What we do know from the is that the Panerai will have both a "laptop mode" and a "tablet mode" and that there's an Intel Centrino 6230 wireless chipset a/b/g/n.

That's not a lot to go on, but while we wait for an official Dell announcement we can hope and dream that the Panerai will overcome the Duo's shortcomings (namely, a short battery life and sluggish performance from its underpowered Atom processor). One of those new Intel Core i5 or i7 processors would be nice--and perhaps not unreasonable, considering the presence of the Intel Centrino 6 series card, typically paired with Sandy Bridge processors.

Innovative tablet and laptop combo devices, like the Duo and the recently launched , may offer the best of both worlds--if they can deliver on both the touch experience and mobile computing power. The Panerai's 15-inch display size seems massive for a tablet, but roomy enough for traditional laptop work and entertainment.

One thing we can be sure of is that computer manufacturers are getting ever more inventive with tablet and laptop concepts.

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