Delivering blazing speed at a very fair price, a two-spindled, high-octane LifeBook E Series notebook from Fujitsu will satisfy itinerant business users who require a modicum of portability without sacrificing much in the way of power or performance.
True, the 3.1 kilogram E Series is no flyweight, but its single swappable drive bay--and its external, USB-compatible floppy drive, which can be left at home--help to shave off bulk while still leaving enough real estate inside the box to accommodate plenty of treats. And the nifty wireless mouse Fujitsu throws in for good measure is a cute addition--if you're right-handed.
With SysMark 2001 scores ranging from a respectable 78 in office productivity to a whizbang 90 in Internet content creation, our evaluation model put its 850MHz Pentium III CPU and 256M of RAM to excellent use. The package includes a 20G hard disk, an 8X modular DVD-ROM drive (hot-swappable, thanks to Softex's Bay Manager utility), Windows Me, and Microsoft Office. A large 4,500mAh lithium-ion battery lasted a solid 3 hours 31 minutes in ZDNet's battery-life test.
We love the Fujitsu's simple, elegant lines and silver finish. Opening the case reveals a 14.1-inch TFT display capable of handling 1,024 x 768 resolution, while the Rage Mobility graphics subsystem and 16M of video memory deliver up to 1,600 x 1,200 external resolution at 16-bit colour. Full-motion, full-screen DVD playback was free of hiccups, even if we did observe very slight pixelation in dark picture fields. While our Quake III test ran at a mediocre 26.5 frames per second on our test unit, most mobile gamers will use less demanding resolutions and colour settings and will find performance to be more than acceptable.
We have only a few minor complaints about the E Series. The first involves the keyboard: Although we appreciate its firm overall feel, the keys could use a bit more travel and a more generous click when depressed. We also take issue with the abbreviated size and less than optimal positioning of the Backspace key, as well as with the arrow keys, which are located too close to the wrist rest.
The fully programmable Fujitsu touchpad worked well, although the sleek-looking actuation buttons suffer for their aesthetic appeal--they are too small and stiff. We like the four application-launch/Web-access buttons along the front of the system, which are very easy to program. These also serve as number-combination buttons, thus providing a robust level of hardware and software security.
Fujitsu offers both port-replicator and docking-station options, and outfits the E Series with all the requisite connectivity options, including dual PC Card slots, LAN and modem ports, and all the legacy connectors you'll need. When this is being used for connecting the external floppy drive, you're left with little option for hooking up a printer or scanner. Moreover, we had difficulty getting the external floppy drive to work on both of the models we evaluated.
Backed by a standard one-year parts and labour warranty, the LifeBook E Series definitely offers serious computers for serious users. They're not light on the pocketbook, but they'll still give you plenty of bang for your buck.
Fujitsu LifeBook E Series
Company:Fujtisu Australia
Price:AU$7195
Phone:(02) 9776 4555
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