The P7230 may only sport a 10.6inch screen, but it includes everything else you’d ever want in a notebook PC, and we do mean everything.

fThe P7230 is another in Fujitsu’s range of notebooks aimed at being “ultra portable” just like the Q2010 we reviewed a few months back, however unlike other brands and even the Q2010, Fujitsu didn’t strip out all the good stuff just to bring the weight down, this model actually has all the features you’d expect to find in a normal size, mid to high-range notebook.

Product description:
Elegance redefined. Simplicity reinvented. Created for one whose taste is never in question, the sleek lines of the LifeBook P7230 conceals a full range of features like the Fujitsu 3D Shock Sensor in a light form factor.

Features:

-Full-featured with integrated optical disk drive and built-in camera
-Excellent mobile computing in a compact and light form factor with long battery life
-Superior security features with RF-based fingerprint sensor and 3-axis shock sensor utility9
-Optimised VoIP communications using dual digital array built-in microphones
-Health and environment friendliness with RoHS6 compliance Operating System:

-Microsoft Windows Vista Business

The Fujitsu LifeBook V1010 is a budget-priced, mainstream, 15.4″ notebook aimed at the small business market. It is packed with a Core 2 Duo processor and Windows Vista Business, but how does it stack up? Read on for more details.

Our review unit came with a 1.6GHz T5200 Core 2 Duo processor, 2GB of DDR2 667 memory, a 120GB SATA hard drive, a dual-layer DVD burner, and a 15.4″ WXGA screen with a resolution of 1280 x 800 powered by the Intel GMA950.

The screen uses Fujitsu’s Crystal View technology which is similar to glossy displays on most newer notebook computers but without the glare. The keyboard on the V1010 performed excellent in our testing, and was very comfortable to type on, probably the best keyboard next to the Lenovo ThinkPads. The trackpad was small, but the buttons beneath it were larger than most. The keyboard is also spill-resistant just in case you spill that latte all over your desk.

On the left of the V1010 is the DVD drive, and on the right is an ExpressCard slot, a headphone and mic jack, two USB ports, a modem, and the AC power input. Turn it around and on the back is another USB port and an ethernet jack.

In our tests, the LifeBook V1010 received a PCMark Vantage score of 2055 PCMarks and received just about 2 hours of battery life. It’s not the fastest notebook in it’s class, but certainly does the job for office work. It does lack some features of similar laptops though, including a fingerprint reader and webcam for video conferencing. The option for a higher resolution screen would have been nice as well.

If you’re looking for a notebook computer solely for office work, the Fujitsu LifeBook V1010 is a perfect choice and starts at a low price of just $799.

Pros

• Budget-priced.
• Excellent keyboard.
• Good battery life.
• Keyboard is spill-resistant.

Cons

• No fingerprint reader or webcam.
• Limited to a resolution of 1280 x 800.

Final Verdict
3 out of 5 stars

The ideal notebook for road warriors who crave battery run time without skimping on specs, the S6311’s weight and size also makes it a good student or home notebook, albeit an expensive one given the lack of grunt for anything other than work and the odd DVD.

One of the best and worst things about being a product reviewer is the sheer bulk of kit that comes through our Labs across a multitude of categories. Unfortunately it also makes you free-info flypaper for friends and family. That said, whenever someone shopping for a notebook asks for advice, they tend to lean towards Sony, Toshiba or Dell. Despite their quality, Fujitsu doesn’t normally get a look in. Their new LifeBook S series may quickly be on the way to changing that with its combination of security, battery life, performance and looks.

Design
The ultra-portable market is exploding at the moment, and Fujitsu’s offering in the S6311 is an impressive one. The build quality of the chassis is spot on, and where other notebooks in this size bracket tend to have LCD screens that contort with minimal effort, the Fujitsu holds strong, even taking knocks to the rear of the panel in its stride. Fujitsu is pitching this model at SMB (Small to Medium Businesses), consumers and mobile executives.

