RANKED: The 4 best tablets to replace your laptop

It's a weird time in PC history.

Laptop and desktop sales have $4 since their last peak in 2011, while people do more and more of their daily computing on their tablets and smartphones. That's led gadget makers to chase the dream of a laptop-replacement tablet: a machine with all the flexible, adaptive perks of a tablet, but the functionality necessary to be your personal computer.

The problem is, designers still deeply disagree about what such a device should look like, and their resulting products scarcely resemble one another. That can make it hard to choose between them on specs alone. We took a look at the four most serious tablet contenders to boot your laptop out of your bag.

Here's what I found.