Fujitsu's LifeBook U820 mini tablet now on sale, starts at $999

We're still scratching our noggins in a futile attempt to figure out the LifeBook U820's real purpose on this Earth, but for those who've got it all figured out, you'll likely be thrilled to know that this puppy is now on sale. $999 buys you a mini convertible tablet with an Intel Atom Z530 CPU, a 5.6-inch WXGA touchscreen, 1GB of DDR2 RAM, a 60GB 4,200RPM hard drive, built-in GPS / Garmin Mobile PC, Ethernet, a webcam / fingerprint sensor, Bluetooth / WiFi and a 4-cell battery. There's also a $1,299 version if that other variant just isn't up to your standards, but at any rate, feel free to punch the read link and have a think before pulling the trigger on either.

[Via jkkmobile]

Gallery: Fujitsu's LifeBook U820 mini tablet now on sale

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[eggothewaffle @ Nov 4th 2008 9:12AM]

Double the screen size and they'll be on the right track to usefulness.

Oh wait, Windows 7 isn't out yet so what's the point of any portable tablet? Huh?!?

http://www.gottabemobile.com/2008/10/28/windows-7-tablet-pc-screen-shots/

So sexy.

[John @ Nov 4th 2008 9:37AM]

"Double the screen size and they'll be on the right track to usefulness."

Here you go...
http://store.shopfujitsu.com/fpc/Ecommerce/buildseriesbean.do?series=T2010

[eggothewaffle @ Nov 4th 2008 9:39AM]

12.1" is too big, dearest John.

[Ekauq @ Nov 4th 2008 10:03AM]

so you want 11.2"?

[rock99rock @ Nov 4th 2008 10:22AM]

I had the u810 for a short while. 5.6" screen is just too small. At least they upped the processor from that a110. Atom Z530 looks to have same specs as the N270..

[cppguy @ Nov 4th 2008 11:42AM]

I think a 9" version would be extremely useful, but I'm staying with my 12.1" as a paper substitute. I just wish it was running a tad cooler and didn't reflect the ceiling lights. Solving those two problems would make me upgrade.

[Boards of Canada @ Nov 4th 2008 4:31PM]

ITS A MIRACLE!

[eggothewaffle @ Nov 4th 2008 4:57PM]

I've never been low ranked twice on an article before :'[

[bhtooefr @ Nov 4th 2008 10:31PM]

cppguy, I know it costs (a lot) more, but take a look at the P1620 and P1630... they're 8.9"...

Actually, an old P1610 would probably still be faster than the U820, and have slightly better battery life than the P1620. (Not sure about the P1630, it has a die shrunk CPU and a different chipset...)

[kiwee @ Nov 4th 2008 9:17AM]

i love it : )
fingerprint scanner
extending antena
how cool is that ?

[Tim @ Nov 4th 2008 9:21AM]

How can it possibly cost that much?

[Erwos @ Nov 4th 2008 9:37AM]

You need to understand just how small this thing is. It makes an eeePC look big. It also has a rather nice dock.

I'm hoping they'll release a dock with HDMI - that's more or less my last quibble with this device, especially now that it has GPS.

[PixelSlave @ Nov 4th 2008 11:41AM]

Quite the contrary, I am surprised that it costs so little. There are high end GPS unit costing as much as this tablet.

[Neeko @ Nov 4th 2008 9:29AM]

Do these companies NOT listen to the industry..Nobody is asking for a 5.6' screen on anything thats not a novelty.. If they did they would know that a 5.6-inch screen is only useful for backseat TV watching. IF it was just the screen without a keyboard maybe i could see a home automation/media use but the mini clunker they have here is useless..

[Sarig @ Nov 4th 2008 10:42AM]

Since this isn't the first model, apparently someone is buying them!

But you know all about the market, right? I'll call fujitsu at once to tell them an internet expert has said they're no longer wanted.

[Neeko @ Nov 4th 2008 12:21PM]

Im sure they are being sold. Just because there being manufactured doesn't mean theres a HUGE market for them. And theres nothing like hearing a sarcastic ASS dissing your opinion and not even coming up with anything worth of value to base his grand opinion on. Next time you feel the need to disagree with me...PLEASE tell me why without being a DICK about it... You have proved your vast superiority.. Do you feel like a man now?

The point of my post was that a 5.6' screen is never going to be as popular as a 8.9 or 10' screen. The screen is entirely to small. Compared to what they could actually produce and sell faster then ASUS or MSI.

[msalivar @ Nov 4th 2008 12:56PM]

Hence the higher price. The people who do want such a small screen need to pay a premium because it's not in high demand. Clearly Fujitsu is making enough off of them to refresh the line, but (watch out, sarcasm) I'm sure they haven't done any actual studies into the market, so maybe not.

