Fujitsu P1510

The new Fujitsu P1510D Lifebook is a welcome newcomer to the ranks of the P-series model of notebooks. In the past, the older versions relied upon the anemic Crusoe processor for power which just barely held its own during whimsical tasks. You could find yourself struggling watching videos in Windows Media player as well as multitask on the run. Having been a connoisseur of several Fujitsu portable notebooks in the past such as the likes of the P2010 and P2120 series (along with a P5010), I can say that the form factor was fantastic, but they just needed a good shot of nitrous under the hood to tackle the serious office work and your digital photo and video editing needs. Lacking the true muscle to swing with the big boys, the little p-series was resigned to simply a good email reader, word processor, and occasional web browser. It did carve a notch in the ultra-portable market segment by means of incorporating an internal optical drive which paved the way for the likes of the Sony TR and T-series, Asus and JVC models of ultra-portables. Fujitsu soon introduced the P5010 model which supercharged the P-series with the introduction of the Intel Pentium-M ULV processor followed by the upgraded P7000 model. All the while, the P1000 model was the little sister that chose to meet the demands of the truly mobile crowd with the inclusion of a touch screen and absence of the optical drive making the form factor even smaller still. So, how does Fujitsu’s latest little P-series model fair as an ultra-portable companion. Let’s take a look in the box.

The most notable absence is the external optical drive which would surely enhance the appeal of this little machine. The usual items such as the warranty card, user guide and manuals are included as well as a set of restore CD’s which is becoming a rare sight indeed for many new laptops. First thing that stuck out at me was the loss of color coordination between the power adaptor and AC cord.

Why are they now shipping them with a black cord or was it a mistake? Wonder if it is to match the black bezel around the screen? I believe that I have seen this model with the standard gray power cord along with the adaptor. If you plan on using any software besides what is installed from the factory, the first item of business is to acquire some form of CD-drive. To compensate for the lack of an optical drive, I purchased a Buslink D-RWD8-U2 DVD/CDRW model from eBay for $59.00. Nice, slim design, small ac adaptor and the unit works marvelously with the P1510. Here is a picture of the two along side each other.

Here is a shot of the P1510D when you open it up. It is small and light, easy to handle and the rotating screen is solidly built with a rigid rotation fulcrum with enough resistance to feel pleasantly sturdy.

It comes with a nice soft pink sponge sheet between the screen and keyboard to protect it during its journey to your front door. Some might keep this sheet for use during daily transport and others will simply toss it. This is what separates the anal gadget geeks and their new toys from the rugged individual that view it as a working tool. P.S. I kept mine! The keyboard is surprising well equipped and large enough so you shouldn’t have to blame the small keys for your typing inability. Since I am coming over from a Sony U50, a keyboard was a welcome companion.

Let’s turn our attention to the nice bright screen of the P1510D. I was satisfied by the nice look and crisp text on the small screen. Currently owning a Sony S-series and having had the Sony T-series as well as the above mentioned U50 designed with the beautiful xbrite (http://www.sonystyle.com/intershoproot/eCS/Store/en/imagesOnline/technologies/xbrite/xbrite.html )screen from Sony, one can imagine that the standard screen just doesn’t have the pizzazz display that these do. Don’t get me wrong, the little P1510 screen definitely is bright, crisp and looks better than most screens of this design. It has a large brightness range which can easily be adjusted with hot keys on the keyboard. There is also the quick tool bar which can also be activated in tablet mode to quickly adjust volume, sound, etc.

One thing that is annoying about the display is that the wallpaper doesn’t convert while transforming from notebook to tablet or I have not found a way to have one size wallpaper for portrait and another for landscape. This was a cool feature on the U-series Sony which allowed you to choose different size wallpaper for portrait as well as landscape. I will dig further into this and see if there is a way or perhaps a handy application that gives a solution. You can see below that the wallpaper image becomes distorted. I did notice that the default starfish beach image has a perfect square resolution, perhaps this helps in making the image less distorted.

When in tablet or notebook mode, it is extremely easy to push and grab the stylus. It behaves much like a SD/MMC card slot which allows you to push and it springs out or push and it locks in. I have only been accustomed to the passive style screens which seems to function very well for my needs. Being use to a PDA for years, I can write with almost perfect conversion most of the time and my notes are legible.

A neat little locking feature is attached at the top portion of the screen and allows the screen to hold in place when shut like a clamshell or used as a tablet. It simply can be pushed from one side to the other.

Lets look at another very interesting feature of this little jewel and that being the finger print swipe. This password finger scanner much like the new Hemi’s is in one word “SWWEEETTTT” (Pronounced with a nice southern redneck accent).

This nice thing about this unit is that the memory is extremely easy to change. Just take out two screws and voila there is your chip. No need to remove the keyboard or dig around inside. The downside is that the 172 pin DDR2 micro-dimm chips are still expensive to obtain in the 1G quantity especially considering the P1510D only has one slot for memory.

The hard drive location on the P1510 is especially lovely, considering the last couple ultra portable units I had required surgery in the hope you didn’t bust anything in the process. The P1510 requires the disassembly of 3 screws and the hard drive can be found resting below. This is a nice feature to allow easy upgrades to larger faster drives in the future. One thing I noticed was the screws did contain some form of thread seal to keep the screws for backing out.

Many folks have mentioned and are concerned with the heat generated by the unit. I don’t think the heat is so great that you will boil your privates while it’s in your lap nor will it make you sing “Chestnuts roasting on an open fire….” two octaves higher. Seriously, this unit does get warm, but it is not as bad as some units I have felt and is not so excessive that you can’t touch it. Overall this is a nice portable convertible notebook with plenty of speed for most uses.

Let’s look at a few quick thoughts on the P1510D:

Appearance, size and Weight: The size is great, not too small but still large enough to type on and view without spectacles. The system has a nice high tech look and feel as well as a rugged feel.

Speed: For most all tasks but for the graphics intense games, this baby could fill the bill. You aren’t going to play Doom III unless you like watching Sarge do the “Robot” to escape the zombies.

Noise: The fan is relatively quiet especially compared to my S-series unit. You can hear it come on but not to the point of being an annoyance.

Screen: Nice for a non-xbrite quality device. Much nicer than some I have seen. I personally like the passive response touch screen and like using my finger or PDA stylus for input.

Battery Life: Since I only have the standard unit, I can’t speak for the extended life battery. The standard life battery last around 2.5-3 hours depending on the tasks you are using it for.

Ishman