A Look at the Fujitsu LifeBook P1610
By Tahelia Powe Wagner, ALLTP Staff Reviewer
The review unit configuration: 1.2 gigahertz Core Solo processor, one gigabyte of RAM (the maximum available), eighty gigabyte P-ATA hard drive, Atheros Super AG® (802.11a/b/g) WLAN, Bluetooth. Unlike its predecessor, the P1510, which came with a Compact Flash slot, the P1610 sports a full PC Card slot, just perfect for keeping connected with a wireless broadband card, or for holding a StashCard or perhaps one of those nifty MoGo Bluetooth mice.
The max video resolution has been upped to 1280 x 768, and the 8.9” display is bright and beautiful, if perhaps a bit on the grainy side. As the screen is very shiny, glare from overhead lights was sometimes an issue. I found it to be quite viewable in direct sunlight.
Upon performing an upgrade to Microsoft Vista Ultimate, I was pleasantly surprised to find myself looking at the Aero theme. According to the Fujitsu site, up to 128 megabytes of system memory can be allocated for graphics.
As with the P1510, there are two USB ports, however, they are both located on the left side of the device, which means in portrait mode, any USB devices will be on the bottom of the device. Those who are used to hugging their tablets close to them when writing might find they will have to make some adjustments, if making use of these connections. The stylus garage, SD card slot, microphone jack, headphone jack and power connector are also located along that edge.
The fingerprint reader and tablet buttons are on the LCD bezel. The VGA out, modem port and Ethernet port are all found at the back of the machine (or left side in tablet mode). I was a bit disappointed to find that there were no connection/activity lights on the LAN jack; when in the field, those lights (or the lack, thereof) are often what I count on to help me quickly determine if a network port is ready for usage (In fact, any mobile user who was troubleshooting a connectivity issue with, say, phone support at a hotel might be asked about lights). However, I had no trouble using the wired network, and the wireless connectivity was rock solid, even in areas where heftier devices often failed to connect at all. I did not try out the Bluetooth. A switch on the left side of the keyboard turns off the wireless radios. The sound coming from the built-in speakers was decent, if a bit tinny. It was much better when the headset or external speakers were connected. Dictation was fine with the built-in microphone, as well as with a rather cheap headset.
Writing on the P1610 might not be as smooth an experience as writing on a tablet with an active digitizer, but it was sufficient for my tasks, namely jotting quick notes in Journal, filling out forms in GoBinder in ink or text, or using the Tablet Input Panel to write email messages. One obvious improvement over the P1510 is that input with a pen was easier to accomplish, simply because the cursor would not move when my pinky finger brushed the screen. Even taps with the tip of a finger went unnoticed. I did have some issues sometimes with right-clicking; often, while connected to external power, the cursor would sort of quiver, making the press-and-hold technique very difficult to carry out. This problem was practically non-existent when on battery. I had seen this issue with some active digitizers in the past, but had never heard of it being an issue with touchscreen computers. I was delighted to discover that DialKeys was part of the included software; however, it seemed use of fingernails was required to get any input that way. After a few days with the tiny stylus, I resorted to my four-in-one combo pen; I might have small hands, but the larger stylus was more comfortable. The keyboard is understandably a little cramped, but quite usable. When in convertible mode, a TrackPoint is available as a pointing device. There were times when using OmniPass with the fingerprint reader was a joy to me; sometimes, however, when there was information to fill out in an application, and OmniPass thought there was a password to enter; OmniPass would be an overly-persistent aggravation. Perhaps I would have found a fix for that, if I’d tried.
I ran this machine like I would want to run any of mine. I could have a virtual machine running in one window, five Firefox windows with a total of 30 tabs, Outlook 2007 connected to an Exchange Server and two IMAP servers and various other things going on, and the P1610 didn’t hiccup much, nor did I reboot more than once or twice a week. Other than that being the way I normally work, I had an ulterior motive for running that way: I wanted to see if Fujitsu had done anything about the excessive heat problem I’d noticed with last year’s model. Though other reviewers have stated that the P1610 does, in fact, get very hot, I really didn’t see this. It never got too hot for me to comfortably hold in my hand. This probably has a lot to do with the processor fan that kicks on quite noticeably when needed. Fujitsu has made quite a few changes from the P1510, an already outstanding device, and most of the modifications are solid improvements.
There’s little question that the P1610 can be useful to the user on the go, whether it’s for jotting notes in a meeting, filling out forms in the field, keeping connected with the office, or even dictating a novel. At 2.2 pounds (2.5 with the 6-cell battery), it makes the going a little faster than conventional notebooks.