They're certainly a colourful bunch, but underneath the bling, Fujitsu's latest range of notebooks fails to impress.
Design
If a technology company starts talking up its notebooks under the catchphrase of "lifestyle", it's usually an indication that they're more concerned with design sensibilities than raw performance, although the two are not mutually exclusive. Certainly, Fujitsu's latest offering, the L1010 manages to chug along nicely, although some of the wilder claims about its gaming prowess probably deserve a good grain of salt to go with them.
Individual tastes will naturally vary, and you can't say that Fujitsu isn't going all out in the design stakes with the L1010. Our review sample was the rather pedestrian (and predictably fingerprint-magnet-style) piano black, but it's also available in White and Pink Gold (that's one colour, not two) as well as Turquoise Blue, Pink and Purple.
Marking your territory with a whacking great logo seems to be the style of the time — we almost entirely blame Apple for this — and the L1010 bears a small Fujitsu logo as well as a much larger "infinity" logo inset to the screen. The effect is very similar to the kind of thing that HP's been doing with some of its notebook lines of late, although it's much more subtle than some of HP's rather stomach-churning efforts.
One design aspect we did like was the L1010's generally solid build. It does look rather like a budget laptop, but doesn't feel like one in everyday usage. Its low profile keyboard has decent travel and feels robust even when typing at quite high speeds.
Features
Our AU$1,849 review sample came with an Intel Core 2 Duo Processor P8400 2.26GHz, 2GB of DDR3 RAM and a 250GB hard drive split into two partitions. Graphics chores are handled by an Nvidia GeForce 9300M GS with 256MB of dedicated memory, although it will dip into shared memory as needs demand. Optical chores are covered by a dual-layer DVD Super Multi Writer, and the display is a 14.1-inch WXGA (1,280x800) LCD. For those who want more visual fidelity, there's an HDMI output socket on the left-hand side, along with a memory card reader, three USB 2.0 sockets, standard VGA, gigabit Ethernet and an RJ11 modem socket. That's a decent but ultimately not inspiring combination of components, all things considered, and especially at this price point.
For whatever reason, Fujitsu's decided to marry the "lifestyle" concept of the L1010 with, of all things, Windows Vista Business, at least on our review sample. With this in mind, the L1010 also comes with an integrated fingerprint reader. While we can see why consumer users might like the fingerprint reader — keeping those "intimate" photos off Facebook, for a start — we can't see too many business users plumping for a notebook that comes in White and Pink Gold. Perhaps we work in the wrong industries.
Performance
Its core specifications indicate that the L1010 should be a a solidly capable performer, and that was reflected in its PC Mark05 score, where it managed a very respectable 5,203 PC Marks. For the average web surfer and document procurer, then, the L1010 should be a capable enough machine, but that's a statement that should be automatically true for any notebook in this price range.
On the gaming front, we're inclined to be a little more critical, if only because of the way that Fujitsu pitches the L1010. We'll dip into the company's marketing-speak here:
"The Fujitsu L1010 is specially designed to pander to this generation's fondness for gaming. Gamers can expect a perfect gaming experience without any motion lag. Besides hitting high scores in their games, Gen Y-ers can also score equally high on the cool factor as this fine-looking laptop makes any user look like a poised gaming guru."
Erm ... no. The L1010's 3DMark06 score of 2,206 certainly isn't the lowest we've seen in a mid-sized notebook, but it's not going to live up to those lofty claims, especially if you throw anything even moderately taxing at it. And we've got no idea what a "poised gaming guru" actually looks like, but we'd suggest they're probably not going to be fuming at their somewhat laggy laptop.
On the battery front, the L1010 came in at just under two hours using our standard DVD playback test, with all battery saving measures disabled and the screen at full brightness. You could expect more with a more prudent power saving scheme, but again this puts the L1010 into the average category. Given its above-average pricing, this makes it a tough notebook to recommend for most uses, unless the colour schemes on offer really inspire you.
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Why split the HDD into two partitions?
Putting data in the second partition only forces excess head travel between the partitions resulting in lower performance. Better off leaving the data in the OS partition where it will be much closer to the OS and applications.
Separating Data only improves performance if it is on a second HDD.
I use a small partition at the end of the HDD for storing copies of the installation files of all drivers, applications and OS just in case of emergency.