Dialogue Flybook A33iG-tri-b - TM5800 1 GHz - 8.9" TFT : Read reviews and compare prices at Ciao.co.uk

Author's product rating:

Speed	Fast
Look & Feel	Good
Comfort & Portability	Good
Robustness & Durability	Good
Value For Money	Good

Advantages:	small, bright screen, highly functional, tablet/touch screen
Disadvantages:	touchpad/nib gets dirty/stuck, no cdrom/dvdrw drive

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

Every so often something unusual but brilliant comes along, from a company you've never previously heard of, but you want to know more about. The Dialogue Flybook is a prime example, I fell in love with it from the beginning.

I bought my Flybook (in blue) about a year ago and have been very happy with it. To be honest, I was actually helping my friend buy a laptop, but saw this and had to get one for myself too.

It's small, it comes in many different colours, it's highly functional with lots of connectivity options such as wifi, bluetooth, and a gprs SIM slot so you can even make calls on it or surf the internet using your SIM! It also has 3G.

This is a light (1.2kg), ultraportable little device. It's got a small, bright tablet screen that also comes with a stylus so you can tap the screen instead of using the touchpad. The stylus itself is slightly more bulky or thicker, than you see on most PDAs but it's also very light because it's plastic. It's not the best really.

The touchpad is a small, felt like button that you can use to navigate, only problem is that it can get dirty or sometimes stuck so I normally use a mouse or my stylus.

It comes with 40GB and it's also quite fast - 1ghz - and I use the wifi regularly. The battery life is also quite good, lasting around 3 hours. It's not amazing but it gets me through. The screen is a good size.

The SIM slot is a very interesting function, you can make calls with it just like a mobile phone and if you have 3G, you can also have videoconferencing. You can send text messages or browse the internet using gprs too.

Sometimes the flybook does not recognise my SIM, but the same happens with my mobile phone which leads me to think that it's because of the SIM itself, it's quite old.

The Flybook has got a relatively good keyboard on it, but you can also just turn the screen round so it's in tablet mode and use handwriting recognition instead. The keys are slightly smaller than you're probably used to, but it's easy to type with after a few minutes. You can also pick it up and browse with it in your hands, but typing isn't really advised!

Being ultra portable, it does not come with an internal cd rom/dvdrw drive which is to it's advantage and disadvantage. Bearing in mind you can always use an external drive, it doesnt really bother me and I don't really miss it, but for some it could be a major downside.

It's never let me down and although at the time it was pricey - around £1,500 to be more precise - I don't regret buying it.

10 out of 12

Laura