You know the basic rundown by heart by now, and Fujitsu doesn't stray far from the 10-inch netbook script with its newish
M2010 "mini-notebook." The big "killer" features on display here include standard Bluetooth, three USB ports, a 50 second Windows XP start up time and a digital microphone. The $450 pricetag includes a 3 cell battery rated at 2.5 hours of computing, and you can nab a 6 cell to double your pleasure for $129. Fujitsu is aiming this one at educational markets, and is touting some beefed up build quality for handling the wear and tear, but we're not sure there's anything here that justifies the pricetag or the totally average weight and thickness. The single configuration should be available now online and at select retailers.
posted Jun 2nd 2009 8:00AM
I've seen similar (Specs Wise) Netbooks at lower price points. I guess touting "beefed up build quality" equates to added price point.
I've seen similar (Specs Wise) Netbooks at lower price points. I guess touting "beefed up build quality" equates to added price point.
With such saturated market and they are selling it at $450??? The marketing manager should be fired.
I still have yet to really see a netbook that can beat the Samsung NC10 (which I have) for value. I paid 450 for it, and it came with a 6 cell battery, built in bluetooth and 3 usb ports. And it runs OSX now :)
omg, digital microphone!
a digital microphone? how does that work exactly?
all microphones are inherently analog... unless sound works differently now and i was not made aware.
and all microphones on a computer have to convert that analog signal to digital at some point.
Appropriately asked by someone with a name such as yours.
I'm assuming one of the following is true:
1. It is an analog microphone put through a digital noise filter to make the audio sound clean. This is usually very nice, since microphones are traditionally scratchy and junk on laptops.
or
2. If you were to remove the microphone from the netbook, you would discover that it is merely a USB microphone with a digital audio driver to handle it. This is also nice because it will definitely be much louder than a traditional PC mic and will harness power saving features to only use it when necessary.
Either way, you win. I'm guessing its #2 (or some combination of both) by utilizing an extra USB port off of the Bluetooth addon card to power it.
I'm interested in the fast startup time on a standard copy of XP, because my optimized installer currently boots in 30 seconds on my junky netbook. I'm sure my version would be closer to 20 seconds on this netbook, and I will def get one if they drop the price a bit and have other color options.
Check out the full review at ComputerShopper.com: http://computershopper.com/laptops/reviews/fujitsu-m2010-mini-notebook
Uh...
Most netbooks have three USB ports.
There's no such a thing as a digital microphone in that they all start with some kind of analogue sensor which turns sound waves into electricity - which is then sampled and then sent as a stream of numbers to be processed. Technically - ALL computer microphones are 'digital'.
Whether it's USB or direct connect to the codec hardware is irrelevent. If it's a USB mic internally - then it has a codec in the USB interface rather than a dedicated one on the motherboard, but since the device also has an audio in jack, there has to be a codec chip on the motherboard anyway - so I'm betting it's not a USB mic at all.
Bluetooth - definitely nice, and unfortunately relatively uncommon on netbooks (which is stupid).
That leaves the 50 second boot time. I'm willing to bet it's 50 seconds when you get it - but in a few months it won't be that anymore as you install more and more things that have to get started up at boot time.
Check out the right shift key! Remember when netbooks with keyboards like this used to be acceptable?
FAIL!