[sinjinn @ Nov 4th 2008 2:00PM]

everyone and thier uncle is releasing a 8.9 inch screen netbook , but what if i wanted a 5.6 inch mini laptop ? i have only one choice.

[Mike10010100 @ Nov 4th 2008 5:22PM]

Wow, man. Teh internets r serius bizness

Seriously, chill out. 1 man vs. a big company like Fujitsu.....

They've probably already tapped the market to see if something like this is wanted.

[htd @ Nov 4th 2008 9:29AM]

such as wide border, I cant believe when cheap netbook is every where, they still think they can sell it for that much.

[jim @ Nov 4th 2008 9:35AM]

fugly

[zmjjmz @ Nov 4th 2008 9:44AM]

"60GB 4,200RPM hard drive"
And Vista.


I don't think so.

[E. Leigh @ Nov 4th 2008 9:58AM]

Really, I agree. What's 4200 RPM?

I think that I stifled a laugh when I read Intel Atom Z530 and 4200RPM drive for the umpc.

[Bandit5317 @ Nov 4th 2008 4:05PM]

It's probably a 1.8" hdd, like what's in an iPod. With the amount of room that the engineers had to work with, it was probably either this or an SSD, which would've hiked the price up even higher.

[john @ Nov 4th 2008 9:59AM]

Let me know when they have a version with:

Vendor supported Ubuntu-UMPC
SSD
HSPA modem

Then I'll buy it.

[fincan @ Nov 4th 2008 3:59PM]

They cannot support Ubuntu, at least not with a tablet since Ubuntu broke the wacom compatibility in 8.10 (Intrepid)

[bhtooefr @ Nov 4th 2008 10:34PM]

I don't think the digitizer is Wacom - it's definitely not an active digitizer.

[Benson @ Nov 5th 2008 3:52AM]

So, so, very tempting... I'd buy with those changes, too.

I think I'd most likely buy anyhow if I saw one in person -- that I'm not likely to is probably a good thing.

[Temo @ Nov 4th 2008 9:59AM]

I was looking for something like this... just a bit bigger screen and a massive battery lifetime (about 10 hours)

[gadjitfreek @ Nov 4th 2008 10:13AM]

I'm buying one. Been waiting for this very device!

[FRZ @ Nov 4th 2008 10:21AM]

The screen could be bigger, at least 7" could fit that device size.

[msalivar @ Nov 4th 2008 12:58PM]

No it couldn't. Look at the current screen size, and the bezel size. See, didn't your math teacher tell you proportions would come in handy someday?

[Shela Monster @ Nov 4th 2008 10:24AM]

It would be good with XP on it for longer battery life.
Excellent for the college kid, easy to carry around and use in between classes.
But anything CPU heavy is going to cut into your battery life.
Aero is no exception, Windows 7 or Vista...

[devwild @ Nov 4th 2008 10:50AM]

Aside from the fact that aero doesn't consume nearly as much battery life as people think it does, you would want to leave aero off on this device probably. Either way, the battery life with Vista or XP is pretty similar once you've disabled surplus services... I've used both, and I use XP simply because it performs better, which means your usable time is more, because you aren't sitting around waiting for the drive to grind.

[phail @ Nov 4th 2008 10:34AM]

hopefully this knocks the price down on the u810

[OddManOut @ Nov 4th 2008 11:36AM]

I just picked up a refurbed u810 model for ~$500. It's the device I've been waiting for since I was a wee child watching Inspector Gadget's niece Penny and her oh so ahead of it's time computer book (Wow! There was a time when a girl could hold a gadget and I was more interested in the gadget than the girl...a time before engadget, gizmodo, and i4u ruined my mind...).

The u820 will probably drive the price down even more, as have netbooks in general. The price of a Fujitsu P1120 sure took a nosedive after the eee debuted. Don't know what I'll do with my P1120 now that I have new ultra portable (they only sell for about $150 now so I might as well keep it). Maybe I'll finally get around to setting up a linux laptop...

But for all those who don't understand the u series, you really need to put one side by side with an eee or an aspire one to appreciate the size difference. The ee and it's variants, as small as they are, are still a little too big for comfortable all day carry during traveling as far as I'm concerned. But the u's might juest make it. Add to that the fact that the u810 at least comes with a 5200mah battery standard, so you get about 5hrs run time out of the box (and that's with an old A110).

I'm sure this new Atom based variant will have more omph, but before I purchased my A110 based unit I made sure to test out one in store. I played a fairly densely encoded divx rip (a 2 hour movie at about 1.2GB), it played fine. And that was on a system with VISTA installed on it. I've already downloaded all appropriate XP drivers from Fujitsus webpage, and the model I purchased has XP tablet anyway, so I think it will have enough processing power for the minimal needs this device needs to serve.

