Fujitsu LifeBook U820 Review
There are many contenders to the throne of the king of ultra portable notebooks. The Fujitsu LifeBook U820 may just be ready to take the crown.
Lets get the specs out of the way first.
• Intel Atom Z530 processor
• 5.6 inch WXGA display (1280 x 800) with touch screen
• Webcam and fingerprint reader
• 1 GB DDR2 RAM
• 120 GB HDD
• 802.11a/b/g/draft-n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth
• Built in GPS and Garmine Mobile PC
• Vista Business 32 bit
• 7 hours battery life
Pretty impressive in a notebook small enough to fit into a coat pocket. Literally. No need for big back packs and carry cases for the executive who’s on the move. The pin striped body with a glossy black lid makes it clear that this is a serious business notebook.
The body is of metal alloy with a plastic coating and feels firm and solid. The hinges hold the screen rock solid even when being rotated. By the way, the pin stripes have a practical application. Since this notebook will be carried in the hand a lot, the stripes have small ridges designed to give it a non slip grip.
The 5.6 inch display is crystal clear and is easy to see both indoors and outdoors. Of course, there are times when you may need a magnifying glass to read small print, but that’s a fact of life with small displays. The touch sensitive layer means that you may sometime have to change the tilt angle a bit to reduce glare and reflections, but that is a minor inconvenience.
Again, because of the small screen, clicking on an icon needs to be very accurate and until you develop the required accuracy, touching the wrong icons can be a bit irritating. But then, it’s not the notebook’s fault. You wanted a small display!
While the keyboard is well laid out and functions crisply, the size means that the keys have to be small. But once you get used to them both thumb and two handed typing are easy. There is a keyboard light to use when typing in badly lit places. The pointing stick is easy to use and accurate and works well when the notebook is hand held. The right thumb can operate the stick and the left the buttons.
The single mono speaker leaves a lot to be desired and headphones are definitely a necessary accessory for the U820. Having said that, an ultra portable is not really meant for watching movies, is it?
Battery life, using the Vista “balanced power” setting is a great 7 plus hours – more than enough for any normal applications. Since the small size of the body makes heat dispersal more difficult, there is more heat build up than in a full size laptop, but it never reaches uncomfortable levels.
As for performance, obviously the power sipping Atom Z530 and Intel GMA 500 integrated graphics are no match for Centrino 2’s and ATI’s dedicated cards. But having said that, the notebook does not lag in any way and in normal conditions and for business use, there is speed enough for everything.
Don’t expect the same level of performance or features as you will be on a 12 inch plus notebook. But if you want something small enough the carry in your pocket, that can meet all your business demands and run on battery for over 7 hours, you can’t do much better than the U820.