Thursday, December 01, 2005
CNET: A tiny Windows laptop with a sense of fashion
CNET has a good review of the Flybook: touch convertible notebook. I love those colors!
Here are the specs from their website. I’d look for the Tablet PC os to be added to this device soon.
| Operating System | - MicrosoftR Windows® XP Home or Professional Edition |
| Wireless WAN | - Built-in GPRS - Frequency : Tri Band ( 900 / 1800 / 1900 MHz ) - Antenna : Built-in |
| Bluetooth | - Built-in Bluetooth Version 1.1 |
| Wireless LAN(WiFi) | - Built-in 802.11b Wireless LAN function - Antenna : Built-in |
| Processor | - Transmeta Crusoe TM-5800, clock rate:1GHz - 64K L1 Instruction Cache; 64K L1 Data Cache - 512K L2 Write-back Cache - Built-in NorthBridge to support DDR/SDR/PCI interface - LongRun Technology to extend Battery usage - Support full SMM(System Management Mode) |
| Chipset | - ALi 1535+ |
| Graphic Chipset | - ATi Radeon Mobolity high performance low power chipset - Built-in 16MB VRAM - Support VGA-out and Video-out - Support DirectX® 9.0 |
| Main Memory | - 512MB DDR |
| BIOS and Flash | - Phoenix FB BIOS/512KB |
| Display | - 8.9" wide-view 16:9 display - LTPS technology - 1024 x 600 (Wide-XGA) high resolutions - Highest color to 32-bit - Touch Panel overlaid for full screen touch control |
| External Display | - XGA (1024 x 768) (highest to 32-bit color) |
| External Video | - NTSC/PAL |
| PC Card Interface | - Support PCMCIA Cardbus Type-I/II |
| Hard Disk | - 2.5" Ultra DMA 66/100; 40 GB |
| Wired connection | - Built-in Modem (56K) (RJ-11) - Built-in LAN (10/100Mbps) (RJ-45) |
| LED | |
| I/O | - One mini-VGA - One Video-Out - Two USB 2.0 - Two 1394 Firewire - One LAN (RJ-45) - One PSTN(RJ-11) - One PCMCIA Type-II Slot - One pair of earphone/Mic - Built-in WiFi antenna - Shared Bluetooth antenna - Built-in WAN antenna - One external wireless WAN antenna connection socket |
| Audio | - AC 97; built-in two speakers (stereo) |
| Keyboard | - 80-key standard keyboard |
| Fast Keys | - Two sets of Mouse Emulation buttons - Direction/Confirm Knob (Trackpoint) - Hot Keys |
| Power | - Support ACPI for Power On/Off, STR, STD and power management. |
| Battery | - 3-cell Li-Ion rechargeable battery - Built-in very-low cut-off/Overcharge/Over-Temp/Over-Current protection; - Fastest charging time : 2 hours; - User swappable |
| Security | - BIOS/Power On/Hard Disk user name and password |
| Mechanical and Dimensions | - Clam shell and tablet convertible styles - Landscape/Portrait display - Dimensions:235 x 155 x 31 (mm) - Weight around 1230g |
| External Power | - 100~240V / 50-60 Hz |
From the CNET review:
A Taiwan company called Dialogue has placed a new dot along that curve with an intriguing micro laptop called the Flybook. It's a full-blown Windows XP computer, complete with touch screen and stylus, that's not much bigger than a DVD case (9.3 inches by 6.1 inches and 2.7 pounds).
The Flybook offers all the traditional utility of a Windows laptop, but its bright, touch-sensitive wide-screen display (1,024 by 600 pixels) does something that your laptop probably doesn't: It rotates and folds back against the keyboard, so you wind up with a tablet. It's great for scrawling notes, making sketches, checking off boxes in a database or tapping links on Web pages. (You can rotate the image 90 degrees, as the goofily translated manual puts it, "clockwise or anti-clockwise.")
That's not to say the Flybook runs Microsoft's Tablet PC operating system; it doesn't (yet, says the company). But it duplicates most of the functions of an official Microsoft Tablet PC, and in the case of the handwriting recognition--printing or script--far surpasses it.
