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Fujitsu LifeBook Q2010 reviewed
If you're all worked up wondering if someone got their hands on the "$5,000 limited edition" version, you can calm down a bit. Nevertheless, we're thrilled to finally see a review on the self-proclaimed "world's most desirable laptop" even if it focuses on the slightly less expensive versions. The 2.2-pound Q2010 fared well, according to Laptop Mag, who praised the notebook's styling cues and fresh looks, but frowned upon the cramped keyboard and atrocious battery life (1:39). This isn't the first Fujitsu to draw complaints about a lack of juice, and it seems to be its all-too-common achilles heel on otherwise solid products. Amongst the specs on the low-end model is the 12.1-inch 1280 x 800 screen, which has a gorgeous glossy finish, and under the ("world's thinnest") hood is a meager 1.2GHz Intel Core Solo, 512MB of RAM, 30GB hard drive, WiFi, Bluetooth, and a space-hampered offering of ports with just two USB 2.0, one FireWire, and an SD reader. Higher-end versions keep the costs heading upwards by including 1GB of RAM and up to an 80GB HD. It's worth noting that you can nearly triple your battery life by throwing in a $179 extended battery that pokes from the rear and adds 9 ounces of bulk, and you won't have an optical drive without an external add-on or attaching the $299 docking solution (notice a trend?). The Q2010 is impressively thin at only 3/4-inches, but $1,999+ seems to be a bit much based on specs alone, but as we've seen before, style can come with a premium pricetag.
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Fujitsu LifeBook T4210 Convertible PC reviewed
Fujitsu's tablet PC lineup has been a mixed bag, and the LifeBook T4210 convertible does little to improve on previous attempts. The T4210 gives it to ya both ways, as a tablet and as a traditional notebook, but it's not remarkable at either -- the 12.1-inch device weighs a bloated 4.5-pounds and only managed 2 hours of battery life in testing. Drop the top and you'll find an Intel Dual Core 2.0GHz processor, 1,024 x 768 XGA screen, 1GB of RAM, 80GB SATA drive, DVD+/- RW optical drive, and a wireless suite with Bluetooth and 802.11a/b/g. The legendary Fujitsu build quality is here, and the biometric security features including a finger print scanner are a plus, but the faults of the T4210 literally outweigh the positives. If you have no use for decent battery life and like your ultraportables on the bulky side, then the T4210 is available now for $2,349.
Fujitsu's C1410 laptop for business travelers on a budget
Apparently Fujitsu understands that not all business travelers have burgeoning corporate expense accounts ready and willing to absorb the cost of the latest $3,000 ultra-portable business machine. Their new C1410 notebook offers up a Core Duo processor, a 15.4-inch XGA display, up to 2GB of DDR2 RAM, WiFi, and Bluetooth 2.0 and up to 100GB of storage, with basic configurations starting at just $1,199. We understand that carrying around a 6.6-pound machine (.1-pound lighter than Lenovo's widely praised and oft-copied ThinkPad Z61m) might be out of the question for some airport rats, but those willing to deal with the extra weight can also enjoy the 11-hours of battery life Fujitsu promises with the addition of an extra cell in a modular bay. Just make sure you get a laptop backpack with some extra padding in the straps to make the arduous walk from tarmac to taxi a little easier.
