| Article Index |
|---|
| Fujitsu LifeBook U1010 (3.5G) Notebook Review |
| 2 - Battery and Connectivity |
| 3 - Screen and Input |
| 4 - Conclusion |
| All Pages |
Today we’re looking at the LifeBook U1010 from Fujitsu, an Ultra-Mobile PC (UMPC) claimed by Fujitsu
to be the world’s smallest. We see if it’s any good.
The first thing that strikes you when you take the U1010 out of the box is of course its size, it’s closer in size to a PDA than a normal notebook computer, I can span my hand over the top of it (lengthways) and still have about 4cm of my thumb hanging over the size, so describing it as small doesn’t quite cut it.
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What do you get?
Surprisingly Fujitsu have managed to cram quite a lot of features into this notebook/Tablet PC for the price (selling online for around AU$1720), its specifications are as follows:
- Intel A110 Ultra Mobile CPU (800MHz, 512k L2 Cache, 400MHz FSB)
- 1GB 400MHz DDR2 Memory
- 40GB 1.8” Parallel ATA, Ultra-100 Hard Drive
- 5.6-Inch SuperFine WideScreen LCD, (1024x600 Resolution), Passive Touch Panel
- Integrated Intel Graphics
- Atheros Super AG Wireless Adapter
- Realtek 100Base Ethernet (Via Dongle)
- Integrated Web Cam (0.3MegaPixel)
- 56-Key Keyboard w. Fingerprint Reader
- 3.5G Mobile Broadband Support (Up to 3.6Mbps)
- Realtek ALC262 HD Audio, Built In Speaker and Digital Microphone
- Other Ports: 3.5mm HD Audio In/Out, 1 x USB2.0, RGB Video Out, Flash Card Readers (CF+SD), Bluetooth v2.0
- Dimensions: 171mm x 133mm x 32mm(max) (WxDxH)
- Weight: 630grams
- 2-Cell Li-Ion 2600mAh Battery
- Microsoft Windows Vista Business
Not a bad list of specs for a notebook weighing in at 630grams. It doesn’t focus much on performance, as you can obviously see, but rather simply being small, light and still highly functional with reasonable battery life. The new A110 processor from Intel, which runs at a blistering 800MHz, uses an extremely small amount of power and therefore its heat output is also low, meaning it’s rather efficient.
Don’t even think about getting this notebook if you’re after high performance, it just doesn’t exist. The processor is slow, there’s only 1GB of RAM which is not a lot for running Vista, and cannot be upgraded, the hard drive is only a 1.8” Parallel ATA-100, so you’re not going to get much help there. We aren’t able to bring you a PCMark score to compare to other notebooks we’ve tested in the past, because the U1010’s display resolution of 1024x600 is not large enough to run some of the tests. We tried running it on the external display connection, but it didn’t like this either.
As a simple test we wanted to see if it could play a standard Xvid movie, using Media Player Classic, and while yes it could play it, it would only do so if nothing else at all was running in the background, and the video was already on the U1010’s local hard drive. Trying to stream it over the wireless network, which is easily fast enough for most other notebooks to cope with for the same type of video, was something the U1010 simply couldn’t handle.
Battery and Connectivity:
The battery in the U1010 is a 2-cell Lithium Ion job packed with a reasonable (for its size) 2600mAh of power which Fujitsu claim will keep this running for up to 3 hours. With normal usage, such as wireless on, actually using some programs every now and then, we find closer to 2 hours to be more accurate, longer of course if everything’s turned off and you’re not actually planning on using the notebook to do anything.
A 4-cell 5200mAh battery is available as an option, but this will stick out the back and increase the size of the notebook a fair bit. It will however give you at least 4 hours of battery life, possibly more.
Connectivity:
Connectivity is surprisingly good for such a small notebook, there’s all the usual inclusions you’d expect on any current-day notebook, including Wireless-G networking included as standard, not quite as nice as having Wireless-N capability, but with this thing’s processing power it probably couldn’t make use of it anyway.
The other basics are all there, Bluetooth, USB (one port only), Audio in and out (headphone, microphone), RJ45 LAN and External VGA (both via dongle out the front of the notebook) and flash card readers for both Compact Flash and Secure Digital cards. So it has everything you NEED, but really nothing extra.
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A very basic webcam (0.3MegaPixel) is included and built in to the screen, along with a built in digital microphone, and a built in speaker of course, so video calls and web conferencing are made easy. Good thing too, as an aftermarket webcam clinging onto the screen would almost be bigger than the notebook itself.
3.5G:
One of the U1010’s trump card’s against its competitors is the inclusion of 3.5G broadband connectivity built in. All you do it pop in your 3.5G/HSDPA (High Speed Downlink Packet Access) capable SIM card from your mobile provider in the back on the notebook and you can have broadband speed anywhere you can find 3.5G coverage.
The U1010 should work with just about any 3.5G network in the world, with Tri-band UMTS (HSDPA) support (850, 1900 and 2100MHz) as well as Quad-Band EDGE/GPRS/GSM support (850/900/1800/1900MHz). However the SIM and network must be 3.5G compatible and enabled, my Australian Vodafone 3G SIM would not work at all in any fashion in the U1010.
