Flybook micro-laptop reviewed
posted Nov 24th 2005 1:30PM
Not the first time we've seen it reviewed, but the New York Times' David Pogue got his hands on the very small and very stylish Flybook for a review, but found a few too many tradeoffs to justify the crazy $2,490 pricetag. What you get for the price is a full-featured Windows XP laptop that's about the size of a DVD case and weighs just 2.7 pounds. Crammed inside is a 40 or 80GB hard drive, 512MB RAM, a less-than-impressive 1GHz Transmeta Crusoe processor, and a battery that'll only give you 2 or 3 hours of running time. It also has built-in WiFi, Bluetooth and, of course, integrated cellular data. Not suprisingly, some of the biggest drawbacks are the keyboard and their take on the touchpoint, which of both seem to be awkward at best. Still, you know we want a fleet of 'em for our crew — well, that or a bunch of OQOs.
An interesting question related to the Flybook is: is it a Tablet PC given that it has tablet PC features yet does not have the Windows Tablet PC edition OS? Does it matter? If so, how? It has preinstalled parascript / EverNote. Olga
http://www.tabletology.com
I don't care what y'all say, those are cool.
I remember when I was the first person with a wireless network - now this DVD case sized thing has Wi-fi...
What's going on??
The laptop looks pretty cool indeed, but it just scares me to think that the screen could break off easily. For that preicetag, I'd choose another model that doesn't look this breakable..
I actually just got a Fujitsu Lifebook P7120 after shopping around for months for the perfect subnotebook. Tried a Sony TX for a while but it was just soooo fragile. Anyway - 11" widescreen, well constructed, and dual batteries means 11 hours of battery life. Combined with my EV-DO card it's a mobile dream!
since when is 30gb larger than either 40 or 80?
I've been a proud owner of Flybook ever since it became available here in Finland about a year ago. It's a nice piece of tech and the built in GPRS-modem just makes it perfect. No matter where you are, you'll never have to hassle with bluetooth or (god forbid) cables to get connected through your cellphone account. Now I'm just wishing for a UMTS-enabled model for faster connection.
Only problem with Flybook has been all those people who interrupt my working just to ask is that really a "real computer" :)
Wasn't the Crusoe Processor supposed to be a step forward in energy efficiency. 2 - 3 hours of running time; probably closer to 2 hours in the real world. Seems pretty pathetic for a 1ghz processor that was designed to provide max battery life. My question would be why would they use this processor when there are too many limitations with it to begin with?
Hey, these things are pretty old. Almost a year and change since they came out. Dialogue TW already had a press release for the new Flybooks that just came out. Why doesn't someone review those? I chose to go with the Fujitsu P1050 since there was an extended 3 year warranty on the LCD touchscreen and the newer Dothan processor. The new Dialogue Flybooks include the Intel Dothan processors which makes it very desirable.
I am currently shopping for a sub 12'' laptop to be my personal assistant day in and day out. If it cant run all day without a charge then why even make is so portable if you are just going to lug around a wall charger anyway.
I had one of those ayear ago, the display will NOT break off, this was the kewlest laptop, I ever had. Everyday I kick myself for not keeping it. I will have to get another one soon. The bottom line, it worked great, and was always an attention getter. Sweet product.
Another notebook that I would have considered, but I am happy with my Vaio x505, still thinner and lighter...just wished it had BT built in.
slim like small handbag..
I got my hands on a early stage production run of one of these at CES in January. It was easily the best, feature for feature and pound for pound laptop at the show. It was so cool in fact that one of the guys who I was walking the show floor with and brought to the Flybook booth bought both of the display models on the spot. I should probably mention that he paid for them with a corporate credit card of a large chip manufacturer, that's not AMD. That may possibly explain to move away from Transmeta in the future.
Anyone check out the Qtek 9000/HTC Universal/i-Mate Jasjar? They're all essentially the same product and are like a "light" version of this thing. Reportedly people are happy with them. I was going to try it, but am more in the market for a phone than a laptop replacement so it was a little too big. Cool nonetheless though.
This review is a many years too late. This flybook has been out forever, and the new and improved version is suppose to be out. Go to www.handtops.com and click on this http://www.handtops.com/show/news/98/4/FlyBook_V33i_and_V35i.html#last_post
The new flybook is no comparison to the old flybook. Hello, this is Q4 2005. Let's review current technology! Not something that was released zillions of years ago.