The latest supercomputer is a laplet — but can it outsmart a tablet?

Laptops are having an identity crisis. Once upon a time (this is technology, so that means less than a month ago) those of us buying a new computer had to make a hard decision. Should we plump for the laptop, for the usefulness of the keyboard for work, or the tablet for its portability and superior web-browsing? Well, those days are over. Today, we are not struggling to choose between devices. Instead, the computers themselves can’t quite decide which they are — a laptop or tablet.

With the advent of Windows 8 (Microsoft’s new operating system that launched at the end of last month) and its pivotal addition of touch function, has come the laptop/tablet hybrid — or the laplet, as it has been dubbed.

They look like laptops, they’re similar in size and weight, but they’re into gymnastics. Some have screens that bend back on themselves, others that slide out of joint and can be flipped over or whose screens spin on an axis or in a frame.

Some simply have two screens or keyboards that can be snapped on and off as desired. But what each of those different acrobatics does is give you a laptop with a keyboard and a screen that can be flattened to give you a touch-screen tablet.

Every manufacturer has scrambled to produce one of these devices, because if anyone wants to upgrade to Windows 8 they will be stuck without the new hardware to support the touch function.

All fabulous, except that the laplet still doesn’t give you the lightweight convenience or the good looks of a tablet and some of the conversions are clunky (particularly those that slide) or feel like they wouldn’t stand up to years of regular use (those with an axis spin).

You could solve the dilemma by purchasing Microsoft’s Surface tablet. It isn’t winning any beauty pageants, but reviews are decent and you can buy a magnetic cover (the Type Cover) that snaps on and has depressible keys and a trackpad. The new question is whether the laplet gives you the best of both worlds or the excellence of neither.