The G-Slate has a design that's largely agnostic in terms of how you hold it. For instance, it offers three speakers: two that run along the bottom edge (when the tablet is vertical), and one at the opposite edge, next to the small power button. This way, no matter how you hold the G-Slate, you're guaranteed to get stereo audio. The volume rocker sits at the right side (or top edge) of the tablet. Unfortunately, the speakers' volume is too low and woefully inadequate; even when I pumped them up to the max, I could hardly hear the tablet's audio with light ambient noise in the background.

The power/sleep button resides by the top corner; its small size sometimes led to my fingers missing it. Another point of confusion concerns the 3.5mm headphone jack and the AC power jack: Granted, the latter is smaller than the former, but on first glance they look similar, and it took me a few tries to remember that the power jack is the one closer to the corner.

On the left edge (or the bottom, in horizontal orientation) are a Micro-USB port and an HDMI-port, as well as the contacts for the optional T-Mobile dock accessory ($40).

The 2-megapixel front-facing camera sits in the top right corner (vertical orientation) or the top left corner (horizontal orientation); this position proved a little awkward, as it meant that I had to lean a bit to the left while holding the tablet, to ensure I was fully in frame.