Fujitsu Siemens Lifebook P1510

17:51.47 - Thursday 12th April 2007   (Link to This Entry)

After much looking around in places like PC World and so on, and a good fortnight of hunting around the Internet, I finally settled on a new notebook - the Fujtsu Siemens Lifebook P1510. There were several criteria that had to be met: Full Windows version, decent screen resolution, Compact Flash adapter (or at least PCMCIA), wireless and a proper keyboard.

Weighing in at 1KG and being the approxmate size of 2 internal HDs, the P1510 features an 8.9in screen with 1024x600 pixel resolution. Despite these dimunitive dimensions it is sufficient for most tasks if you minimise wasted screen real estate by hiding the taskbar and browsing in full-screen mode. The screen is bright and clear, which certainly helps, and the unit runs Windows XP Tablet Edition.

Obviously a reduced screen and case size means the keyboard will be smaller too, and Fujitsu have made a decent stab at cramming a usable one onto the P1510. Keys are approximately a centimetre on a side, making them smaller than everything bar your mobile phone, and while this inevitably leads to more typos than normal, it's in no way as bas as, say, the Sony Vaio UMPCs. The trackpad has gone as well, in favour of a pointing 'nipple' betwen the G and H keys and a full touch screen - a stylus tucks away in the bottom right corner for the latter.

The attention to detail is really something else: The extended battery just out at the front of the unit, giving you a mini wrist-rest; the screen rotates 180 degrees to fold flat into a tablet PC; the catch on the lid allows you to lock it in either orientation and the screen bezel has dimpled strips on either size for added grip in tablet mode. There's a fingerprint reader which doubles as another scroll device and sockets for LAN, Modem, USB and VGA-out, as well as built-in Compact Flash and SD-Card readers. Another nice edition is the hardware switch for Wifi, plus there's Bluetooth built in for transfer between compatible devices.

This obsessiveness continues with the USB CDRW/DVD drive that comes with the P1510, which has options to power it from the mains, a second USB lead or the built-in rechargable batteries. It's a laptop drive in a case not much bigger than a CD - very impressive.

Expect another post and final thoughts when I've used it for a couple of weeks.