Fujitsu LifeBook U820 gets reviewed

At $1,000, Fujitsu's netbook-esque LifeBook U820 is nothing if not a tough sell, but NotebookReview.com seems to think that the category-defying device will appeal to at least a few folks out there, even if they are aware that they can get a similarly equipped netbook for less than half the price. As you might have guessed, they found the device's form factor to be its biggest selling point, with them going so far as to describe it as "the smallest and most feature packed mini tablet" they've reviewed. They were also especially impressed with the device's "incredible" battery life (over eight hours in "balanced" mode), and its overall build quality, which certainly seems to be a step above your average netbook or mini tablet. On the downside, it is still basically an average Atom-powered netbook on the inside, which is easy to accept at $300-$500, but a whole other matter when you hit four digits.

[piyo @ Dec 17th 2008 7:11PM]

lol @ $1k Atom CPU.... really ugly battery pack too.... pass

[jK @ Dec 17th 2008 11:55PM]

The Fujitsu U820 uses Silverthorne (Atom Z530) where as all the cheapo netbooks use Diamondville (Atom N270). They are essentially the same CPU but Silverthorne uses less power and has much smaller CPU size, making Silverthorne perfect for U820 which is almost 1/2 the size of an eeepc i.e. it's an UMPC NOT a netbook. U820 even has a proper 1.8 inch HDD bay not some tiny PCI-E SSD used in all the netbooks.

From Wikipedia.org:

"Silverthorne will be called the Atom Z series and Diamondville will be called the Atom N series. The more expensive lower-power Silverthorne parts will be used in Intel Mobile Internet Devices (MIDs) whereas Diamondville will be used in low-cost desktop and notebooks."

..and yes.. I bought one yesterday lol

[HDE @ Dec 18th 2008 8:42AM]

I sweat these things were $100-200 less in Japan a couple months ago. Even is is still expensive.

[Nik @ Dec 17th 2008 7:13PM]

It looks like a large phone. Sort of like a Shift...

[VicJames @ Dec 17th 2008 7:15PM]

What is with the Centrino badge? Hell if it was a Centrino rather than a Atom I could understand the price.

[jK @ Dec 17th 2008 11:58PM]

@ VicJames

If you zoom in on the photo you will find that it is actually "Centrino Atom inside" badge.
I read somewhere that "Centrino Atom inside" badge is given to Silverthorne CPUs while "Atom inside" badge is given to cheaper Diamondville CPUs

[JJ @ Dec 17th 2008 7:15PM]

I have a Fujitsu U810 and I love it! It's quite speedy for an 800mhz CPU and it's running Vista!

[bobartig @ Dec 17th 2008 7:16PM]

Fujitsu has been making solid, ultra-portables with a niche following long before the netbook frenzy made them all the rage. I'm sure this product will still appeal to the same target niche market, who, incidentally are not the same people who are trying to decide between an Aspire One and an EeePC.

On an unrelated note, I was at Toys R Us last weekend, and saw two little girls (i.e. like 10 year olds) tooling away on a pair of display EeePC's. They sell netbooks at Toys R Us?!?!

[larrylevine @ Dec 17th 2008 7:19PM]

My wife has a similar lifebook (u810) and she loves it. It's not the quickest computer in our house but she can dock it or throw it in her purse. We got it at frys for $650 after rebate less than a year ago. It came with Vista but we downgraded it to XP (tablet). It does just fine with OpenOffice, Mozilla Thunderbird/FIrefox and a few sync apps to keep her up-to-date with her office computer. I liked the older one - and I'm a macbook pro fanboy - so I'm sure this is just fine - especially if it has the 3g networking standard.

[Erwos @ Dec 17th 2008 7:22PM]

I feel like the comparisons to the larger netbooks are misguided - this thing is far smaller than an eeePC.

[huh @ Dec 17th 2008 7:32PM]

it is also a convertible tablet. totally different type of device. as well as being fujitsu quality (though their keyboards aren't very great).

[thomas @ Dec 18th 2008 4:22AM]

so if it smaller than a netbook or a notebook OR a tablet...... does that make it a sketchbook??

[Sarig @ Dec 18th 2008 10:29AM]

Yes, sadly this is a case of Engadget not really having a clue about the different portable pc categories and niche markets.