Fujitsu goes touch screen with LifeBook B6210
This new LifeBook B6210 lappy from Fujitsu is targeted at the healthcare and field-force industries for filling out forms and other such boring things, so it's a little bare on specs, but we're liking some of the things that are going on here. The touch screen laptop works with Tablet PC Edition '05 or XP Professional, but either OS might feel a bit cramped on the 12.1-inch XGA display. With a Core Solo 1.2GHz processor, 512MB of SDRAM and 40GB HDD, Fujitsu makes it clear that this laptop isn't going for crazy performance, but the Gigabit Ethernet, 802.11a/b/g and optional Bluetooth and fingerprint reader jazz things up a bit. It all comes in at 3.2 pounds, and you can make a recommended base configuration yours for $1,600 with XP Pro or $1650 with Tablet PC.[Via MobileWhack]
Fujitsu Siemens releases Q2010 Lifebook
We knew it was coming, and we knew exactly what they were going to stuff into that $5,000 "world's most desirable laptop" version, but it looks like Fujitsu has some scraps for the poorer desirers of the Q2010 among us. In fact, we're not even seeing the limited edition version listed at all on their product page, but there are three "low-priced" versions available if you're willing to sacrifice 3.5G wireless and a bit of street cred. Ranging from from $2,000 to $3,200, the laptops all feature 1.2GHz Core Solo ULV processors, 802.11a/b/g wireless, and the 3-cell 1.75-hour battery. For $3,200 you get an extra 7-hour battery, 1GB total of RAM, an 80GB HDD and Bluetooth 1.2, while the $2,400 mid-tier version gets you a supplemental 3.75 hour battery, Bluetooth 1.2, and a 40GB HDD. With a 30GB HDD, 512MB of RAM and no Bluetooth, the $2,000 version looks positively barebones. An incredibly sexy, slim, lightweight and desirable barebones.[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
Japanese chip makers team up for 45nm
Looks like Intel and Texas Instruments aren't the only ones with some chip bragging to do, since Toshiba and friends are joining forces to standardise a 45nm manufacturing method, and possibly even share manufacturing plants in the future. The deal marks the end of a plan by Toshiba, Fujitsu, NEC, Renesas to build an independent microchip foundry. The Japanese chip makers scrapped the plan because it supposedly wouldn't have made any money in the ultra-competitive space, but analysts aren't so sure this recent cooperative plan will help these smaller manufacturers compete against the big boys like Samsung, Intel and TI. Sony has agreed to team up in 45nm development with the four manufacturers, in continuation of a deal with Toshiba and NEC, but there's no word if any of these smaller outfits have made similar process breakthroughs to those that Intel and Texas Instruments were bragging about on Monday.
Fujitsu's Mag EraSURE P2V degausser wipes sensitive data
It's getting harder and harder to commit a successful white-collar crime these days, thanks to the ability of crafty law enforcement officials to recover all that incriminating data you supposedly wiped from your drives. Well Fujitsu feels your pain, and has just released a semi-affordable degausser called the Mag EraSURE P2V that lets you cover your digital tracks by exposing your drives to a powerful, bit-killing magnet. Actually this $13.000 version of the company's high-end EraSURE P2E is meant not for aiding criminal geniuses, but for enabling security-conscious firms to permanently remove data from hard drives, backup tapes, floppy disks, and the like. Plus, since Fujitsu only promises protection against commercial recovery methods, its probably still best to destroy drives used for illegal activities the old-fashioned way, by tossing them into a wood chipper.
Fujitsu launching new ALiS based plasmas
Remember that Hitachi 1024x1080 plasma panel that threw a lot of people for a loop a few weeks ago? Fujitsu is using that same panel in their new A4 series plasmas. This panel allows for a dramatic lower energy use and a higher resolution with a total pixel count of nearly 1.105 million! This panel scales the vertical resolution down a bit with the goal of a more uniform picture and the horizontal gets scaled up a bit with the same thing in mind. Anyways, check out this thread for more details about the resolution. The plasma also has a very high brightness of 1400cd/m2 (42-inch model). The set of course has proprietary picture this and proprietary control that to give you that notorious Fujitsu picture.
Hitachi rolls out Travelstar 5K160 160GB 2.5-in perpendicular drive
It's about time. Hitachi may be the granddaddy of perpendicular media (if not, they're certainly the technology's biggest booster), but the company has been a little slow to shrink its high-capacity drives down to 2.5 inches. But the company is now prepared to follow such competitors as Seagate and Toshiba, with its own 160GB, 2.5-inch drive. The 5400RPM Travelstar 5K160 drive is expected to sell for $270 to OEMs and $300 to consumers. Hitachi plans a 1.8-inch version by the end of the year; they're playing catchup there as well, since Toshiba's 1.8-incher is already on the market.
