Acer are looking to take a bite out of the iPad Mini and Google Nexus 7's tablet market share with their new Acer Iconia A1-810 tablet, leaking today to French site Rue du Commerce.

A 7.9-inch slate, its suggested price tag of around €199 (£169) puts it in the same sort of price bracket as Amazon's Kindle Fire HD and 16GB Nexus 7.

Running at 1024 x 768 resolution, it's looking particularly nifty thanks to the inclusion of a 1.2GHz quad-core processor - not often seen at that price. 1GB of RAM is also included, with 16GB of built-in storage. Android 4.2 Jelly Bean is the operating system in use, with a 5MP camera on the rear and 0.3MP camera on the front.

If it loses out anywhere, its in its size; it's significantly chunkier than the iPad Mini at 208.7 x 145.7 x 10.5 mm and 460g, compared to the Apple tablet's 200 x 134.7 x 7.2 mm and 308g measurements.

No official release date or pricing in yet, but we're hearing whispers of a June launch.

Name: Amazon Kindle Fire HD 8.9

Type: Android tablet

Specifications: Click here for full specs

Price: £229 for 16GB model, £259 for 32GB model, direct from Amazon. These models come with advertising lockscreens - those without cost an additional £10, pushing the prices to £239 and £269 respectively.

Better late than never seems to be Amazon's tablet motto; landing in the UK a fair few months after its US launch, we've now got the Amazon Kindle Fire HD 8.9, Amazon's biggest tablet device to date. Is this Amazon's iPad killer, or does its Amazon-centric content make such comparisons moot? Read our full review to find out.

Design and Hardware
Despite being priced low enough to be considered a "budget" tablet, there's nothing cheap about the Kindle Fire HD 8.9's construction. Measuring 239mm x 163mm x 9mm, and weighing 567g, it houses a gorgeous 8.9-inch HD display. Being slightly smaller than the Retina-packing iPad and Nexus 10 devices, it's slightly lighter, though those looking for Kindle tablet they can comfortable hold in one hand at length should turn their attentions to the 7-inch, 395g Kindle Fire HD.Keeping the standard slate-like design of pretty much every tablet, the HD 8.9 is essentially the Kindle Fire HD super-sized. It's back still has a dark grey, slightly rubberised, curved finish, making it easy to grip, with a solid black strip around the back housing the speaker grills. These speakers boast Dolby Digital Plus certification, and offer good clarity and superb stereo separation, keeping their definition even when turned up to their relatively loud max. Around the edge of the screen is a reasonably thick black bezel, and with the HD 8.9's focus on video and entertainment apps, that's a good thing, giving you something to hold without obscuring the onscreen action.And what a gorgeous screen it is. Running at a resolution of 1920x1200, it's packing a 254ppi. That's a little less than what's offered by the Retina iPad and considerably less than the Nexus 10, but in practice it's still fantastically sharp and detailed. As an IPS display, viewing angles are wide and colours are bold, while Amazon attempted to reduce glare over previous models too. Though its backlighting means it's not as comfortable as Amazon's own E Ink Kindle dedicated eReaders for long reading sessions, it's just as comfortable as rival tablets, and a joy to browse the web or watch video on.

In terms of ports and buttons, they're all housed around the edge of the tablet. They include a 3.5mm headphone jack, a microUSB charging port, a microHDMI port, a volume rocker and a standby button. Sitting flush in the chassis, it can be annoyingly difficult to find the volume and power buttons however.Under the hood there's a 1.5GHz Texas Instruments OMAP4470 dual-core chipset backed by 770MB of RAM. Though navigation of the tablet UI is swift and responsive, as the majority of in-app experiences, it's not quite as smooth as the latest iPad or quad-core Android slates. In isolation you wont notice the marginally slower load times, or the odd 3D gaming stutter, but against the competition the HD 8.9 is just a step behind the pack. However, given the tablet's focus is on books and videos, not creation tools or gaming, and given the relatively cheap price tag, its performance is fair and on the whole enjoyable.

16GB or 32GB versions of the tablet are available, and neither offer microSD storage expansion. This shouldn't be too much of concern however as the tablet focuses predominately on cloud-based content. Likewise, there's no 3G version of the tablet, let alone 4G, meaning you're going to have to be near a Wi-Fi connection to access the tablet's many online features.

