As I had the opportunity to play with a few devices, here is my take on some of them:

1. MacBook Air: extremely slim and sturdy, the performance is as great as any MacBook but it’s amazingly light. However, given the load of money it costs, I can’t say I recommend it.

2. Amazon Kindle: undoubtedly the best screen for reading. Although only a few formats are supported (Mobi, PRC, TXT, TPZ, AZW and PDF), EPUB books can be converted via Calibre software. Also allows bookmarks, “dog ears” on pages and various notes. Limited browser allows some internet access. Nice and quite worth the 140 EUR price tag.

3. Blackberry PlayBook: a tablet that looks nice. Backlit screen is terrible for reading in direct light, but in normal lighting conditions all is good. Virtual keyboard is surprisingly useful and the included Office application is nice. The RIM WebKit browser supports full Flash elements and with its gestures it is damn fun to navigate. Its music player is great! On the bad side (aside from the screen), the BlackBerry application store is empty compared to the others. Aside from the included stuff, nothing really productive awaits you.

4. Asus EEE Pad Transformer: its very reflective screen is a pain in above-average lighting. However, its Android system is quick and responsive and for the most part there is a good choice in software. A dock can turn it into a laptop, but navigation other than touch gestures is annoying. It is excellent for most activities and if someone ever makes an antireflective screen cover, it will make the 370 EUR price tag really worth it.

5. Apple iPad2: it has the most usable screen aside from the Kindle. However, aside from being expensive (and the heaviest of the bunch), the Apple App Store will eat into your pocket if you dare dream of more good apps than those provided. Since Apple hates Flash and most open codecs and containers (like MKV, XVID, etc), you don’t have much freedom on what to put on it that you haven’t paid hard cash for.