Akihabara News got their hands on
Fujitsu's new FMV-U8240 UMPC and have posted their impressions from using the device over a three day period. The first point worth referring to is the enclosure, which is undoubtedly compact but which also gives off a distinct mid-90s gadget vibe. (One of the machine's quirks are two little LEDs for night typing: cute.) If you can stomach the style, you've got good ergonomics to make up for it: apparently the keyboard is acceptable, which is the closest you can get to a compliment for a keyboard that's just under 7 inches wide. As is to be expected in a UMPC that only weighs 1.28 pounds (584 grams) the feature set is a bit of a compromise, with an 800MHz A110 Intel CPU appearing to be the weak point at first, although it's apparently capable of playing 720p DivX video flawlessly. Battery life is a rather disappointing 2.5 to 3.5 hours of real world usage, and the reviewer had issues with the swivel screen and the touchscreen: he hopes that these are pre-production problems, and at $1,190-$1,360 a piece depending on configuration, we'd hope so too.
posted Jun 2nd 2007 2:06PM
I will take the Lifebook P1610 anyday any time over this piece of fugly crap!
I agree, it's a pointless device especially since the P1610 is so much faster and really not that much bigger at all.
I could so see this as the step up from the Zaurus. If it was only $700-$800... Interesting that OpenOffice.org and Mozilla are included, and on a Windows-based machine at that.
Battery life is disappointing, hopefully it is a pre-production issue. But everything else is fine. I for one love the whole 'robotic' design. The ergonomic seems fine and it looks rugged enough.
if by mid-90s gadget vibe you mean no present faux silver-grey drabness, then I'm in.
I love the look of this device, if nothing else.
It's not the pinnacle design of notebooks, but compared to other UMPC's, its fairly cheap. It's also the perfect size for those on the go, and probably is more reliable and powerfull. This thing looks like it's totally worth it.
However, Macbooks still pwn in design...
that thing looks like a laptop version of dark vader
I simply cannot wait to get my hands on this device.
I think the look is actually better than most other UMPC's
Also, the practicality of a convertible clamshell UMPC beats any other design.
I always saw the 'always exposed' screens on many UMPC's as a big fault, this solves the problem.
Looks promising. I like the design, all the button, and the power. But the 800MHZ is a bit disappointing but i guess it would overheat if bigger.
IIRC, the A110 CPU is Dual Core @ 800Mhz. Why a UMPC needs a Dual Core processor is beyond me. The OS takes advantage of it, but that's where it stops at.
Does this remind anyone of the OLPCs?