Exclusive video: Flybook's revolutionary laptop design

By Clive Webster

Posted on 5 Apr 2007 at 14:33

Dialogue is a company best known for its ultraportables, such as the tiny Flybook V which makes other ultraportables look comparatively massive. And Dialogue is at the innovation game once more with its new ultraportable, the Flybook VM.

At first glance you'd be forgiven for thinking it was just a run-of-the-mill 1.7kg ultraportable, but take a look at the video and you'll be amazed. Grab the screen, pull upward and then pull it forward for easier viewing - not to mention a superbly comfortable typing position.

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Disappointingly, both battery life and application performance aren't great. Compared to the fours hours of light use from the A-Listed Dell Latitude D420 the the 2hrs 50mins from the Flybook VM isn't anything to get excited about. The Intel 1.06GHz Core Duo U2400 isn't a record-breaking performer either, scoring around 0.55 in our benchmarks despite the 1GB of RAM. Then there's the price - £1,446 excluding VAT.

But there's still plenty to like about the Flybook VM. There's HSDPA integrated into a the reassuringly solid chassis, while the modest processor is at least dual-core, so you can confidently run several applications simultaneously. And as a Centrino Duo notebook, there's also 802.11a/b/g WLAN.

For the full review of the Dialogue Flybook VM, see issue 152 of PC Pro, in UK shops from the 19th April, 2007.