Interface and Apps
The Kindle Fire HD 8.9 is an 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich tablet. Except it's not. Amazon have completely overhauled the stock Android interface to suit their needs, leading to an experience that's quite unique to their Kindle Fire line of tablets.

As such, the centre of the display is dominated by a large horizontally scrolling carousel of your most recently used apps, videos and books. It's handy if you only use the tablet for a handful of specific purposes, keeping the most frequently used items at the front, but can be a bit more troublesome if you're juggling a large content and app library. At the top of the screen is a search bar, which helps alleviate that problem slightly.Directly above the carousel is a smaller scrolling strip of categories, which give you access to the Amazon shop, a Games portal that tracks achievements as well as linking to the App Store, an Apps tab for Amazon's own closed app store, a Books tab for tomes bought from Amazon, a Music tab (also naturally tied to Amazon's MP3 store), a Videos tab which links in to the Amazon-owned LoveFilm streaming service, a Newsstand for magazines (again, sold by Amazon), a web browser tab, a cloud-based Photo's tab and a cloud-based Docs tab. Depending what is shown in the main carousel, you'll also find a smaller strip advertising similar items below that again.

As you can see, it's very much an Amazon experience, and one that's constantly encouraging you to spend money in the Amazon-owned stores. For the most part this is great; Amazon have access to millions of movies, books, songs, TV shows and audiobooks, and you'll rarely come across media that you can't grab in some form or other through the tablet.What's missing though is any form of customisation whatsoever and as wide an array of apps as is offered by the Google Play store. Amazon's own App Store has grown impressively, but its array of applications still pales in comparison to Google's. For instance, all the stock Android apps provided by Google, such as the superb Maps and Gmail apps are missing. Though many apps can be side-loaded onto the tablet, bypassing the store altogether, it's a clumsy process, and one that's potentially confusing for tech newbies.Some navigational controls are a little clunky too - though it's easy enough to swipe from the top of the screen to access settings, multitasking is a chore; to get to another app or piece of content, you have to tap the centre of the screen and hit the Home button that appears along the bottom each time, forcing you to regularly return to the carousel.

Content: Books and Video
Where the Kindle Fire HD 8.9 comes into its own then is with books and videos. The Kindle name has been synonymous with a great digital reading experience for many years now, and the Kindle Fire HD 8.9 is no different. There are over 1.5 million Kindle books that can be downloaded to the device, many of which are free and 800,000 that cost no more than £3.99. If you've bought an eBook from the Kindle Store before on another device, logging into your Amazon account on the HD 8.9 during the setup process will see all your book purchases loaded onto the tablet, ready to be downloaded from the cloud.

It's a comprehensive reading experience on the tablet. Not only do you have control over font options including size, style, colour, line and margin spacing, there are plenty of Kindle-specific features on offer too. For instance, as well as making your own notes and highlights, you can turn on the most popular highlighted passages from the Amazon community of readers. There's text-to-speech for those with poor eye-sight, while the Kindle's X-Ray feature is a fantastic unique feature of the company's eReaders, offering themes, character sheets and regularly used terms, pulling in information from Wikipedia.

It's a similar experience with movies. If you're a LoveFilm customer, logging into your Amazon account on the tablet will unlock streaming from the Amazon-owned video provider, set as the main Video hub on the device. A wide range of TV movie content is on offer (with LoveFilm's film catalogue particularly good), with scrolling, categorised lists of recommendations.Videos get the same X-Ray treatment as books do, with information on cast, crew and other trivia provided by IMDB and popping up over the paused video. It's a great way of tracking down a tidbit of information without having to jump out of the movie-viewing experience.

X-Ray features for both books and films aren't universal however, with many books and movies still lacking the feature. It's a list that's expanding all the time though, and is a worthy unique selling point of the Kindle tablets.

Going back to the actual viewing experience once more, the HD 8.9 is a real joy to watch video content on. That screen is sharp and vibrant, and the speakers really are miles ahead of what's on offer from similarly-sized tablets.You can of course also sideload your own content onto the device from a computer over USB; this works fine for videos (which are stored in the Personal Videos app) but is a little more difficult for books. The easiest way is to check out Amazon's "Sending Personal Documents to Kindle" FAQ, or by downloading a library management app like the excellent and free Calibre.

