A year has passed since the first tablet PCs from Acer, Fujitsu, Toshiba, HP, ViewSonic, Motion, and others hit the shelves. While we saw promise in those nascent systems, their slow performance and sometimes-quirky hardware left us feeling decidedly underwhelmed.

In the second half of 2003, many tablet makers refreshed their tablets or produced new ones. The trend continues at the Comdex trade show, where Toshiba, ViewSonic, Eurocom, and others have unveiled new tablets.

So far, the recent tablet harvest is much more inspiring than last year's crop. Most rely on Intel's Pentium M processor, which not only smokes the PIII-M and the Transmeta processors of the first tablets, it also extends the battery life. With their Intel 855 chipsets and Pro/Wireless 802.11b mini-PCI cards, many of the new tablets are also certified Centrinos. Thankfully, companies have reinforced their tablet-PC cases with stronger hinges and sturdier plastics, too.

Check out CNET's comprehensive coverage of this changing market. For more Comdex stories, check CNET News.com's coverage.

Read the First Takes: 
Eurocom T200C convertible tablet PC
Toshiba Portégé M200
ViewSonic Tablet PC V1250

Read the full reviews: 
Acer TravelMate C110
Fujitsu LifeBook T3000
HP Compaq Tablet PC TC1100
Motion Computing M1300
NEC Versa LitePad