| Laptops and Notebooks Reviews : Fujitsu |
 | Fujitsu LifeBook U820 Mini-Notebook
Small and ultraportable -- 2010-02-20
I'm a college student who bought this because my main laptop is too heavy to carry to school and back.
Pros:
-Tiny. It feels almost weightless to carry, which is wonderful if you're toting lots of books around.
-Touch screen is great for writing and note taking. I can write almost completely normally, and comfortably, for extended periods of time using a stylus. I do my homework on it and take written notes, rather than typed, during class.
-Long battery life. Right now, with two batteries and a 91% charge with a balanced mode, I am told I will get 10 hrs and 43 minutes. I've never tested it, but the battery life is very good.
-Voice activation: it's just that cool to be able to tell your computer to open a file instead of actually clicking. Takes some getting used to, thought.
-Has video and audio recording. Excellent for recording meetings, class lectures, etc.
-I like the interface. There are numerous ways to interact with the computer. Like I mentioned earlier, it has voice recognition software, you can write on it with a stylus, even right click with a stylus. There are scroll down buttons, zoom buttons, right and left mouse click buttons as well as the mouse itself (which you can left click with). It comes with an adapter for ethernet and LAN connection to a projector. There's also button to rotate the orientation of the screen if you want to write in portrait or landscape mode.
-Runs quiet: Once I optimized it (see below) and when the fans aren't running, the computer is completely silent, which I like a lot.
Cons:
-Small screen: this is both a good thing and a bad thing. I picked this computer because it was smaller than other Fujitsus I had tried. The larger screens meant your hand rested on the screen and made writing difficult to impossible. With a small screen my fingers are long enough to write across it without touching the screen. I've also found that resting my hand on a book helps. But I did have to adjust some of the settings to make things bigger. I am 22 with 20-20 eyesight and I had to hunch over, zoom in, or crank up the font size on my web browser. 5.6 inches is definitely pushing the limits of human comfort.
-Small keyboard: I can type on it. But I have relatively small hands. Even with smaller hands, the keyboard is tricky because things have been moved around for space's sake. I've had it for about ten days now and only now am I able to get up some speed when typing--like now for instance. It's doable, but if you have big hands or need to type a lot a larger model might be a better fit.
-Stylus: the one that comes with the computer is too small to write with. I bought some styluses from Frys and they work great. I definitely recommend people get their own, thought, unless you don't mind your hand cramping like crazy.
-Optimizing Vista: Vista is not the best operating system for this little computer and it took me several days to get the laptop running at an efficient speed. It will never run as fast as my $3000 Dell laptop, but it runs perfectly fine for note taking, email checking, homework writing, and net surfing. Don't expect to be able to play a lot of hardcore games.
Recommendations:
-Be really gentle with it, especially the swivel screen. It's tiny and can't withstand a lot of force.
-I was happy I got the two batteries, they've served me well.
-Read the users manual and the start up manual. I spent the first few days frustrated because I didn't read it, thinking I was above instruction manual. Some of the features were very new to me (like voice activation) and I needed the tutorials for that.
In summary: I recommended it to all my college friends who need small computers to take notes on that are highly portable and touch screen. This computer was one of the few I found that really combined everything I wanted--touch screen, small, long battery life, records audio/visual. It's perfect for certain subgroups of computer owners like students. In retrospect, I think a 7inch screen would've been perfect, but c'est la vie. I love it and I take it with me everywhere.
The only reason I gave it four stars was because of Vista, but once I switch the operating system to Linex or Windows 7 I think it'll be a definite 5.
Fujitsu is a cut above the others -- 2009-04-28
I have owned 2 LifeBooks and currently have a T4020. Fujitsu is head and shoulders above the other laptop makers in quality, functionality, reliability and above all in tech support. This morning I had a problem with the input panel due to an upgrade of windows, and they competently led me to the correct driver update, even though my tablet is an older model. It's rare to find competent first class tech support these days, but Fujitsu still provides it.
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 | LIFEBOOK T900 - INTEL - CORE I5 - 520M - 2.4 GHZ - DDR3 SDRAM - 2 GB - SERIAL AT
A great mid-range tablet with a few drawbacks -- 2010-06-23
This is a great tablet for the money, but being that the economy is the way it is, or maybe you're just thrifty like me, I suggest buying this used or refurbished if you can get it.
The portability, Wacom drivers, and Windows 7 make this a joy to use. My only real problems are that:
1) The speakers are beneath the LCD frame, which muffles the sound both when used as a tablet and a laptop. This can be remedied by using headphones, but is still a minor/moderate annoyance if you aren't used to wearing headphones. Most people have iPods, so you may be attuned to it, but I stream all of my music and personally don't.
2) You can rotate the desktop to fit the LCD in tablet mode; however, it only wants to stay 90 degrees in portrait, or landscape default - if you rotate it 270 degrees, and then turn the tablet itself so that the ports are on the top and the Fujitsu logo is upside-down, it always auto-corrects to portrait for tablet mode.
This may bother you if you wish to have cables plugged in while using the tablet in landscape mode, as you can't tuck the cables out of the way near the top, but instead have to have them near the bottom of the LCD in your arm's way..
However, would I recommend this tablet nonetheless? Sure...if you get it used online. I paid a little more than $1450 shipped on a certain e-site ;) shop around.
A fine tablet -- 2010-03-31
I have had my T900 for 3 weeks now and I think it is a really fine piece of equipment. The screen is brite and crisp with only a sligt grain added by the touch screen. The screen is so bright that I use it at 50% almost exclusively and it is bright enough to easily fight all but direct sunlight. As a laptop it is pretty standard stuff. But once you add the touch screen, this is just great. Movies and pictures display in rich color with no distracting artifacts.
The battery life is great at around 5 hours with the wireless on and the lamp around 30%. It feels solid and carrys very well in one hand. A minus is the speakers which can berely be heard even if on full blast. I find them good only for emergency use and Windows sounds. As to the other things standard to laptops, the keyboard, camera, buton layout and touchpad are all on the better than average to very good side. I do think the VGA plug sucks and it should be DVI or HDMI. I simply don't understand that decision at this price.
It is very hard not to love this machine as the pros more than outweight the cons. I miss my 17" LCD laptop, but I simply love this touch screen too much to complain. I got the multi-touch screen so I can use a finger or the pen. I use both a lot.
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