Review: Fujitsu Goes Montevina

The launch of Centrino 2 (formerly known as Montevina) was no different. And for added fun Intel's several-week delay of the CPU launch threw some OEMs into a tizzy about how to get their own products onto the calendar for unveiling.

Smack dab in the middle of the action this week was Fujitsu, which came to market with several notebooks and tablet PCs based on Centrino 2 technology -- as well as some features for which the company has become notable. The Test Center had a chance to examine the Fujitsu Lifebook T5010, the latest in the company's long line of tablet PCs, to take a look at how it stands up.

The T5010 came to the lab pre-loaded with Windows Vista Business, an Intel Core 2 Duo P8400 at 2.26 GHz and 2 GB of RAM (533 MHz.) Weighing in at 4 pounds and 13 ounces with the standard battery installed, it's a little heftier that recent Fujitsu tablets we've looked at lately -- but not uncomfortably so. It's 13.3-inch, WXGA LED backlit display (which has a glossy design) is wonderful, bright and easy on the eyes. It's also larger than many of the ultra-small or thin notebooks that have come through the lab recently, with dimensions of 11.5 inches by 9.3 inches by a hair more than 1.1 inches at its thinnest spot.

When tested, the T5010 scored 2602 on Primate Labs' Geekbench 2.0, which places its performance in the above-average category for a notebook with its specs. Running the Test Center's standard battery life test, which includes turning off all power-saving features and letting a video run from the hard drive continuously until the battery dies, the T5010 lasted a little longer than two hours -- putting it slightly below average compared to similar notebooks. (With power-saving features on and performing standard office functions, it's more likely to last beyond four hours before needing a charge.)

Typically for Fujitsu devices we see, the T5010 ran a little warm at the vents and measured about 103 degrees Farenheit at the touch pad -- a little warmer than we'd like. When cooling kicked in, the tablet ran a little louder, too, throwing about 70 db of sound that slightly rose above the ambient noise of the lab.

All in all, though, there's a lot to like and a lot of value in the T5010.

When plugged in, the T5010 is the most power-efficient system the lab has seen from Fujitsu -- as it consumed a very modest 21 watts while idling, jumping to about 38 watts while both powering up and running video. That's a fraction of the power consumption we see from most desktops and it's very competitive against other notebooks, too. When we flipped the T5010 into tablet mode, and installed Evernote -- the desktop and Web-based note-taking software -- we found that using the stylus and taking handwritten notes with Evernote's "ink" feature was handy and powerful when used to record notes during a meeting. Its performance was also strong enough to audio-record a meeting, simultaneously, using the free Audacity application that's available for download on the web.

Included in the T5010 is an integrated Web cam and microphone, which worked fine and would be OK for videoconferencing.

We came away convinced Fujitsu may be on to something with the Lifebook T5010: It's a device that works well as a notebook, works great as a Tablet PC and, if deployed as a desktop replacement, would provide more than enough performance for typical office work while offering up phenomenal savings on energy use.