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| Fujitsu Lifebook S6311 Notebook Review |
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Today we’re looking at the LifeBook S series notebooks from Fujitsu, namely the S6311 model, loaded with Windows Vista Business
Edition. A very compact and feature packed notebook.
The S6311’s Main Specs
- Intel Centrino Core2 Duo T7200 (2.0Ghz) CPU
- 13.3” SuperFine XGA TFT Screen
- 2GB 667Mhz DDR2 RAM
- 120GB Serial-ATA 150 Hard Disk Drive
- Dual Layer DVD-R/RW/RAM Drive
- Bluetooth V2.0
- Intel PRO/Wireless 3945ABG Wireless Network Adapter
- High Definition Audio with Built-In Speakers and Stereo Microphone
- Fingerprint Reader
- 6-Cell 5200mAh Lithium-Ion Battery (Up to 5 Hours Battery Life)
- Ports – 3 x USB2.0, Firewire, Headphone/Microphone, SD/xD/Memory Stick Reader, Type-II PC Card Slot, Gigabit Ethernet, RJ11 Modem Port, VGA Out (Plus additional ports on included docking station, including Serial, Parallel and DVI output)
- 2 Year Pickup and Return Nationwide Warranty
- Windows XP Home or Professional, or Vista Home Premium or Business
These are just the basic specs, a thorough run down can be found on Fujitsu’s website (here)
The S6311 retails for just over AU$2600, weighs in at around 1.9Kg, and at its heart has an Intel Centrino Core 2 Duo T7200 CPU running at 2.0Ghz, coupled together with 2.0GB of 667Mhz DDR2 RAM to really get this thing moving along, and as the model we have is running Windows Vista Business, the more ram the better.
The S6311 is styled with Fujitsu’s (what seems to be standard) black on dark grey colour scheme, giving it a sleek and professional appearance that is sure to appeal to Fujitsu’s target demographic. It’s certainly not too fancy looking, but you’d never be embarrassed to bring it out in a presentation or on a plane.
Getting onto the performance of the S6311 - With PCMark05 the S6311 gets a score of 3355, a little bit down on the similar spec T4215 we reviewed a few weeks ago, but that is mostly due to the S6311 running Vista instead of XP, so a small performance drop is somewhat expected, although still very much at the top end of current notebook performance, so all your programs, even the more intensive ones will run without a problem. The hard drive is a Serial ATA 120GB unit which Fujitsu partition into two 60GB drives, so hard drive speed and storage space shouldn’t be a problem for a while at least.
3D and gaming performance is reasonable but certainly not great, using an integrated Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950 display chipset which shares system memory, it’s about on par with a Radeon X600 mobile chipset, and the S6311’s high CPU power helps compensate for some of the graphics chipset’s shortfalls. It’s not great performance by any means, but able to run basic 3D games and applications without too much of an issue provided you don’t expect huge resolutions and high detail levels.
The screen of the S6311 gives a very bright a vividly clear image on its 13.3” non-widescreen LCD display, but is limited to a resolution of 1024x768, which can be a bit limiting nowadays with some applications and web pages.
As far as connectivity goes, the S6311 has it all. 802.11g wireless network and Bluetooth are both built-in, along with Gigabit Ethernet and even still includes a 56k dial-up modem for when there’s just no other option, something that a lot of notebooks are excluding these days because of lack of demand. As for USB ports, there are 3 on the notebook itself, with a further 4 ports on the included docking station. A single Firewire port is included for your DV video and storage devices, as well as the usual audio ports and a VGA output for a second monitor or projector connection. The included docking station gives even more connectivity, with old-school serial and parallel ports, as well as a PS/2 mouse and keyboard connector and even a DVI video connector, everything you could ever need.
A card reader is built-in on the front of the notebook, below the touchpad/mouse buttons, with the ability to read xD, SD and Memory Stick flash cards. A fingerprint reader is also included in between the mouse buttons which doubles as a scroll wheel within windows.
Above the standard 84-key notebook keyboard are 4 double function shortcut buttons that can either be used for multimedia control or as program shortcuts. Their function is toggled by a button to their right with an LED indicator light to let you know what their current function is. To the left of the shortcut buttons are all the LED indicator lights to let you know what’s going on with battery/power status, as well as hard drive activity and the usual Caps/Num/Scroll lock functions. Surrounding all these lights and shortcut buttons are the built-in stereo speakers, that give quite good sound providing you don’t push them too loud, as they can start to distort when the volumes gets a bit too high. To accompany the stereo speakers are stereo microphone receivers at the top of the screen.
Power saving and long battery seems to have been a very important design consideration with the S6311, it’s 6-cell battery is extremely powerful with 5200mAh and can power the notebook for a massive 5 hours in ideal conditions (i.e. low screen brightness, no wireless, no CD-ROM usage etc...) but even with average use and most things turned on it will still easily last 3 hours or more. However with intense usage on a computer with this much power, you must realise the battery can and will drain rather quickly. As a neat feature the status LEDs on top of the keyboard go to half brightness when running on battery power to conserve energy.
The Dual Layer DVD drive included with the S6311 is nothing special in itself, but it is installed in a hot-swappable component bay, and can be swapped out for other devices, such as a second hard drive or battery without turning off the notebook, certainly handy if you’re out on the road, unfortunately neither a second hard drive bay or second battery are included as standard.
Conclusion:
A decent looking, compact, very fast notebook with a long battery life and every type of port and connector you could want. At AU$2700 it’s getting towards the pointy end of the price range, but for a notebook this small with this much power, it’s quite a reasonable price, remember, the smaller they are, the more you pay, simple as that.
OzHardware Rating – 9/10
This Product Can be Purchased online at www.techbuy.com.au (Direct Link)
