Charles Darke | 22 May 2007This is a no nonsense review of the ultra-portable Fujitsu P1610 Lifebook Tablet PC (UK version) which was bought directly from Fujitsu in the UK.
Basically, I'm very happy with this machine, so I will focus mainly on the 'gotchas' that I've encountered so far.
Operating system
The unit under review came with Windows XP Tablet PC Edition. You can also buy the laptop with Vista. However, I don't like to be on the Bleeding edge of windows operating systems and so chose to stick with XP.
I did note that a few people had problems with drivers on Vista and that Fujitsu have been providing updated drivers on their website.
Wireless connectivity
Connectivity is good and has all the options you would expect. I did not buy the optional built-in HSDPA adapter as I already have a T-Mobile HSDPA card.
The T-mobile card works perfectly with this laptop, but it is worth noting that the card does stick out quite a bit which means that it can snag and be subjected to more stress if kept in the slot permanently.
Standard connectivity
This laptop doesn't have a Firewire port which could be a deal breaker for some. Having only two USB ports barely workable and you'll likely want a USB hub when docked (and may find yourself short of USB ports when on the move).
The placement of both ports on the right of the unit is a real pain. When plugging in a mouse, the USB cable gets in your way. Also, when using the tablet in portrait mode, by default the USB ports are at the bottom of the unit which means it is not simple to stand the unit up on its end.
Screen basics
The first thing you'll notice about the screen is that it is small.
The second thing you'll notice is that it is extremely reflective. This means in practice that any light source or brightly lit object behind you will make the screen unreadable forcing you to reposition yourself between the laptop and light source or contorting to find the 'right' angle.
The third thing you'll notice is that the resolution is slightly 'wide screen'. I would have liked it to be slightly taller: expect to scroll horizontally on many websites when in portrait mode.
The resolution is high which means the lettering is small. You'll get used to it, but it is not comfortable for extended use.
Touch screen
The touch screen works great with little vectoring and the 'palm reject' technology means that you can write with your hand resting on the screen. Inking is very good.
Downsides of the touch screen is that you lose 'hover' capability and right-clicking is a real chore (press and hold). This is worse by not having good programmable buttons on the screen edge.
For example, being able to assign a screen button to CTRL would make CTRL clicking easier. The buttons that do exist are place badly and the software is limited in what you can do with them. It may be possible to do more with them by writing your own software.
The positioning on the lower right means your hand will often hit the finger print reader and the buttons. For some reason, Fujitsu chose not to recess the buttons. More user programmable buttons would be nice (and some placed on the top right for left-handed use in portrait mode would also have been useful).
Keyboard
The keyboard is smaller than usual, but it is possible to touch type at a normal high speed. One annoyance is that there are no page up / page down keys on the keyboard itself—you have to Fn-down or use the hardkeys on the screen edge.
Another problem with the keyboard is that the 'ridges' on the F and J keys are placed at the bottom and do not have enough definition on them for you to feel. This is a real pain if you touch type, because you'll need to look at the keyboard to check that your fingers are in the right position.
Another feature that they really should have included on this machine is keyboard back-lighting. I don't know why, but I seem to use this machine a lot more in the dark and a backlit keyboard would be a huge bonus.
Physical attributes
This is a very light and compact laptop having only an 8.9" screen. This makes it comparable to some Ultra-mobile PCs (UMPC).
Mine came with the extended battery which makes it slightly heavier, but it is still a very light machine.
The processor can get hot, which can make your hand clammy when holding it in slate mode, but it is not too uncomfortable.
It doesn't take much to make the processor fan turn on. The fan isn't particularly noisy and I haven't tried the 'silent fan' option in the BIOS.
There is very little vibration from the unit.
Speakers
The speakers are tinny, quiet and horrible. They are also covered by the screen. I've never heard speakers as bad as this.
I consider VOIP barely usable with the built-in speakers. Microphone, however, works fine.
PCMCIA
The PCMCIA slot is quite far out of the case. It would be nice to recess it in further. The button also is not recessed and often catches onto things causing it to spring out.