Regardless of which segment you fit into, there’s something in this model for you, with the hot swappable bays accommodating either a multi-format optical drive, weight saver to take the strain off your shoulder, or an additional battery for extended time between power point visits. Fujitsu quotes up to 10.2 hours of continuous battery run time using a second battery in place of the optical drive, enough juice for a full work day without having to plug in and wait around to get mobile again.

Features
For what is a predominantly business oriented machine the S6311 has the feature side well and truly sewn up at a very reasonable price. The first thing you’ll notice is the 13.3 inch SuperFine XGA (1024×768) resolution LCD which is driven by the Intel GMA 950 graphics. Certainly not the bastion of graphics power that Intel claims every refresh, but enough to drive the display and meet the Windows Vista business spec requirements. The notebook ships with Windows XP Professional (the operating system of choice for businesses holding back on a full Vista rollout and those users needing VPN support)

Weighing in around the 1.7 kg mark, you won’t get this mixed up with some of the desktop replacements posing as notebooks. In comparison, Sony’s new business ultra-portable the VAIO VGNG118GNB tops the scales at 1.15 kg, while their VAIO C series consumer notebooks are a heftier 2.3 kg in the same form-factor chassis.

Fujitsu bundles a 100GB, 5400rpm hard drive spanning two evenly-sized partitions. It’s unlikely business users will ever fill such a large drive given their propensity for offsite centralised network archiving, but on the off chance that it does happen, there’s always the included Super Multi optical drive allowing you to burn DVD-RAM, DVD-+R/RW discs and CDs.

Drive integrity, particularly for a business notebook, is a major concern, and Fujitsu addresses this with inclusion of a 3D hard drive shock sensor, meaning that in the event of a sudden fall the device is intelligent enough to park the drive’s heads to reduce the risk of data loss or drive failure. A software configuration tool allows you to set the gyro’s sensitivity depending on your usage and work environment.

Connectivity is certainly no afterthought on the S6311, sporting a tri-band 802.11a/b/g wireless module, Gigabit Ethernet wired networking and shipping to users with a docking station. The dock makes portability a snap, saving you the time needed to plug keyboards, mice and monitors in every time you move to, or away from your desk. In addition to giving you easy access to all the features on the chassis of the notebook, it also adds serial, parallel, PS/2 and DVI ports not found on the laptop. Kensington locks are supported and there’s space on both the notebook and docking base to plug in, although we weren’t able to test whether or not locking the base and then docking the laptop would secure both from theft or just the base.

Given that mobile business people are effectively zooming around with a copy (or in some cases the only copy) of their financial and sensitive company data, securing that information is paramount.

The S6311 features a biometric fingerprint scanner which allows you to securely log-on to the machine and if you wish, encrypt single files or entire folders from prying eyes. This is a particularly handy feature for businesses with limited resources that need to share a notebook across multiple users as each can secure their own files. The ability to register multiple fingers also means you can have several users and shared folders for when people leave the organisation. While no security is perfect, we did attempt to authenticate using an ink stamp copy of a registered fingerprint, only to be knocked back as it appeared to require the capacitance found in a living human finger. And no, before you think it, perish the thought of stealing someone’s notebook and taking one of their registered fingers as a souvenir to access their files.

The software bundle with this model includes a full year of Norton Antivirus protection as well as Acronis True Image 9, allowing you to make and restore an image of your system quickly if you’re travelling and things go pear-shaped.

Performance and battery life
The S6311’s combination of an Intel 1.83GHz T5600 CPU and a full gigabyte of DDR2 memory is slightly above average spec for a business focused machine such as this. Generally the trade off of using a full wattage part as opposed to an Ultra Low Voltage (ULV) processor is for the sake of battery life. Avid multi-taskers will love the performance it offers. This is certainly no gaming powerhouse, though the Intel GMA 950 graphics are enough to run the OS and perhaps the odd older game. Just don’t expect blazing frame rates in your favourite graphics intensive app. Users after more hybrid notebooks for casual gaming and business will want to look elsewhere, but be warned you do so at the compromise of battery performance.

