Fujitsu's LifeBook P8010 gets reviewed

Believe it or not, it wasn't even two months ago that we laid hands on the up and coming Fujitsu LifeBook P8010 at CES, and shortly after becoming available to the masses, PC Magazine has rounded one up for review. Right out of the box, the unit was praised for feeling oh-so-light (2.8-pounds, for those counting) and including a built-in optical drive. Unfortunately, such a small footprint left little room for a full-fledged keyboard, and besides feeling "cramped," performance was nothing to write home about either. Granted, it did boast fairly impressive battery life, but given the heightened competition in the ultraportable area of late, these editors were forced to hand out a 3 out of 5 rating and wish that the P8010 came in at a lower price point.

[mister XR @ Mar 5th 2008 12:50PM]

imo it's vista that's causing the performance issues. slap xubuntu on the sucker and it'd be screamin.

[leek @ Mar 9th 2008 11:16PM]

The P8010 cones with XP Professional, not Bad Vista.

[mister XR @ Mar 10th 2008 10:28AM]

RTFA - it says "vista business"... considering that, and the fact that the previous P-series notebooks only come with Vista as well, I think it would be safe to assume that it would have Vista. Am I missing something?

[Flashpoint @ Mar 5th 2008 12:56PM]

I'd take this over a Macbook Air.

Even though its ugly as Sin.

[Sam @ Mar 5th 2008 2:02PM]

wait...like THE Sin?

Its not that bad is it, I think we just say that now in reflex for all the laptops that come out in matte black and/or are blocky. But you don't really want the glossy whites with swirly patterns when you bring it out at work anyway right?
Personally I think the Acer Ferrari ones are pretty tacky myself.

[Chino B @ Mar 5th 2008 1:09PM]

That's one fat lifebook.

[Kamall @ Mar 5th 2008 1:32PM]

I don't like this iteration of their Lifebook P series. I had their P5020D model back in 2004 and loved it. They are a big competitor to Sony's Vaio T series and one thing that set them apart was having a modular bay to slap in an extra battery.

Its really too bad they got rid of it and also made the memory card reader SD only when it used to read several card formats. I know SD is the most popular card format but I actually have some of those "evil" memory sticks I use. : )

And you still have not gone to Expresscard Fujitsu? Still using PC-Card? There are PC-Card adaptors for Expresscard slots. : (

[murray @ Mar 5th 2008 2:15PM]

Oh, I didn't realize they had ditched the modular bay. I would like to add my disappointment in this as an addendum to my comment below. The modular bay battery has been a critical aspect of the P5020D for me ever since day-one. I was able to get 6 hours of use (when the batteries were new), and could not have lived without that ability. This is a shame.

I'd also add that I think it's time for an SSD option. The worst thing about my P5020D is the heat that the HD generates (admittedly I slapped in a 7200rpm drive which runs pretty hot).

[murray @ Mar 5th 2008 2:07PM]

I've been using a P5020D for 3+ years now, and it has been an excellent little machine. I think the use of low-power processors is still an excellent decision by Fujitsu, as battery life is critical to most ultraportable users. I'm a little disappointed that the size has grown (succumbing to pressure from larger-screened competitors), but it's nice to see weight didn't increase from the last model. But is it still as robust? (I know my P5020D is built very tough.)

Although the keyboard isn't quite full-size, I am able to type quite quickly on the P5020D, an I have quite large hands. It just takes a little getting used to.

[bot @ Mar 5th 2008 3:00PM]

These new ultra portable laptops are fun to hear about but their advances are a bit on the slow side. The ability to squeeze in optical drives seems to be more common, but I feel like that's not something mobile users are begging for. I would like to see upgrades in the processor and battery department mostly. My 6+ month old 12" laptop has a 1.2 Core 2 Duo as well. So improvements are coming along in screen technology (I don't have an LED screen), the ability to cram an optical drive (mine is external), and a newer chipset (still on GMA 950). However, the rest is the same: 2GB ram capacity, 5-6 hour battery life (wifi-on), in a package that comes in under 3lbs. The best thing though was that it all cost around 1100 dollars whereas these seemingly minor upgrades are selling for 2000. Youch.

Hopefully as Intel's new platform matures we'll see more processor power in similar frames?

[nak @ Mar 5th 2008 4:39PM]

I really liked this laptop and am surprised about the review. Ill have to compare it to the 11" asus review from yesterday or wait until the laptops get reviewed by the same people.

I agree that optical drives arent necessary and love it when manufacturers give the option of replacing the optical drive with an extra battery.

I love how they crammed a 12.1" into a 11" shell but they can keep the optical drive and phone jack. Also this a different proc than the one you have on your laptop; its a montevina chip.

[darkeyez @ Mar 5th 2008 3:15PM]

I could've sworn that PC Mag gave it a higher rating than that, I was just reading the review this morning.

[leek @ Mar 9th 2008 11:22PM]

My only negative first impression about this notebook is the display's limited viewing angle, limited contrast, and backlight bleed (bars of light around the edges -- set the background to black and look at the top edge of the screen).

I don't care whether it's the latest and greatest processor -- weight and battery life are more important. If I want speed I'll log into my RISC servers :)