Fujitsu announces ETERNUS8000 Model 2100: 1.3PB array
So that one petabyte Symmetrix DMX-3 array from EMC you bought a few months ago just isn't meeting your storage needs anymore? Well Fujitsu's new ETERNUS8000 Model 2100, with its 1.3PB capacity, may be exactly what you've been looking for. Besides those extra 314,572GB, you also get a system capable of accommodating up to sixteen 3.4GHz processors, 256GB of cache memory, and RAID 6 configuration for ensuring data integrity even if two of the 2,760 500GB Nearline FC drives happen to crap out simultaneously. Other nice features include built-in data encryption, multiple automatic backup options, live capacity updating, and iSCSI support for copying files over a network. Although no price has been announced for this storage behemoth, considering that your DMX-3 set you back over $4 million, we imagine that the Model 2100 will also be priced out of the reach of mere mortals.[Via DailyTech]
Fujitsu spins off quantum dot laser firm QD Laser
More exciting news from the world of venture capital: following Philips' announcement yesterday of a VC-funded spinoff to develop thin Electrowetting displays, Fujitsu has announced that it's launching its own new subsidiary with the help of Japanese general trading company Mitsui Ventures. Tasked with commercializing nascent quantum dot laser technology, the creatively-titled QD Laser Inc. will leverage quantum dot semiconductor crystallization techniques and laser design processes developed by Fujitsu to enter the optical LAN market. Quantum dot lasers offer superior networking benefits to conventional semiconductor lasers due to their higher speeds, lower power consumption, and ability to operate in a greater range of temperatures.
Fujitsu demos color e-ink LCD
We've been seeing a lot of e-ink passing through here lately, especially noteworthy was Citizen's recent e-ink LCD. But we have a feeling it's going to be a little while before anyone tops Fujitsu's bezel-tastic QVGA color LCD e-ink display, which holds color images steady in perpetuity without power. It's hard to tell how good the color representation is, what with that blaring flash, but the applications of color e-ink are enormous, especially as the displays get larger (and smaller) -- and Fujitsu does claim to have sheet paper-size prototypes.
Fujitsu's Loox P70S, T70S, and T70S/V ultra-portable PCs
So what do you do to followup the launch of both HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc machines? Drop a couple of ultra-portables into the mix, naturally. No, not ultra-mobile PCs, Fujitsu's talkin' ultra-portable with their latest P70S (pictured), T70S and T70S/V line-up. First up, the P70S which pumps an Intel Pentium M753 (1.20GHz) processor to drive XP Tablet PC Edition on that 8.9-inch display. Rounding out the specs is a 30GB disk, 512MB of RAM in lightweight 990g (2.18-pound) package. The T70S, meanwhile, foregoes the touchscreen but brings a bit more power to the show with a Pentium M773 (1.30GHz) CPU, 512MB RAM, 10.6-inch 1280 x 768 screen, DVD-burner, 60GB disk, and Intel 915GMS video card. The T70S/V then gives the same specs but throws in an external digital (DMB we think) TV tuner for Japan. All-in-all, just a modest bump in specs from what they delivered last year in the T70K/T models. Picture of the T70S/V after the break.
Fujitsu shows off concept phones in Milan
We thought all of the hot new cellphone action would be at CTIA in Las Vegas this week, but it looks like we were wrong. Fujitsu turned up at the Milan Triennale to show off some concept phones, including the large-screen-and-QWERTY slider and clamshell-like "multi-slider" pictured above. We doubt either will ever make it to the market anytime soon, which might explain why Fujitsu chose to show them at a design show instead of at CTIA. Then, again, maybe they just wanted a really good cup of coffee.