Amazon also offer 30-days free access to their premium Amazon Prime service with the tablet, which not only offers next-day shipping on physical items bought from the Amazon store, but also access to the Kindle Owner's Lending Library. This lets you borrow one book per month (with no due dates) from a list of 300,000. In terms of the quality of the books on offer, that's up to debate based on your taste (those with a love of Mills & Boon style stuff will be overjoyed, for instance) but anyone how regularly shops on Amazon will benefit from the next-day deliveries. Once the month is over, Amazon Prime membership costs £49 a year.

Camera

The Kindle Fire HD 8.9 packs in a 1.3MP front facing camera, and no rear camera. It's tucked into the horizontal landscape edge of the bezel, and is best used with the pre-loaded Skype video calling app, as it's not really up to much professional shooting.

If you're looking to get photos onto the tablet then, your best bet is to use the Photos tab on the homescreen, which offers to import any photos you've uploaded to Facebook. You've got no choice over which ones get uploaded though - it's an "all or nothing" approach.

Battery

Amazon quote battery life of 10 hours for the HD 8.9, which, based on a mixture of web browsing, video streaming, a little eBook reading and a fair few runs through JetPack Joyride, seems a fair estimate.

However, it's worth noting that the Kindle Fire HD 8.9 does not come with a wall charger, only a USB charging cable that you can hook up to a computer. It's incredibly slow to charge this way, and (if you're perhaps considering buying the tablet for someone who isn't all that tech-savvy) means it's going to require a computer to even charge up. Amazon offer a sold-separately "PowerFast charger" for £12.99, and you'd do well to budget that into the overall cost of the tablet unless you plan on twiddling your thumbs whilst the tablet charges over USB.

Verdict:

The Kindle Fire HD 8.9 is a great tablet, every bit as good as its Kindle Fire predecessors, and at a bargain price. It is however a unique tablet experience that's keenly focussed on the Amazon ecosystem, specialising in books and videos, something that must be taken into consideration before picking it up. If they're all the functions you want a tablet mostly for anyway, than the Kindle Fire HD 8.9 is a steal. If you want a little more control over the way your tablet works however, maybe look at the more open Android alternatives on the market, and if you're after a well-stocked app store, check out any Android tablet complete with the Google Play Store or one of Apple's iPads.

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Top 20 Best Free Kindle Fire HD Apps - Temple Run 2, Pinterest and more!

Logitech are boosting the touch-typing capabilities of the iPad and iPad Mini with two new cases today, the Keyboard Folio and Keyboard Folio Mini.

While the larger iPad Keyboard Folio has room for a little added protection, both cases offer full-size keys, which should be far more comfortable for touch-typists over the iPad's software keyboard.

Housed in a book-like format, each also acts as a stand for the tablets, and offer the same smart magnetic waking and sleeping capabilities as Apple's own Smart Cover."Our goal with the new Logitech Keyboard Folio was to take the award-winning typing experience from the Logitech Ultrathin Keyboard Cover and add an extra layer of protection," said Mike Culver, vice president of brand development for tablet accessories at Logitech.

"To take the design a step farther, we combined Logitech's expertise and experience in keyboards with high-quality materials to bring a sense of sophistication to the functional protection people want and need for their tablets."

Hitting stores first is the Keyboard Folio for iPad, launching in April for £89.99. The Keyboard Folio Mini for iPad Mini will follow in May, priced £69.99.

7-inch sizes are quickly becoming the dominant form factor for the tablet market. Cheaper and more portable, the likes of Google's Nexus 7 and Amazon's Kindle Fire HD have been able to corner the budget end of a market where Apple's iPads (Mini included) don't dare to tread. However, if you're looking to go truly portable, you're going to want a 3G mobile data connection too, something that neither the Nexus 7 nor Kindle Fire lines offer, and only the premium 3G iPad Mini (starting at a pricey £369) has.

The new disgo 8400G tablet then is compelling on two counts. An Android 4.1.3 7.9-inch tablet, it's both aggressively priced at £149.99 and packs in a 3G connection too."There has been a massive premium on 3G models in the tablet market, sometimes upwards of £100," said Luke Noonan, purchasing director at disgo whilst we went hands on with the forthcoming tablet.

"We're half the price of an iPad, but much, much more than half the experience."

