's multitouch capabilities in the future, the Latitude XT can boast that it's the only laptop in existence that's ready for Windows 7's much-touted touch-friendly interface.

There are downsides to the clever Tablet technology though. The lid feels impressively rigid, but flexing it to and fro sets the cursor darting about erratically, selecting, maximising and dragging windows about as it goes. It's not something you'll do on purpose, but it's still a bizarre quirk.

And if you decide to lower your screen resolution from its native 1,280 x 800 pixels to a business projector friendly 1,024 x 768, for example, you can forget about using the touchscreen or stylus to flick through your PowerPoint slides. The panel is calibrated to ignore the native resolution, and changing it means it's incapable of accurately mapping physical input to the displayed image.

Our current A-lister, HP's 2710p, wasn't without its limitations, but it was still a fine example of a typically flawed breed; light, compact and beautifully finished. But, in the Latitude XT, Dell have taken what made the HP 2710p great, and made it even greater. The battery life is a disappointment, but we'd happily suffer the bulk of a secondary battery in exchange for the XT's super ergonomics and far superior touchscreen. The three years of next business day international travellers warranty may be a bit of a mouthful, but it's a welcome cherry on top.