As expected, CES 2011 has ushered in the Year of the Tablet—over 75 tablets have been introduced or showcased in Las Vegas this year. Which tablets actually matter? Are any good enough to take on the iPad? Is Android 3.0—Honeycomb—really a game-changer? Let's take a look.

The Motorola Xoom definitely grabbed the most headlines—it's the first Android 3.0 (Honeycomb) tablet, which gives it an immediate advantage over all other Android tablets at the show. True, Toshiba's announced Toshiba Tablet will eventually run Honeycomb, but it wasn't running Honeycomb at the show and it became clear early on that Motorola was the only tablet manufacturer to receive Google's full support, much like Samsung did last year with the Android 2.2 Galaxy Tab.

Speaking of Samsung, the Galaxy tab has lost a bit of its luster in light of the Xoom announcement, but it's still a completely serviceable tablet. The obvious problem is: it's not running Honeycomb. The less obvious problem is: it may never run Honeycomb. Because of processor requirements and also Google's mysterious support game, it appears many Android 2.2 tablets will not be able to upgrade to Android 3.0. That's not bad news for every tablet manufacturer out there, however—just ask RIM.

RIM's BlackBerry PlayBook, which runs its own BlackBerry Tablet OS, had been announced prior to CES 2011, but rarely shown off. PCMag had one-on-one time with both the PlayBook and a hands-on with the Motorola Xoom, and the early winner might surprise you. While the Xoom looks promising, it was only running an animated demo at the show. Combine that with the fact that it will be released as a 3G tablet (through Verizon) and eventually get upgraded to 4G, and, well, the PlayBook starts to look pretty impressive.

First off, the PlayBook wasn't running animated demo videos—it was fully functioning. The screen's responsiveness is every bit as good as the iPad, and the user interface seems quite intuitive and fast. Secondly, the PlayBook will be a 4G device (from Sprint) at launch. For full specs on the PlayBook, head here.

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So, the CES tablet craze can be summed up this way:

• There may be 75 or more tablets at CES 2011, but most of them are quite similar and not running operating systems intended for tablets—meaning they are almost exclusively running Android 2.2.

• The Motorola Xoom is promising, but with no true demos available to the press, it doesn't feel like a fully fleshed-out device yet.

• RIM's BlackBerry PlayBook is the real deal: a beautiful, working 4G tablet—and the best bet to contend with Apple's iPad in 2011.

Apple has probably been viewing Google's Android OS as the prime enemy for the past year now—but it looks like RIM just changed the game. BlackBerry devotees will likely drool over the PlayBook.