Though budget priced, the tablet has plenty of features usually missing from the bargain-basement Chinese Android tablets that clutter this price bracket of the market. As well as the 3G connection, there's full access to the Google Play Store and the full raft of Google services apps pre-installed, including Maps, Gmail and more.Further setting it apart is the inclusion of a Qualcomm Snapgradgon S4 processor, dual-core running at 1.2GHz with an Adreno 203 2D/3D graphics core. It's not a lightning fast quad-core chipset that top-tier tablets now ship with, but it's no slouch either. Though you may experience some lag when inputting text and a little judder with high-resolution videos, our short time with the tablet saw it play perfectly fine with web browsing and diving around the Android interface. If you're reading this on a first-generation iPad, it's a similar level of responsiveness.

Similarly, concessions are made with the 7.9-inch screen, but none that are deal-breakers. Running at 1024x768 resolution, its viewing angles are a little tight and its brightness levels average, but it's still offering reasonable performance given the price tag.The 3G connection also allows the tablet to be used as a telephone, with Android's stock dialler and contacts book included. Though some smirk at the idea of a 7-inch phone, the growing trend towards "phablet" devices of over 5-inches (not to mention wildcards like the ASUS FonePad) mean it's becoming increasingly acceptable to wield a giant telephone. Even conservative users could subtly hook the 8400G up to a Bluetooth headset.

Under the hood, you'll find 4GB of built-in storage (expandable via microSD cards), and a 4800mAh battery that disgo claim is good for 8 hours of average use (i.e a bit of web browsing, video playback and music listening over 3G and Wi-Fi.) GPS, A-GPS and Bluetooth 3.0 connectivity options are also included, with disgo pulling in some low power elements of Bluetooth 4.0 to tempt B2B buyers in the health sector. Two cameras are included too; a 0.3MP front unit and 2MP rear-facing snapper.Measuring 205 x 140 x 9mm, the disgo 8400g offers a durable build that's solid, if not all that sexy. A wide black bezel, finished with silver edging, sits around the screen, while a textured plastic composite backing adds some grip to the back of the device.There's certainly a gap in the market for a low-priced, reliable 3G Android tablet, and though the disgo 8400g wont set pulses racing, it could prove a sturdy bargain for those looking to test the tablet waters on a tight budget. Available from this month, you'll be able to pick the slate up from Currys and PC World, as well as select online retailers.

We'll be conducting a full review of the disgo 8400g in the coming weeks, so check back soon for a our full, final verdict.

We're pretty sure that Apple have a Retina display-packing iPad Mini 2 waiting in the wings in their Cupertino R&D labs, and now there's suggestion that Google may be lining up a high resolution tablet of their own.

According to new research by industry analysts DisplaySearch, Google are working on a HD revamp of their popular (and cheap!) Google Nexus 7 line. The seven-inch tablet would sport a resolution of 1920x1200, making it slightly higher resolution than a full HD 1080p slate.

If true, it'd be a screen to match the Retina Display said to be coming to the iPad Mini 2. Apple's Retina screen would be a 2048x1563 panel with a pixel density of 324 pixels per inch (ppi), replacing the current 1024x768 iPad Mini. Given the Nexus 7's smaller screen size, its rumoured HD screen would offer a sharpness of 323 ppi, putting it on a par with the iPad Mini.

If true, it'll certainly make choosing between the two new tablets a challenge. Filed in the rumour category for now, we'll be keeping a close eye on the smaller tablets in the coming months. We'll be sure to keepy ou posted with any new developments.

Dell's latest attempt to bring the worlds of mobile touch and desktop computing together have been on show at this year's SXSW festival.

The company have been showcasing their new XPS 18 All-in-one machine, an 18.4-inch Windows 8 computer with touchscreen smarts and a kickstand, letting it work as comfortably as an on-the-go tablet as it does a stationary desktop computer.

Well, as comfortable as an 18.4-inch machine ever is - it's hardly iPad Mini portable, but weighing less than five pounds at least it wouldn't give you a hernia trying to move it about.

Aside from the full HD resolution of the screen and the near-certain baked in flash storage, little is known about the XPS 18 All-in-One. We'll keep you posted with full specs, pricing and release info as we get it.

It's not the first time we've seen machines of this ilk however - last year we saw Sony's Vaio Tap 20 hit stores, while ASUS took a slightly different path with the docking 18.4 inch dual-booting Transformer AiO this year.