We ran the machine through its paces in PCMark05, a benchmark that makes extensive use of open source and common applications such as virus scanners, spell checkers and the odd geometry calculation to gauge real world performance. At 3323 marks it doesn’t represent the upper echelons of the notebook market in terms of performance, but it certainly isn’t hugging the bottom rungs of the performance ladder either.

We ran Battery Eater Pro’s classic test, stressing the CPU, graphics and I/O in one go and the unit crumbled at the 84 minute mark. Not a fantastic result, but the strength of this notebook lies in its mobility, not its raw power.

Next we gave it a lighter reader test with the machine at full power; it achieved a much more impressive 293 minutes before giving up the ghost.

Lastly we dipped the power options, dimmed the screen to the lowest brightness setting (although it’s still readable) and left it to run. This time it managed a solid 396 mins, enough for you to only require a quick top up in the arvo at a power point. While it’s still behind the 11.5 hours (best case scenario) Sony quotes on their new VAIO G series machine, it’s still ample for a machine of this calibre, and if you’re really power hungry, you can always dump the optical drive for a second battery.

Support
Fujitsu includes a two year warranty on this model, the first year of which is covered by an international warranty, and the second a pickup and return courier service. An addition year (for a total of three) is available for a further AU$209. It’s not an unreasonable ask given the relatively low purchase price of the hardware, especially with rough execs and sales teams lugging them around all day every day.

The ideal notebook for road warriors who crave battery run time without skimping on spec. Its weight and size also makes it a good student or home notebook, albeit an expensive one given it lacks the grunt for anything other than work and the odd DVD.

Serious battery misers may still find love in Sony’s new G series product with its similar specs, although for the asking price you could buy yourself an S6311 and a couple of extra batteries.

Fujitsu LifeBook S6311
Company: Fujitsu PC
RRP: AU$2499

Fujitsu has expanded its desktop replacement notebook PC lineup with the Intel “Santa Rosa” platform-based 17-inch LifeBook N6460, which provides Core 2 Duo processor, ATI Radeon HD 2600 graphics, HDMI port, and high definition optical drives option.

According to laptop’s specifications, Fujitsu LifeBook N6460 is based on Intel PM965 chipset, paired with Core 2 Duo T7300, T7100 or T5250 CPU, depending on model. Its ATI Mobility Radeon HD 2600 video card with 256MB of dedicated graphics memory is DirectX 10 compatible and empowers the 17″ widescreen display with resolution of 1440-by-900 pixels. The notebook supports up to 4GB of DDR2 system memory and comes with up to 500GB of storage space by combining two 250GB internal hard drives at 4200rpm rotational speed.

Along with a standard dual layer DVD burner, Fujitsu LifeBook N6460 is also offered with a dual layer Blu-Ray writer. In addition, product specifications page list HD DVD option, but currently there are only models with DVD and Blu Ray drives available.

This entertainment mobile PC has two internal stereo speakers and a built-in subwoofer.

Regarding communications and networking, the N6460 features Intel Wireless WiFi Link 4965AGN module supporting 802.11 a/b/g and draft n standards or Intel PRO/Wireless 3945ABG for 802.11a/b/g connectivity. This notebook also has a Gigabit Ethernet and a 56k modem.

Besides HDMI output for connection with high definition TVs and monitors, Fujitsu LifeBook N6460 provides VGA and S-Video outputs, both ExpressCard and PCMCIA card slots, five USB ports, a Firewire port, and a four-in-one media card reader, and a fingerprint reader. Fujitsu offers an optional external ExpressCard TV tuner with N6460, but the laptop has no integrated web camera.

This system, which has a numeric pad along with a standard keyboard, weighs approximately 10.58lbs with TV tuner and dual hard drives or around 9.92lbs without TV tuner and with a single HDD. Its standard 6-cell battery provides up to one hour continuous work between charges, according to Fujtisu.

The LifeBook N6460 comes with Windows Vista operating system and is available now for a starting price of $1,499

Smaller and faster — that’s usually been the motto of computer manufacturers. And none have adhered to this creed better than Fujitsu. Their last few ultraportable notebooks have been both excellently designed and powerfully economical. The Fujitsu LifeBook S6410 is the company’s latest, and is compliant with the latest Intel Centrino standard. It sports several competitive features including an LED backlit screen, 1GB of Turbo Memory, and a removable drive bay.

