Fujitsu LifeBook U810 tablet reviewed

Fujitsu attracted a fair bit of attention back in August with its $1,000 U810 convertible tablet PC, and it's now out to prove its worth when it comes to reviews, one of the first of which looks to have come from the folks at Laptop Magazine. While it's apparently not without its faults, they found quite a bit to like about the device, saying "you can't beat the price for a unit with a usable built-in keyboard and tablet functionality." They also especially dug the tablet's sharp 5.6-inch screen, and it's long battery life, which wound up around 5 hours and 14 minutes in their tests. On the downside, they were less impressed with the performance from the 800MHz A110 processor (no surprise there), and by the lack of integrated mobile broadband, not to mention the somewhat lackluster keyboard and mouse. That apparently wasn't enough to keep it from getting a decent 3.5 out of 5 rating, however, with that $1,000 price tag working considerably in its favor.

[bob e @ Sep 18th 2007 3:07PM]

I think I am getting the HTC Shift instead although I do like the swivel screen.

[spass @ Sep 18th 2007 3:19PM]

Swivel screen is handy, but overall design seems too complicated and busy. Too many ins and outs. Just keep simple, straigt lines, good build, fewer textures and material change and I'd consider it.

[joe23521 @ Sep 18th 2007 3:14PM]

Looks interesting...
And by "interesting," I mostly mean ugly.

[Ebzy @ Sep 18th 2007 4:12PM]

Guys, guys look closer.

There's no permanent Caps Lock. That alone should be worth a few points

[OddManOut @ Sep 18th 2007 5:12PM]

No dedicated one anyway. I'm willing to bet it's a tertiary function on some other key and is accessible through by an 'FN' (function) button.

Just a guess, but that's usually how they handle it on devices with reduced KB's...

[John @ Sep 18th 2007 4:13PM]

I'd definitely consider one if I was just going to get a tablet for doing note taking and (if 800mHz is anywhere near enough for it...) some photoshop. I already have a Fujitsu T4220 though, so I'm pretty set with regards to tablet-ing.

[zakglass @ Sep 18th 2007 4:31PM]

800 Mhz may do for note taking, though even that was rough on the original Compaq TC1000 (1 Ghz Transmeta). For Photoshop, you'd have better luck on an etch-a-sketch.

[John @ Sep 18th 2007 7:06PM]

ok, so maybe you can use MS Paint instead.

[Mark @ Sep 18th 2007 4:29PM]

I think the Q1 Ultra is a better choice if you can deal with the small keypad.

[enzo @ Sep 18th 2007 5:01PM]

They got the size and price right, but putting vista business on it was a mistake... especially at 800mhz

[Meridimus @ Sep 18th 2007 5:39PM]

800Mhz? lol

[Marty @ Sep 18th 2007 6:35PM]

But, but... it's so ugly.

[ComradeZ @ Sep 18th 2007 10:16PM]

According to the specs on the fujitsu site, the u810 DOES come with integrated a/b/g WLAN. Also, you can get it with Vista Business, Vista Home Premium or Windows XP 2005 Tablet Edition.

[marc @ Sep 19th 2007 7:09AM]

It reminds me of Sony's UX-50 PDA. I like it.

[JDH @ Sep 21st 2007 9:55AM]

I really like the looks of this product; but one question comes to mind...
What is the hinge made out of? I can't find the answer to that anywhere.

Considering the fact that it's attached by one single swivel hinge, I hope that the material is a highly durable metal attached to more metal because that is far more liable to break off after the thousandth swivel/flip.

I would want to get one, but not if the hinge will break in two seconds...