Fujitsu claim access speeds of 3.6Mbps when connecting to a 3.5G broadband provider, and it seems like Telstra is the only Australian network compatible with this service right now, at least on the U1010, I’ll happily be proven wrong on this though if someone out there has more information on the subject.
Screen and Input:
The screen on the U1010 is a 5.6-inch “SuperFine” Wide-Screen, capable of a resolution of 1024x600. Not a big resolution by anyone’s standards, but nonetheless quite impressive for such a small screen, and big enough for web browsing, documents and the occasional video, having two windows open on the screen at the same time is pushing it a bit though.
As the U1010 is also a Tablet capable/convertible PC, the screen is of course a touch screen, but unlike the screens of the other Fujitsu tablets we’ve looked at in the past, this one doesn’t utilise a Wacom digitiser panel, instead it’s more like a PDA screen, so if you lose or can’t be bothered using the stylus, your finger will do just fine – providing you don’t mind cleaning the screen more often.
The input resolution of the touchscreen is very good, just as good as the Wacom panels on the other models we’ve looked at, whether using the Stylus or anything else your handwriting or drawings will be smooth and precise, the only downside is that sometimes it doesn’t register that you’ve clicked(pressed) on something the first time you use it, something the Wacom panels ever suffered from.
Of course when putting the U1010 into tablet mode, you can rotate the screen from traditional landscape mode into portrait mode. This is done automatically when you move the screen into tablet mode, and can be done manually with the press of a button on the edge of the screen.
There are a few buttons and features around the screen, such as the screen rotate button mentioned above, there’s also two programmable hot-keys, which by default will turn on/off two small LED lights which illuminate the keyboard (a very cool feature), and the other brings up the handwriting input panel on the screen. Another button over to the right under the fingerprint scanner acts as both an Alt key for the previously mentioned hotkeys, and a Ctrl-Alt-Del shortcut, a very smart inclusion as pressing Ctrl-Alt-Del on this keyboard can be a pain, as ‘delete’ needs the Function (Fn) key pressed as activate it, so it means you have to press Ctrl+Alt+Fn+Del which can be awkward.
The cursor input and mouse buttons are on opposite sides of the notebook, and are designed to be used while holding the notebook with both hands, almost like a gamepad. This works quite well but means both hands are occupied just to work the mouse. Next to the cursor/pointing stick there are buttons used for scrolling within applications and a function key which changes the function of the hotkeys around the screen. There’s a lot of features and functionality in this notebook, just need to learn how to access it all with all the function keys.
The keyboard…. Ah the keyboard. I really don’t like this keyboard. While it is precise and everything works as it should, it is just too small. There is no way you could be a writer and use a keyboard like this, the keys are so small and close, and the bottom line of keys is more offset to the right than a standard keyboard, so touch typing is almost out of question without learning it all again. Not to mention both hands won’t actually fit over the keyboard anyway. I think I could SMS on my phone faster than I could type on this thing without making a mistake every second word.
It’s only a 56-key keyboard, so many of the function keys, such as caps lock, delete, tab, the arrow keys and the F-keys all have to be operated with the ‘Fn’ toggle key, which is very annoying and tiresome. I mean I know why they’ve done it, they really didn’t have a choice if they wanted to make something this small, but it really hampers productivity, I mean when I’m filling in forms or even writing an article, I use the Tab key all the time, but with the U1010 I have to press the Fn key and the space bar (seriously, they put Tab on the space bar???), which is just weird.
Conclusion:
The U1010 is impressive, there’s no doubt about it, something this small with this much functionality for only AU$1720 has to be admired, and I do admire it for sure. If you need something ultra (ULTRA!!) portable, then the U1010 should definitely be considered. But it should never be your only computer, it’s too hard to use for real work or anything that involves a lot of typing, and its performance is painfully slow.
It will however fit in your pocket (providing you have a fairly big pocket), it runs a full and proper version of Windows Vista, it can and will run proper Office 2007 and browse internet pages in their full size, all things that a PDA could never do. The inclusion of a HSDPA modem and 3.5G connectivity only make the U1010 even better for people on the go.
It would be better if the battery could last a bit longer, as 2 hours (let’s say 2.5hours to be nice) really doesn’t come close to so many other portable devices these days, and considering how long this thing takes to boot and load programs, it needs all the battery life it can get.
Overall it’s a very impressive machine in terms of its technology and design, and Fujitsu have really shoe-horned in as many features as they can for a surprisingly low cost, normally the smaller the notebook the higher the cost, not so in this case. It’s great as a portable device or toy to play with and show off, but I couldn’t live with having to do real work on it every day.
OzHardware Rating – 7.8/10
This product can be purchased online at www.techbuy.com.au (Direct Link)
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|88.122.245.xxx |2008-05-08 18:19:52 F.Moreau - M.Seems an interesting machine, if only Fuji did not install that crappy bloatsystem that Vista is on it... I'm sure XP would fly on this system, and would make the battery last longer.
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|124.170.255.xxx |2008-05-25 14:36:44 Daniel W - 3.5G/AUSStrangely enough, all the mobile broadband over SIM cards in Australia (except Telstra, of course) run over 2100Mhz HSDPA (What you would call 3.5G). So I can only assume either the SIM is actually quite old (no 3G network access rule), or Vodafone won't let the notebook register on its network.. I'd have no clue why though.
Or maybe you just forgot the *99# dialer? :)