Design
This notebook features the use of magnesium alloy and carbon fibre for a combination of strength and light weighted-ness. It’s not as thin as some ultraportables we’ve seen, but despite its relative chubbiness it still only weighs 1.66 kg.

The LCD is a 13.3-inch model and the LED backlighting makes this one of the brightest we’ve seen. In fact, as far as clarity and viewing angles are concerned it even outstrips Fujitsu’s own Q2010, which is almost AU$1,500 more. The only problem with LED backlighting is that you lose a lot of contrast — black comes out grey — and it’s not the best choice for multimedia applications.

Build quality was pretty solid — the first model we saw was pre-production and a little flimsy around the screen, but the production model seems to have remedied this.

The one misgiving we had about the Fujitsu is in the design of the battery chamber. Rather than simply push in like most batteries do, the Fujitsu’s battery sort of locks in place via a complex twist from the front to back — you can’t slide it in. The battery contacts on the pre-production model had been shredded by the time we received it, and despite assurances from Fujitsu, the battery design remains the same on the final model. But put the battery in correctly and there shouldn’t be an issue.

Features
Centrino Duo notebooks have been filtering into the market since mid-June, but the S6410 is still one of the first laptops we have seen to include Santa Rosa features. Ticking off the list you get: an Intel Core 2 Duo T7500 processor at 2.2GHz; a relatively skimpy 1GB of RAM (this is Vista after all — we would have liked 2GB); a roomy 120GB of hard drive space; Turbo Memory; and a draft-N wireless adaptor.

Being a Santa Rosa, it also features an Intel X3100 graphics adaptor, and it really takes the load off the other components while running Vista Business in Aero mode. Despite only having 1GB of RAM, there were no slowdowns or “chugging” while using the PC with all the eye-candy enabled. You wouldn’t want to use this PC for games though.

For ports, you get a front-mounted mic and headphone jack, a 1394 mini-jack, an S-Video out (via a dongle) and a wireless on/off switch. On the left-hand side you get a LAN port, VGA, PCMCIA (Fujitsu doesn’t believe there’s enough saturation for ExpressCard accessories to warrant its inclusion yet), and a card reader. On the right side you get three USB 2.0 ports, a modem and the removable drive bay. You can choose to install a weight saver or another hard drive in there if you wish — there is also a second six-cell battery available for this slot at an extra AU$299.

Performance
The Fujitsu is factory fitted with a six-cell battery, and it performed adequately in our battery test. Using the BatteryEater Pro 2.70 benchmark, we were able to clock the S6410 at a speed of 2 hours and 40 minutes. A little short when compared with a competitor such as the Acer TravelMate 6292 which was able to last an extra 40 minutes — and this is without Turbo Memory. The inclusion of Turbo Memory should help the Fujitsu here, because this is really a test of how long the laptop can last with the monitor on at full brightness. It’s not demanding on the CPU or memory, and should be caching from the Turbo Memory module. In this instance, it doesn’t appear to have made as much difference as Intel has suggested. The Acer is without the Turbo Memory upgrade.

On the performance side, it’s on a par with the Acer at 4156 marks in the PCMark 05 benchmark. This demonstrates that the two notebooks are very evenly matched, with the Acer achieving 4192 marks. PC Mark, while a synthetic test, is a good measure of how the laptop performs across disciplines such as start-up time, graphics performance, and CPU calculations.

In the end, the Fujitsu is a good laptop, with a brilliant screen, some useful battery-saving features and a decent appearance. Only its unusual battery chamber design holds us back from whole-heartedly recommending it.

Review Video:

Today the wraps come off Centrino Duo and Centrino Pro, formally codenamed Santa Rosa. This is Intel’s third major revamp of the Centrino brand and comes hot on the heals of Merom’s launch last year. This update is a little more than a socket change, and also represents the amalgamation of two of Intel’s key platforms, vPro for business and the new Centrino Duo branding for consumer notebooks.