See that tablet above? That's the Amplify, built by the News Corporation-owned company of the same name, an educational unit of Rupert Murdoch's media empire.

A 10-inch Android tablet, it's been designed with public school classrooms in mind, aimed at both teachers and pupils, and will be launched officially at a SouthBySouthwest Education event today, the New York Times reports.

It's being headed up by Joel Klein, News Corp. executive vice president and former chancellor of New York City's public school system, who has a keen interest in bringing classrooms up to date with tech and gadgetry.

"We understand technology and we understand education," Klein told the Times. "A lot of people who understand technology don't understand education."

Two models will be available, a $299 Wi-Fi model and a 4G Amplify Tablet Plus model costing $349 aimed at kids working from home.

Each Amplify device also comes with a pre-loaded curriculum costing $99 for a two year subscription, mixing traditional teaching methods with tech-assisted learning. There's also new tablet-orientated discipline techniques built into the tablet, such as an alert that flashes an "eyes on the teacher" warning to distracted kids. It's not exactly the cane, but maybe kids will pay more attention to the scolds of an inanimate object than their tired teachers?

Only aimed at the US school system at present, some analysts have pointed out potential conflicts of interest in Klein's involvement.

"You can't at the same time go out and present yourself as a civic citizen talking about how public schools right now are horrible and then say, 'Oh, I have a product that is going to make it better,'" said Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers.

Even if this is a locked bespoke educational UI, with kids often far tech-savvier than their elders, we expect it to be just a matter of hours between kids getting their hands on these for the first time and then figuring out a way of getting Angry Birds on there. Now THERE's an incentive to get kids to go to school...

Microsoft wants to put it's Xbox 360 Kinect motion control system into laptops and tablets, hinting at the possibility of a Surface tablet with Kinect motion controls embedded.

It's the "dream" of Craig Mundie, senior advisor to Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, who told The Verge that Microsoft is looking into shrinking Kinect down in size and exploring ways to manufacture it more cheaply price so that it can be popped inside mobile devices such as the Surface tablet, Windows Phones and laptops.

"It's not gonna happen tomorrow," he said, "but we can see a path towards that sort of thing."

However, with tablets, laptops and smartphones designed primarily as portable devices, Microsoft are encountering difficulties in getting Kinect to work when outdoors.

"It turns out it's infrared so when you go out in the sunlight the sun is a big infrared source that drowns it out," Mundie explained.

"There's a whole bunch of problems, not just miniaturization, in designing the sensors so they actually do what you expect them to do in all of the environments."

Kinect is expected to feature heavily in the forthcoming Xbox 720 next-gen console from Microsoft. Rumours suggest the device will be smaller and thinner than the current Kinect unit, as well as being far more accurate and able to work effectively in smaller play spaces. There's also a strong chance that the Kinect 2 will come embedded within the console, and that it will be an "always-connected" requirement of play with the Xbox 720.

Microsoft's long-awaited Surface Pro tablet, seen by many as the company's first fully-fledged hardware device, will have its international availability expanded in the coming weeks, alongside its less-powerful Surface RT sibling.

Most importantly for Tech Digest readers, the Surface Pro tablet will be available in the UK in the coming weeks, moving beyond its US and Canadian launch territories, as well as being made available to new consumers in China, Australia, Germany, Hong Kong and New Zealand.

The Surface RT will also be made available to 15 more markets, including Japan, Mexico, Russia and New Zealand.

No specific release date information has been given yet, but reports suggest the wait will be just a matter of weeks, rather than the months stated by Microsoft's current promotional materials.

The Surface Pro, packing in a full-fat version of Microsoft's Windows 8 operating system, went on sale in the US and Canada back in February and quickly sold out over its opening weekend. Apple-style launch queues were reported outside stores selling the tablet, though its not yet certain if the quick sell outs were due to overwhelming demand of low numbers of stock to being with.

Following on from the confirmation of UK launch details for the Asus Padfone 2, Asus have revealed a new premium Padfone Infinity model at MWC 2013.

A seriously well-spec'd device, it's comprised again of a smartphone and docking station that doubles up as a big-screen tablet when connected to the phone module.

Looking closely first at the phone, it's a 5-inch device with a Retina-rivalling 441ppi Super IPS screen sitting within an aluminium unibody chassis. It's being powered by a 1.7GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon processor with 2GB of RAM, as well as featuring NFC tech and 64GB of internal storage.