As for the main gripes people have against these models, tiny screen and proportionally tiny KB...I'm 28 (good eyes) , half asian (relatively slender fingers), and I can't touch type anyway (and on this devices keyboard neither can anyone else). It's not a device suited to everyone, but hey...it works for me...

[Al @ Nov 4th 2008 3:38PM]

Where did you get one for that price?

[OddManOut @ Nov 5th 2008 5:28PM]

@Al

Ebay o'course :). But at that I got a pretty good deal. Most have been going for about $550 and up...some as high as $750 (not much more than that though as the buy-it-nows start at about $800).

If you like a bit more of a sure thing I was a hairs breadth away from pulling the trigger on this...

http://www.cedarpc.com/cgi-bin/commerce.cgi?preadd=action&key=1035

[Al @ Nov 5th 2008 8:07PM]

Had a hunch it was. Is yours the 60gb model or the base 40gb model? How is the SQ on it?

[devwild @ Nov 4th 2008 10:43AM]

FWIW, I own the U810, and with XP and the fonts at 120dpi, it's really a slick device. Better battery life than netbooks, smaller size, slate tablet mode is useful while standing, more durable than the Q1Ultra because the screen isn't exposed in your bag, and speaking of bags, it fits nicely in anything, like a shoulder bag or camera bag, which makes it much easier to carry around town at will than a laptop. I recently used while visiting san francisco tethered via bluetooth to my handset to find maps, transit times, and places to eat - and while eating to do actual work online that I couldn't do with an iphone or the like. I've also used it at meetings where table space is at a premium, and while everyone else is bumping into one another, I just slip it in a footprint the size of half a sheet of paper, or use it on my knee. Finally, I've used it at home as a media player - sitting on the dock in slate mode, hooked to my stereo, and tucked under my mac monitor so I can use it easily with synergy.

They really can serve a purpose, you just have to decide for yourself if you have that purpose, and if it's worth the money. I bought mine before the eeepc matured, so the decision was easy if I wanted something easy to carry for the above reasons. Several people have also used the U810 as in-car computers/media players since there's a proper car dock for it, and for that sort of solution, it's almost cheap :)

[bebop @ Nov 4th 2008 11:35AM]

I modded you up because I got sick of the "make it the size of a refrigerator with a 22" screen and I'll buy it" comments. I appreciate your point of view and I'm glad to see someone getting productive use out of this device, though personally I don't value the tablet/MID functionality enough to make this a realistic alternative to my netbook.

[E. Douglas Jensen @ Nov 4th 2008 4:42PM]

The one thing that keeps me away from any device whose screen has only a single center mounting point is that as I type the screen rocks forward and back or side to side or both. Does the 810/820 have this problem? Thank you.

[Jon @ Nov 4th 2008 11:34AM]

I am actually quite intrigued with this product offering. As an engineer who has a laptop for business use, this product could offer me a personal response to travel, picture swapping/storage, personal website editing, and occasional email checking while on the go. Essentially everything I wanted from my Zaurus 9 years ago, but couldn't get. Yes, the price is a little high, and I am not happy about Vista as an OS, but it has the specs to play with the big boys. True, it would be laughed off the field, but at about a pound it can be happy by itself in a corner.

[MikeWard1701 @ Nov 4th 2008 11:46AM]

Where to start with this?

- Fugly as sin!
- Screen too small
- HDD too small and too slow

Kudos on the inclusion of fingerprint reader and GPS though.

But $999? Seriously? In a straight conversion that's £622 and considering I can buy a HP TX2530 for £599 they must be joking!

[Benson @ Nov 5th 2008 3:37AM]

Yeah, it's almost like devices cost more and have somewhat less convenient input when shrunk to fit it in a jacket pocket! Astounding!

[Tom @ Nov 4th 2008 1:29PM]

When you can get a full-featured netbook for $400 that has many of the same features, you really have to ask yourself whether the touchscreen (smaller, at that), GPS, and other minor assorted features are really worth another $600.

[gadjitfreek @ Nov 4th 2008 1:48PM]

I have a Acer Aspire ONE netbook and an OQO Model 02...and I just ordered the U820. It is exactly the machine I have always wanted. Great battery life, usable keyboard, zippy processor for what I need it for...the 02 will likely end up on Ebay, as will my 13.3" Toshiba laptop. This is the one, the perfect portable computer solution.

[Greg @ Nov 4th 2008 3:00PM]

It looks like the battery was an afterthought.

[TubeTop100.com @ Nov 4th 2008 3:17PM]

These devices are FAR from ugly, you just have to see them in real life to appreciate it.
The size is great and they're really solid build.
The U810 was all over Tokyo and I kept drooling. Too bad they were quite expensive.
The screen is especially amazing. 5.6" 1280x800, take that eeePC 7" 800x480

[kidcanuck @ Nov 4th 2008 3:49PM]

I think I saw this once in 2001.