[David Ron @ Dec 17th 2008 7:32PM]

Like others have said, these tiny Fijutsy LifeBook models have been around for far longer than the term Netbook has been around. And, this is far from generic, as Engadget seems to indicate. Fingerprint scanner, touch screen that can swivel around to convert to a tablet, even smaller than an eeepc, GPS, Draft-N wireless, Bluetooth. Seriously.. that's worth a few hundred dollars more than the average netbook.

[FRZ @ Dec 18th 2008 11:17AM]

Still too expensive.

[chefgon_ign @ Dec 17th 2008 7:50PM]

Looking at the spec sheet and size of this device, $1000 sounds like an almost impossibly good bargain.

[BJ is Gooder @ Dec 17th 2008 7:50PM]

Looks like they're taking notes from Apple - charge a lot for and people will think it's special!

The problem is, this thing isn't special...

[KIFF @ Dec 17th 2008 8:00PM]

This is more special than most 'netbooks' on the market. Have you actually seen the spec? This has GPS and is a convertible tablet. How many of Asus's thousands of eeepc models can claim that?? The screen is also super sharp, offering 1280x800 pixels in a small 5.8" screen. Hell, the Asus 901 only offers 1024x600 resolution on a larger screen.

[jon @ Dec 17th 2008 8:01PM]

i dont know if ive ever seen a laptop wearing the energy star badge on the front like that, in the "green sells" days we're living in, it probably isnt a bad idea that all companies start advertising that more, because most laptops are already energy star certified but they hide the badge on the underside of the laptops

[KC @ Dec 17th 2008 8:50PM]

Really? Have you checked out many this year? My 6 month old Sony Vaio has an energystar badge on the front. The new one I bought for the girlfriend for Christmas also has one as did virtually every other laptop I was looking at this holiday season while shopping for the one I eventually settled on for her.

[SDreamer @ Dec 17th 2008 8:13PM]

Uh...compared to other netbooks, I don't think the others have a touch screen and a gps included within them.

[Orappa @ Dec 17th 2008 8:24PM]

looks sweet, but price tag.

[KilgoreTrout @ Dec 17th 2008 8:25PM]

My opinion is that it sports a centrino 2 badge because that's what it's got in its guts, besides it seems that the guy who wrote this article has no idea of how much a resistive touch screen costs these days: touch screens are the only electronic components whose price seems never to go down (even buying in bulk does not help much).
Anyway since they decided to make a little nice tablet PC they could do the job the way it should be done: away with that 7/8" screen and thick ugly bezel!
To use a flush 10 incher would make the end product maybe 100$ more expensive (max), but it would add me among its exteemers; with that miserable, puny screen It gives me really no reason to pension my faithful Vaio.

[grabbydad @ Dec 17th 2008 8:26PM]

It would be great if it was screen was slightly larger. Less frame on the top would be great, especially in tablet mode. Otherwise, the specs look great despite it having an Atom processor the same as other netbooks roll with. +1Fujitsu

[jeremy @ Dec 17th 2008 10:26PM]

Why can't most of you see that in 2009!! this is a horribly designed product? Today we need a screen directly on top of and proportional in size to the keyboard! If they paid people to design this?, oh wait they did. These times won't allow for silly design any longer. That screen is only 2 inches bigger than an Iphone.

[tekdroid @ Dec 17th 2008 11:01PM]

Battery life (7.5+ hours), size of unit and outdoor visibility of the screen probably was deemed more important than simply a larger screen.

CompactFlash slot was a real surprise. Who uses CompactFlash in a portable these days? I'd prefer an extra USB there instead of just having one, like the reviewer. That is the deal-breaker right there. Otherwise, give me compact and long-lasting battery life in computers that let me get things done without lugging around several kilograms anyday. The bigger screens are fine when I'm stationary and plugged into mains, not so much when I'm lugging things around and just want to get stuff done.

[Daniel @ Dec 18th 2008 4:19PM]

Speaking of long battery life - are there any netbooks that has a battery life comparable to this Fujitsu..?

[tekdroid @ Dec 18th 2008 1:53AM]

Daniel @ Dec 17th 2008 11:12PM
Speaking of long battery life - are there any netbooks that has a battery life comparable to this Fujitsu..?
----------
Hah, when you find one, let me know. All I've seen don't come close.

