The ideal notebook for road warriors who crave battery run time without skimping on specs, the S6311's weight and size also makes it a good student or home notebook, albeit an expensive one given the lack of grunt for anything other than work and the odd DVD.
One of the best and worst things about being a product reviewer is the sheer bulk of kit that comes through our Labs across a multitude of categories. Unfortunately it also makes you free-info flypaper for friends and family. That said, whenever someone shopping for a notebook asks for advice, they tend to lean towards Sony, Toshiba or Dell. Despite their quality, Fujitsu doesn't normally get a look in. Their new LifeBook S series may quickly be on the way to changing that with its combination of security, battery life, performance and looks.
Design
The ultra-portable market is exploding at the moment, and Fujitsu's offering in the S6311 is an impressive one. The build quality of the chassis is spot on, and where other notebooks in this size bracket tend to have LCD screens that contort with minimal effort, the Fujitsu holds strong, even taking knocks to the rear of the panel in its stride. Fujitsu is pitching this model at SMB (Small to Medium Businesses), consumers and mobile executives.
Regardless of which segment you fit into, there's something in this model for you, with the hot swappable bays accommodating either a multi-format optical drive, weight saver to take the strain off your shoulder, or an additional battery for extended time between power point visits. Fujitsu quotes up to 10.2 hours of continuous battery run time using a second battery in place of the optical drive, enough juice for a full work day without having to plug in and wait around to get mobile again.
Features
For what is a predominantly business oriented machine the S6311 has the feature side well and truly sewn up at a very reasonable price. The first thing you'll notice is the 13.3 inch SuperFine XGA (1024x768) resolution LCD which is driven by the Intel GMA 950 graphics. Certainly not the bastion of graphics power that Intel claims every refresh, but enough to drive the display and meet the Windows Vista business spec requirements. The notebook ships with Windows XP Professional (the operating system of choice for businesses holding back on a full Vista rollout and those users needing VPN support)
Weighing in around the 1.7 kg mark, you won't get this mixed up with some of the desktop replacements posing as notebooks. In comparison, Sony's new business ultra-portable the VAIO VGNG118GNB tops the scales at 1.15 kg, while their VAIO C series consumer notebooks are a heftier 2.3 kg in the same form-factor chassis.
Fujitsu bundles a 100GB, 5400rpm hard drive spanning two evenly-sized partitions. It's unlikely business users will ever fill such a large drive given their propensity for offsite centralised network archiving, but on the off chance that it does happen, there's always the included Super Multi optical drive allowing you to burn DVD-RAM, DVD-+R/RW discs and CDs.
Drive integrity, particularly for a business notebook, is a major concern, and Fujitsu addresses this with inclusion of a 3D hard drive shock sensor, meaning that in the event of a sudden fall the device is intelligent enough to park the drive's heads to reduce the risk of data loss or drive failure. A software configuration tool allows you to set the gyro's sensitivity depending on your usage and work environment.
Connectivity is certainly no afterthought on the S6311, sporting a tri-band 802.11a/b/g wireless module, Gigabit Ethernet wired networking and shipping to users with a docking station. The dock makes portability a snap, saving you the time needed to plug keyboards, mice and monitors in every time you move to, or away from your desk. In addition to giving you easy access to all the features on the chassis of the notebook, it also adds serial, parallel, PS/2 and DVI ports not found on the laptop. Kensington locks are supported and there's space on both the notebook and docking base to plug in, although we weren't able to test whether or not locking the base and then docking the laptop would secure both from theft or just the base.
Given that mobile business people are effectively zooming around with a copy (or in some cases the only copy) of their financial and sensitive company data, securing that information is paramount.
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As a previous satisfied Fujitsu S6120 owner, I researched all brands and settled on the S6311 as a replacement after reading reviews on CNET, ZDnet & other sites . My belief that I was buying the Lexus of laptops was soon shattered. Within 2 months the "enter key" was faulty and the keyboard needed replacement. Then a intermittent low volume high pitch noise came from a faulty inverter and then the port replicator packed up. To rub salt into the wound the letters on the keyboard replaced 2 months beforehand started fading.
Fujistu refused to replace my laptop outright and insist on repairing it piecemeal.
Beware. Brand loyalty isn't worth it.
I think build quality should be commented on only after a period of 3-4 months of use.
Dr Siva Senthuran
Brisbane, Australia