RAM
My unit came with 512mb as standard. I would not consider XP usable with only 512mb RAM. Do yourself a favour and upgrade.
Note that the unit uses 172-pin MicroDIMMs which are horrifically expensive. Kingston make a compatible part: KFJ-P1610/1G. As there are no spare memory slots, you'll have to replace the 512mb DIMM with the 1gb module.
Loss of settings
I found that on rebooting, that the settings of the trackpoint were lost. I normally have tap to click disabled and have to reset this each time I reboot.
The use of the middle 'button' for scrolling also stopped working at some point but since I don't use this, I haven't bothered to investigate.
Battery Life
I have the extended battery which juts out of the unit. The battery life is excellent and I've had 4-5 hours of continuous use (with wifi) on a single charge .
Conclusion
As a portable machine it is great. Still not small enough to carry everywhere all the time, but even the Sony UX would probably not fall into that category.
The machine isn't perfect, but it's a great combination of portability and power.
Just wanted to add some other reviews that are available on the net:
Hugo's review
Basically, I'm very happy with this machine, so I will focus mainly on the 'gotchas' that I've encountered so far.
Operating system
The unit under review came with Windows XP Tablet PC Edition. You can also buy the laptop with Vista. However, I don't like to be on the Bleeding edge of windows operating systems and so chose to stick with XP.
I did note that a few people had problems with drivers on Vista and that Fujitsu have been providing updated drivers on their website.
Wireless connectivity
Connectivity is good and has all the options you would expect. I did not buy the optional built-in HSDPA adapter as I already have a T-Mobile HSDPA card.
The T-mobile card works perfectly with this laptop, but it is worth noting that the card does stick out quite a bit which means that it can snag and be subjected to more stress if kept in the slot permanently.
Standard connectivity
This laptop doesn't have a Firewire port which could be a deal breaker for some. Having only two USB ports barely workable and you'll likely want a USB hub when docked (and may find yourself short of USB ports when on the move).
The placement of both ports on the right of the unit is a real pain. When plugging in a mouse, the USB cable gets in your way. Also, when using the tablet in portrait mode, by default the USB ports are at the bottom of the unit which means it is not simple to stand the unit up on its end.
Screen basics
The first thing you'll notice about the screen is that it is small.
The second thing you'll notice is that it is extremely reflective. This means in practice that any light source or brightly lit object behind you will make the screen unreadable forcing you to reposition yourself between the laptop and light source or contorting to find the 'right' angle.
The third thing you'll notice is that the resolution is slightly 'wide screen'. I would have liked it to be slightly taller: expect to scroll horizontally on many websites when in portrait mode.
The resolution is high which means the lettering is small. You'll get used to it, but it is not comfortable for extended use.
Touch screen
The touch screen works great with little vectoring and the 'palm reject' technology means that you can write with your hand resting on the screen. Inking is very good.
Downsides of the touch screen is that you lose 'hover' capability and right-clicking is a real chore (press and hold). This is worse by not having good programmable buttons on the screen edge.
For example, being able to assign a screen button to CTRL would make CTRL clicking easier. The buttons that do exist are place badly and the software is limited in what you can do with them. It may be possible to do more with them by writing your own software.
The positioning on the lower right means your hand will often hit the finger print reader and the buttons. For some reason, Fujitsu chose not to recess the buttons. More user programmable buttons would be nice (and some placed on the top right for left-handed use in portrait mode would also have been useful).
Keyboard
The keyboard is smaller than usual, but it is possible to touch type at a normal high speed. One annoyance is that there are no page up / page down keys on the keyboard itself—you have to Fn-down or use the hardkeys on the screen edge.
P1610 UK keyboard layout (click to enlarge)
Another problem with the keyboard is that the 'ridges' on the F and J keys are placed at the bottom and do not have enough definition on them for you to feel. This is a real pain if you touch type, because you'll need to look at the keyboard to check that your fingers are in the right position.