[A.R. @ Dec 18th 2008 2:59AM]

I've heard the netbook with the longest battery life right now is the samsung nc-10. Running on very low power mode, it can get up to 7 hours.

[Aki @ Dec 18th 2008 12:36AM]

I have this computer, and unlike the reviewer, I've had some problems with the unit's internal GPS in that it doesn't get very good reception in the city where I've tried it (Vancouver). That's a bit of a bummer. From what I've read, it doesn't seem like support for linux isn't there yet (GMA 500), which frustrates me too.

That said, it's a fantastic laptop. It's great to be able to just toss the laptop into the small pocket of my shoulder bag leaving space for my DSLR in the main compartment. When I take photographs and want to review them, it's a simple matter of tossing the card into to the laptop and viewing them onscreen. The screen, while small, has an incredible resolution so I can review images without having to zoom in, it's like looking at a 4x6.

On the bus, I often have to stand but that's not a problem since it's quite easy to use google reader in one hand (the up/down keys are in the perfect location for the thumb when holding by left hand)

Yep, it's not a laptop for everyone, and it's far from perfect: I'm currently using and will have to keep my old laptop. However, the u820 is the one I now carry around everywhere since I just don't have to think about finding space for it in any of my bags.

[Jason @ Dec 18th 2008 1:34AM]

Looks like a great concept, but I see the majority of these going for about $699 in the end.

[arbilli @ Dec 18th 2008 2:48AM]

I've got a U810 and I love the little beastie. I wear cargo pants to work, and even with the leather case, I can easily slip it into one of my pockets. So I can wander around the server floor and whip it out whenever I need a router config, or one of my ip tables, it beats the hell out of the old paper note book it replaced. Plus seven hours of battery life means I can pretty much always count on it when I travel. I've been Running Ubuntu MID edition on it for a while, and I'm nothing if not impressed on how well the little guy works. Of course the first thing I did when I got was rip out the 1.8 hard drive and replace it with a SSD, you would not believe the effect it had on performance. Really though, they should have never released these little guys with Vista installed, they just don't have the performance necessary to run it properly, a five minute boot time is just too much. Over all I'm extremely happy with it, and if I had to do it over again, I'd buy it again in a heartbeat.

[Pretol @ Dec 18th 2008 3:39AM]

When will they learn: DO NOT INSTALL VISTA ON SOMETHING THAT IS OBVIOUSLY UNDERPOWERED. They should have just put XP or ubuntu like everyone else does.

[gadjitfreek @ Dec 18th 2008 5:12AM]

I did a video review of this little lappie over at

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NCPGJ99HAp4

I really like it, but the addition of Vista on a 60 GB hard drive was a horrible mistake.

[Inane_Asylum @ Dec 18th 2008 8:20AM]

I think the addition of Vista on any harddrive is a horrible mistake...

*runs and hides*

[arbilli @ Dec 18th 2008 9:41AM]

Vista isn't the monster most people make it out to be. It just an under achiever, like me. You have to admit, XP was a lot to live up to. I know it wasn't everyone's cup of tea, but compared to previous versions of Windows it was a monumental change for the better. It's really just like the step from Windows 2000 to Windows ME. You spent a lot of time with 2000, you had good times together. But after awhile you realized that the relationship just wasn't going in the direction you wanted, so you went your separate ways. Then one night you found yourself at a bar drinking away your sorrow, and you happen to look across the smoke filled room. There it was Windows ME, so full of promise, everything you thought you were looking for in an operation system. But unfortunately after one night of passion, and several shots of penicillin later, you came to realize ME was just your rebound OS. Pretty much the same thing with Vista.

[GingerFox @ Dec 18th 2008 2:41PM]

im sorry,i know i'll end up getting low ranked for this, but if you put vista on a PC that is powerful enough to run it, its amazing i would never ever go back to XP. That being said its not for these kind of devices i agree that it requires a decent pc to make it useable so manufacture's should realise this and adjust the OS they put on their machines accordingling.

:)

[superhobo @ Dec 19th 2008 5:19AM]

You didn't mention the screen size. Duh.