Your QL review was misleading in several respects - your machine must be faulty.

I have owned my 'AH' version machine for ten weeks, during which time both Microdrives have been 100 per cent reliable even after hours of the machine being turned on, which is more than I can say for floppy disks and cassette units I have used.

You say that they are slow in operation, which is admittedly true in the case of Quill, but don't mention that new, faster versions of the software are due out iin October. You also conveniently fail to mention that, because QDOS multi-tasks while DELETing or SAVing (with auto-verify) these operations are practically instantaneous and hence faster than any floppy disk will ever be. And what about the type-ahead buffer?

The picture quality on both my Ferguson TV and Microvietc 1451 Cub monitor is beyond reproach - so which sets were you using?

The Psion software is more user friendly and flexible than any of the so-called industry standards which I have used - nearly all such programs carry a "Warning - this program may crash" message somewhere in the documentation if not in so few words: why give Psion such a hard time when, for the price of dBase II, you can buy a QL and four excellent programs, one of which is superior in many ways to dBase II?

You revel in pointing out obscure bugs in SuperBasic, but fail to point out the fast and extensive graphics commands and the fact that you can have 255 colours on screen at once using stipples.

I could go on - I could in fact rewrite your "definite" review in a completely different light without any exaggeration. It was not to the normal high standards of unbiased and informed opinion which I have come to expect.

John Lawlor
Inverurie, Scotland

We stand by our review. Even though a number of people my think the Sinclair QL is the best thing since sliced bread there are quite a lot more who are definitely disappointed with its performance. In the PCN office we do have a number of machines passing through our hands each week - and even though the QL does have a few nice points about it, the micro certainly falls way short of the standards set by other machines. We would also take issue with the 'corrections' in these two letters: we stand by our review.

We have seen several QLs at PCN: none of them performed 100 per cent. - Ed