On the rear sits a 13MP camera with "lagless" shutter speed and a low-light image sensor.

Moving onto the docking station, it's a 10.1-inch device that boasts a high resolution 1920x1200 display, a micro USB port and 1MP front-facing camera.

As a two-in-one device it wont come cheap, costing £875 (around $1325) when it launches in April.

Asus's mad phone/tablet hybrid, the Asus Padfone 2, has been confirmed for a 1 March UK release, with pre-orders opening at £599.

The second generation of the tablet-docking smartphone was first announced back in October, and will be the first Padfone device to hit UK stores.

The Padfone 2 is comprised of two parts, a 4.7 inch smartphone and a 10.1 inch tablet dock.

The smartphone portion has a 550 nit 720p screen with a quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro 1.5GHz processor and 2GB RAM. Android 4.1 Jelly Bean is the operating system in use, while the phone also houses 32GB of storage space and a 13MP rear camera.

The Padfone Station tablet dock turns the smartphone into a makeshift battery. Pop the smartphone in the slot on the Station's rear and it fires up a 10.1-inch 1280x800 screen, as well as offering a further 3x as much battery life. When docked together the pair weigh 649g - a little bit on the weighty side for a standalone tablet, but perfectly portable all the same.

Definitely one to check out if you don't fancy having to carry around two separate devices with you at all times.

Lenovo have gone tablet mad at MWC 2013, revealing not one, not two but three brand new Android slates. Two new 7-inch devices in the shape of the A3000 and A1000 have been added to their tablet line up, as well as the new S6000 10-inch model.

Kicking off with the larger S6000, it's a 10.1-inch tablet with a 1280 x 800 resolution 149ppi IPS display. It measures just 8.6mm thick and weighs 560g.

Under its hood sits a 1.2GHz quad-core processor, with optional HSPA+ connectivity for on-the-go browsing on offer too. Pitched as a "home entertainment" centre, it also has a HDMI-out port for hooking up to a TV, while its 8 hour battery life should see it through a good few Star Wars flicks if you're planning a marathon.

Both the A3000 and A1000 are 7-inch devices.

The A3000 has the same quad-core processor as the S6000, but drops the resolution of its 7-inch display down to 1024 x 600 (169ppi). It's an 11mm thick tablet, weighing 340g, and once again offers HSPA+ for on-the-go browsing, as well as storage expansion over microSD.

Finally there's the Lenovo A1000. It's packing in Dolby Digital Plus processing through its front-facing speakers, making it quite the portable media machine. It also houses a 1.2GHz dual-core processor, making it the weaker of the three tablets, and 16GB of onboard storage.

All three tablets use Android Jelly Bean, and offer Lenovo Mobile Access in select territories. No word on pricing or availability yet, but expect a Q2 2013 launch.

Following the failure of the HP TouchPad, HP are ditching their webOS operating system in favour of Android for their new HP Slate 7 tablet, revealed at this week's MWC 2013 conference.

A 7-inch tablet, its display runs at 1024x600 resolution, powered by a 1.6GHz dual-core Cortex A9 processor and backed by 1GB of RAM.

8GB of storage is built in, while you'll also find Beats Audio integration, a 3MP rear-facing camera and a VGA front camera.

Android Jelly Bean is the OS of choice, with all the usual Google services such as Now, Search and more baked in. It seems to be a pretty pure build of Android on show with little in the way of HP's own tweaks offered, other than a pre-installed HP ePrint app for connecting to the company's printers.

Launching in April in the US, perhaps its most powerful feature is its price. Expected to land at at just $169 (£112) in both red and grey shades, it could give cut-price Android tablets such as the Google Nexus 7 and Amazon Kindle Fire HD a run for their money.

Samsung have revealed the Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 tablet at Mobile World Congress 2013. An 8-inch tablet, its set to take on the Kindle Fire HD, Nexus 7 and iPad Mini.

Packing in a 1280 x 800 TFT display, matching the Note 10.1's resolution for a higher 189ppi, it's powered by a 1.6GHz A9 quad-core processor and 2GB of RAM. 32GB of internal storage is included, along with a 4,600mAh battery, squeezed into a 210.8 x 135.9mm chassis with a fairly chunky bezel.

