Tablet computers, which used to be expensive heavy slabs, have slimmed down lately in size and price. Averatec's new C3500 tablet computer, which converts from a tablet to a standard laptop with a twist of the screen that reveals a keyboard underneath, weighs five and a half pounds and costs $1,350, making it one of the less expensive tablets available.

The C3500 is less than 2 inches thick and comes with Microsoft's Windows XP Tablet PC operating system. The C3500 includes a full-size keyboard, runs on a Mobile AMD Athlon XP-M 2200+ processor, and comes with a 60-gigabyte hard drive, 512 megabytes of memory, a 12.1-inch color screen and a combination DVD-ROM/CD-RW disc drive. It can be found at major electronics stores and at www.averatec.com.