Impressively, the Series 7 Slate's 5520mAh battery kept the tablet's i5 processor running for 5 hours, 35 minutes in the PCWorld Labs' battery tests. That's less than an hour worse than the battery life of the much weaker, Intel Atom-based Fujitsu Stylistic Q550.

The biggest drawback of the Series 7 Slate's raw power is the fan required to keep it cool. In my use, the fan kicked on at the slightest hint of activity and was loud enough to be distracting in a quiet room. At times, it was so loud that it sounded like a tiny airplane trying to take off.

The Easy Settings app provides some fan control, including an option called 'silent mode' to run the fan continuously at low speed. I highly recommend turning this setting on, since when the fan was running at full speed people in my office could hear it from several desks away.

The active fan pushes some pretty warm air out the exhaust vent at the top. That's fine when you hold the tablet in landscape mode, but if you're a lefty looking to hold it in portrait mode in your right hand while you write, or if you want to tuck it into the crook of your left arm and wrap your hand around to hold it, you'll find that it gets pretty toasty.

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