Also under the hood sits a Wi-Fi connection, Bluetooth 4.0, HSPA+21, as well as a 5MP rear camera and 1.3MP front facing camera. Android 4.2.1 with Samsung's own TouchWiz will be the software onboard.

As with the rest of the Note line, Samsung have included an S Pen stylus, which can control the physical menu and back buttons on the device using Wacom technology, as well as opening up S Pen optimised applications once it's removed from its holster.A Wi-Fi and 3G model will also be available, and with the HSPA+21 features will allow you to make calls from the 8-inch device, brining us a step closer to a Trigger Happy future.

An IR blaster is also included for controlling TV and home cinema devices, alongside a preloaded TV listings app. Flipboard will also come pre-loaded, while the Note 8.0 will optimise eBooks to display them at a more eye-friendly resolution.

No word on pricing or availability yet, but we'll keep you posted.

Drawn to the iPad's Retina high-resolution display, but can't quite find enough pennies to nab one, nor want to give up on the trusty Android OS? Archos's new range of Platinum tablets may be just what you're looking for.

Available in three sizes, (8-inches for the Archos 80 Platinum, 9.7-inches for the Archos 97 Platinum HD and 11.6-inches for the Archos 116 Platinum) all the tablets, use high resolution IPS displays and are competitively priced.

The most impressive of the bunch is the Archos 97 Platinum HD, which packs in a Retina-rivalling 2048x1536 resolution display. At £249, it's 40% cheaper than Apple's slate. The Archos 80 on the other hand has a 1024x768 resolution display, with the oversized Archos 116 sounding pretty nifty thanks to its full HD 1920x1080 display.

The following features are shared across the entire range:

• High-Definition IPS display with capacitive multi-touch screen
• QUAD core CPU at 1.2 GHz with 8-core GPU, with 1080p video decoding
• 2 GB RAM
• Android 4.1 Jelly Bean
• Full access to 700,000 applications
• Archos Media Center applications
• Front and Back Cameras
• Mini-HDMI and Micro SD ports

In terms of release info, the £249 Archos 97 Platinum HD will be available from February, as will the £179 Archos 80 Platinum. The Archos 116 Platinum lands a little later in April for £299.

Archos tablets in our experience have been a little bit hit-or-miss - just check out our review of the Archos 101 XS Android tablet with Coverboard keyboard case. Here's hoping the Platinum range is a little bit more consistent in its quality.

Blimey, who can keep a secret these days? Not many tech companies, it seems. Just yesterday Nokia made a slip up at an event in Pakistan by inadvertently revealing what appeared to be a Nokia Lumia tablet, and now Samsung have made a similar mistake by putting a shot of what is believed to be the Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 out in the wild too.

Spotted over at SammyHub, they've spotted the Galaxy Note 8.0 hiding in plain sight at an event intended to showcase a new colour option for the Galaxy Note 10.1 LTE in South Korea.

The mystery tablet (shown in the pic above hiding behind that chef's crazy hat - why do they wear them anyway?) doesn't appear to be any Samsung device that exists publicly yet at any rate.

When placed next to the stylus shown alongside it, the tablet seems too small to be the Galaxy Note 10.1, while the back and home buttons just visible on the lower left hand of the devices screen rule it out from being the Galaxy Note II smartphone. However, it does share some similarities with the Galaxy Note 2, such as its Home button and rounded design. The inclusion of what looks to be a speaker ear piece towards the left edge also is a point of contention.

It also lines up nicely with a series of leaked images of the Galaxy Note 8.0 that have already been uncovered.

The shot throws up just as many questions as it answers. Is it a real new tablet? Is it a render or a device never set to exist? With reports suggesting the Galaxy Note 8.0 will be revealed at MWC 2013 this month, we likely won't have long until we find out.

They've done the whole 10-inch tablet thing with the Surface RT and the recently released Surface Pro, and it looks as though Microsoft are now ready to test the waters in the 7-inch slate market.

Speaking at a Q&A session during the Goldman Sachs Technology & Internet Conference, Microsoft CFO Peter Klein revealed that, with the software side of their tablet ecosystem now shipped and stable, they're ready to meet whatever hardware demands consumers make:

"We've done a lot of the hard work in the developer platform. We are well set up to respond to demand as we see it."

