| Article Index |
|---|
| Fujitsu LifeBook N6460 Notebook Review |
| 2 - Style and Design |
| 3 - Running Gear |
| 4 - AV Features |
| 5 - Connectivity, Battery Life, Extras |
| 6 - Conclusion |
| All Pages |
Style and Design:
The design and styling of the N6460 isn’t too fancy, it seems to be more function over form with this notebook, but it’s not something I would call ugly, I think ‘plain’ is a much better description. It’s comprised of a typical grey/black colour scheme that I think would fit in well next to a home theatre Hi-Fi setup and/or plasma screen.
The sheer size of the notebook thanks to its 17” screen allows the N6460 to have a keyboard with a full sized and separate number pad, unlike normal notebook keyboards which have the number pad covering half the normal keys and toggled via a function key – which gets really annoying when you leave num-lock on by accident and half your words end up with numbers in them.
Just above the keyboard is a control panel which houses the wireless switch and volume control, as well as a 4-way hotkey pad which operates in two different modes. In the first mode it has hotkeys for launching Internet and Email, as well as two other customisable programs - which is quite a typical arrangement on Fujitsu notebooks. The second mode changes the 4-way panel into multimedia control buttons for functions such as Play/Pause, Next, Back, Stop/Eject – these only seem to work within Windows Media Centre, they didn’t seem to work on just the standard Windows Media Player or third party DVD software.
The stereo speakers of the N6460 are located on an angled section at the very front of the notebook and as such they are not obscured at all when the screen/lid is fully closed, so whatever you’re listening to can keep playing unimpeded without needing the screen to remain open. Underneath the notebook, tucked away in a corner we find a third speaker, bigger than the other two and marketed by Fujitsu as a subwoofer. While it certainly does provide more bass than the other two speakers, it hardly has the response you would expect from even a poor quality sub, it’s just far too small to make any big difference. I tested a song with a known deep bass line, which usually isn’t audible at all in notebooks (or any system without a sub), and it still wasn’t audible in this one, the ‘subwoofer’ seems to be more of a gimmick than anything else.
On the right-hand edge of the notebook is an air port for the subwoofer located below, as well as the HD Audio ports (Headphones/Microphone). The headphone port also doubles as an optical SPDIF output providing you have the right cable. Only a single USB port is among this group of ports, and is the only USB port out of a total of 5 that is not located on the rear of the notebook. Considering the USB ports are likely to be the most used ports in the whole system, having a couple more within easy reach would have been nice. Also amongst this bunch of ports we find the Firewire400 port, card reader and two expansion slots, one for the older PCMCIA/Cardbus type cards, and one for the newer, faster ExpressCard expansion cards.
Jumping across to the other side of the notebook we find all the input ports for the in-built TV tuner, which include RCA and S-Video inputs for cable TV or capturing from older camcorders/VCRs, as well as an Aerial socket for free-to-air digital TV, we’ll get into more detail about this TV tuner later on.
The remainder of the ports are located on the rear of the notebook, and along with the usual LAN, Modem and USB ports, and the normal VGA output we also find a HDMI output, great for connecting to HD capable (and HDMI certified of course) LCD or Plasma screens. Also on the rear of the notebook we find the cooling/exhaust outlets, one main vent for the CPU and a small, thin one for the Video Card (located under the HDMI Port). The outlet for the CPU cooler generates some serious heat when this thing is in action, so much so that it even comes with a warning label, something I haven’t seen on a notebook before. We measured the heat coming out of the CPU cooling port at 60 degrees Celsius (peak) when running 3D Mark in a 21 degree Air Conditioned office, the CPU itself was running at 65 degrees Celsius on load and about 41 degrees on idle. The port for the video card recorded similar temperatures for both load and idle also.
Couple the running temperature with the fact this thing weighs about 5kg and it’s certainly not something you’d run for a long period on your lap.