Another feature that they really should have included on this machine is keyboard back-lighting. I don't know why, but I seem to use this machine a lot more in the dark and a backlit keyboard would be a huge bonus.
Physical attributes
This is a very light and compact laptop having only an 8.9" screen. This makes it comparable to some Ultra-mobile PCs (UMPC).
Mine came with the extended battery which makes it slightly heavier, but it is still a very light machine.
The processor can get hot, which can make your hand clammy when holding it in slate mode, but it is not too uncomfortable.
It doesn't take much to make the processor fan turn on. The fan isn't particularly noisy and I haven't tried the 'silent fan' option in the BIOS.
There is very little vibration from the unit.
Speakers
The speakers are tinny, quiet and horrible. They are also covered by the screen. I've never heard speakers as bad as this.
I consider VOIP barely usable with the built-in speakers. Microphone, however, works fine.
PCMCIA
The PCMCIA slot is quite far out of the case. It would be nice to recess it in further. The button also is not recessed and often catches onto things causing it to spring out.
RAM
My unit came with 512mb as standard. I would not consider XP usable with only 512mb RAM. Do yourself a favour and upgrade.
Note that the unit uses 172-pin MicroDIMMs which are horrifically expensive. Kingston make a compatible part: KFJ-P1610/1G. As there are no spare memory slots, you'll have to replace the 512mb DIMM with the 1gb module.
Loss of settings
I found that on rebooting, that the settings of the trackpoint were lost. I normally have tap to click disabled and have to reset this each time I reboot.
The use of the middle 'button' for scrolling also stopped working at some point but since I don't use this, I haven't bothered to investigate.
Battery Life
I have the extended battery which juts out of the unit. The battery life is excellent and I've had 4-5 hours of continuous use (with wifi) on a single charge .
Conclusion
As a portable machine it is great. Still not small enough to carry everywhere all the time, but even the Sony UX would probably not fall into that category.
The machine isn't perfect, but it's a great combination of portability and power.
Just wanted to add some other reviews that are available on the net:
Hugo's review
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New topicComments (4)
I agree that the fan noise is generally OK. However it is audible and quite often, when you have increased CPU load it 'whooshes' so that the fan is temporarily much louder. When under sustained load the fan noise is like a miniture hairdryer! So yes, it can be noisy.
Written by Guest: Anonymous at 3:47am, 5 August 2007.Regarding the RAM upgrade. Just to say that I've done the same thing and it was really easy to upgrade the RAM. Just a case of taking the old RAM module out and putting in the new 1GB MicroDIMM.
I also discovered to my cost that the unit uses 172-pin MicroDIMMs instead of the cheaper SO-DIMMs. I also got the Kingston KFJ-P1610/1G module.
I also discovered to my cost that the unit uses 172-pin MicroDIMMs instead of the cheaper SO-DIMMs. I also got the Kingston KFJ-P1610/1G module.
Written by Guest: Anonymous at 7:53am, 5 August 2007.A minute hairdryer..? My tablet is straight out humiliating me in class! Whenever i start writing/taking notes on my tablet and the Fan turns on...its "LOUD". My classmates start turning around (this is in a lecture room i might add) trying to see where the noise is coming from. It gets so loud i can see them beginning to get annoyed to i have to just turn the laptop off all together! - ANy suggestions on what to do about all that fan noise? Cause if this continues i'll just have to bring my pen and paper again. Or sell my fujitus and get that Lenovo...
THanks
THanks
Written by Guest: Student at 3:32am, 27 August 2008.Practically, I don't think there's much you can do about it other than possibly try to suppress the noise using foam/baffles or use a hardware mod to slow down or stop the fan (at the risk of overheating).
You could always practise staring them down!
You could always practise staring them down!
Written by Charles Darke at 8:34am, 27 August 2008.
Too much candy
PIC OSD circuit
More seriously, we wonder this: how is it that Warren Buffett can cut a better deal with the best-run financial company in America than the U.S. Treasury can ask from the worst-run financial companies in America?