With the Surface RT and Surface Pro tablets sitting at the top end of the tablet market in terms of pricing, Microsoft are missing out on the blossoming market developing around the cheaper 7-inch slates, a market currently dominated by Amazon with the Kindle Fire line and Google with the Nexus 7. Profit margins here may be tighter, but strong sales in this competitive area suggests that, despite Steve Jobs' defence of the original iPad's size, perhaps the 7-inch size really is the sweetspot for tablet technology in consumers' eyes.

For now however, Microsoft's focus rests with the Surface Pro. A 10.6-inch device with full HD display, it's running Windows 8 Pro off a dual-core 1.7GHz Intel Core i5, backed by 4GB of RAM. Arguably the first true tablet/laptop hybrid, it should be up to many of the tasks you take for granted on both a laptop and tablet.

Toshiba haven't had much luck with their tablet devices so far. Their first attempt with the Android Honeycomb running ANT line proved as buggy as the name suggested it would be, and they've only had middling successes with each successive tablet they've put out since that 2011 first roll of the dice.

Today sees the unveiling of the REGZA AT501, the successor to the AT500. It's looking marginally better, but with such strong competition in the cheap-as-chips 7-inch category, populated by the Google Nexus 7 and Amazon Kindle Fire HD, can this 10.1-inch tablet stand a chance?

Running Android 4.1, it looks to be off to a good start thanks it its 1280x800 IPS display, running off a 1.3GHz Tegra 3 quad-core processor, backed by 1GB of RAM. It's roughly the same weight as a full size iPad at 625 grams, but a fair bit thicker at 10.5mm.

A battery good for 10 hours of continuous video playback is included, while a lowly 3MP camera sits on the rear. 32GB of storage is onboard, as is Bluetooth 3.0, Wi-Fi, microSD expansion and a USB 2.0 port.

The biggest hurdle then will probably be the price - at 40,000 YEN (roughly £272) it's a fair whack more expensive than the universally lauded Google Nexus 7, and not that far off older iPad generation prices. It looks like this could be an uphill battle for Toshiba, even if they've pulled together a more polished experience this time around.

It's gone through a bit of a redesign to get here, but the Wikipad gaming tablet finally has pricing and release date information confirmed. Costing $249 (£158), the tablet will launch in territories across the globe, including the UK and US, in the Spring.

Shaving a few inches off the original 10-inch design to come in at 7-inches upon release, the Wikipad features physical hardware buttons in its design (including two analogue sticks, a D-Pad and X, Y, B, A buttons) for those games that just don't feel quite right when played on a touchscreen.

Powered by a Nvidia Tegra 3 chipset and running Android Jelly Bean, the Wikipad's IPS screen runs at 1280x800 resolution, with 16GB of internal storage to keep your games on as well as support for microSD storage expansion. A 2MP front facing camera for video calling is also onboard.

Plenty of app game stores are available to the Wikipad too, with games from the PlayStation Mobile and Nvidia Tegra Zone on sale through the tablet alongside the Google Play Store.

For those looking for a more traditional tablet experience, the Wikipad has you covered there too. The controller shell for the device can be detached from the tablet, leaving you with a more conventional tablet design. Those hoping for the 10-inch version needn't give up on the WIkipad either, with the company expecting to release it around Christmas.

"Further to today's announcement I can confirm that Wikipad will be available in many territories outside of the US, including of course the UK," said Fraser Townley, President of Sales, Wikipad, Inc..

"We've had great feedback on the 7" version and everyone who's been hands-on with it can't wait. So as soon as we have street dates and prices we'll be the first to let everyone know".

Click here to visit the Wikipad webpage.

Amazon's Kindle Fire HD is one of the best value 7-inch tablets on the market. Kicking off at £159 for the 16GB version, it's got a vibrant 1280x800 resolution screen and a bag-sized form-factor that make it a great on-the-go travel tablet.

And some free ones at that! We've tracked down the 20 best free apps for Amazon's Kindle Fire HD tablet. From Temple Run 2 to TV catch up services, there's something here for everyone, even if your budget is simply the air that you breathe. Scroll down to see our picks!

(NOTE: Though an Android tablet, the Kindle Fire HD grabs its apps through Amazon's own Amazon AppStore. As they're not being bought through the Google Play Store, they'll only be tied to Amazon Kindle Fire devices unless you grab the Amazon Appstore app on another compatible Android device.)