Upside
The Fujitsu LifeBook E8410 is a part of the Centrino Pro family, and is aimed squarely at business users looking to get work done and stay on the move. Generally speaking business notebooks aren’t the most powerful machines, simply because they don’t need to be. CAD, engineering, HD video editing and multimedia content creation are all typically performed on expensive desk-bound workstations. Road warriors doing sales, execs jet-setting around the globe and people attending office meetings really just want something with enough grunt and battery life to get the job done.

The CPUs found in the new Santa Rosa products will boast a huge 4MB L2 cache, as well as a faster 800MHz Frontside Bus (FSB) to allow for faster information exchange with the system memory. This translates into better real-world performance, particularly when multitasking.

Keen to see how much extra grunt we could expect, we ran the LifeBook E8410 through our usual rigorous set of tests and were pleasantly surprised with the numbers it spat out. Please note our machine was a pre-production engineering sample, and as a result performance may vary slightly on retail units.

Our machine came packing a Core 2 Duo T7300 processor, clocking in at 2.0GHz, Intel’s new PRO/Wireless 4965AGN wireless module, their first to support the 802.11 draft N standard and offering throughputs of up to 300mbps (though actual performance is closer to 100mbps). Inside we also find the new Intel 82566MM Gigabit adaptor, including Active Management Technology (AMT) which hooks into the system to allow better remote management and patching of equipment by the IT department. Our sample included 1GB of DDR2 667MHz memory, although the final spec of the retail unit may include 2GB. Windows Vista Business was pre-installed and ran quite well on 1GB of memory, and while the experience and system responsiveness will only be further improved with more memory, there may be a battery performance hit involved in powering another DIMM.

The LifeBook managed a solid 4565 PCMark score, not the highest we’ve ever seen, but certainly above average for a business notebook. As a point of reference, Dell’s XPS M1710 gaming machine scored 5118 PCMarks. Although Santa Rosa has support for Intel’s new DirectX 10 compatible X3100 graphics part, Fujitsu has opted for NVIDIA’s 8400M G chipset. It’s not a stellar performer, but a four digit 3D score from a business notebook is encouraging — topping out at 1266 marks. Hardcore gamers certainly won’t be clambering all over each other to get at this, but it’s enough for a reasonable performance in current games during those boring interdepartmental meetings, but is best matched to running Vista’s Aero interface features.

The 15.4-inch display is bright and sharp, while the wide-screen aspect ratio makes it ideal for presentations and side-by-side spreadsheets.

Downside
Unfortunately this unit doesn’t have one of the features we’re most looking forward to trying out on Santa Rosa — the inclusion of Turbo Memory. This is a mini PCI connected piece of NAND flash memory (usually 512MB or 1GB) designed to reduce boot times, improve performance in commonly used apps and allows for a deeper hibernation when the machine is not in use.

Since battery life is one of the biggest factors for a business user looking to purchase a laptop, we had high hopes for the E8410. Intel claims this generation of Centrino will improve battery run time by around an hour. Our unit only managed to keep up the pace for two and a quarter hours on battery miser settings and doing an easy reader workload. Hopefully the final product will improve this, as currently it’s out performed by many consumer notebooks, even some with an entertainment focus.

It’s not our biggest criticism, but given its size we would have preferred a slightly larger keyboard since you’ll be using it all day long. The speakers (which on our model were mostly distortion and static) took up a considerable chunk of the surface of the notebook, forcing the keyboard to be scaled slightly. It’s reasonably comfortable to use, but seemed to be a little flimsy, and didn’t look like it would survive long under pressure from a keyboard masher typist.

Overall
While we’ll hold off on passing judgement on this model until we can have a play with a final production unit, we do have some concerns about its build quality and battery life. Square these away, list a price and this could be a compelling business notebook. The lack of Turbo Memory is a disappointment; especially in the business space where you may be powering down and resuming often — helping squeeze just a little more out of your work day between trips to the wall outlet.

Putting these issues aside, the new Centrino looks like much more than a point release, bringing the latest wireless speeds (even if they’re not ratified yet), more performance across the board and more flexible operation for mobile users.

Review Video: