New Review: Fujitsu Lifebook P5020

Designtechnica reviews the Fujitsu Lifebook P5020:

http://reviews.designtechnica.com/review831.html

Enjoy,
Vol.

 

Thanks for the post. I'm actually going to buy a 5020D, and will post thoughts when it comes in...due in stock on the 17th.

Brian

 

Brian, I want a turn on the 5020 when you get it. Looks pretty sweet.

 

I'll look forward to hearing what you guys think. I am thinking about buying a 5020 also but I can't find many reviews on it. It kind of stinks as there is no where to play with it locally in realspace. I called Fujitsu and their only 'large' retailers are two chains out in the east coast and Frys in Cali/Southwestern US. [V]

-Brian

 

I'm sure you read my initial thoughts:

http://www.notebookreview.com/forums/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=139

It's been almost a week and I really love it. I'm going to Vegas tomorrow, so I'll test DVD playing, the air card and general portability and usability there. I hope to report back in detail in the next few weeks, but if you have specific questions, post away.

BTW - Andrew bought an S6100D, which is the next size up from mine, a 13.3" screen. So he can help too...

Brian

Editor in Chief http://www.bargainPDA.com and http://www.SPOTstop.com

 

I happened to see a Sony TR2 at Circuit City and thought it was pretty cool. Would you mind doing a quick compare and contrast between the two? The screen on the Sony looked great. Also, had a couple questions about ordering and general usability. First, in your other post you say you got it with a gig of ram but also you say you got a 7k hard drive? How did you get that drive? Is that the 60GB drive? And then also, do you have any extra batteries? I'm wondering if I should get an extra main battery so I can keep using the optical if I want or if I should get a module battery and an extra main battery. Basically I'd like 4+ hours of battery life with the optical drive available. Thanks for your insight, hopefully you're having fun in Vegas. [ ]

-Brian

P.S. This might be a bit off topic, but have you seen anything at CES that might be worth waiting for?

 

I didn't spend too much time looking at notebooks at the CES. I was more interested in SPOT and tablets this time around. Andrew checked out a few things but there wasn't a ton of action in the notebook world. There is a new Intel mobile chipset soming out that might be interesting, but that's about it.

I bought my unit from www.laptopsinc.com, which offers a ton of upgrades at a reasonable cost...compared to Fujitsu's corporate site. Check them out.

Editor in Chief http://www.bargainPDA.com and http://www.SPOTstop.com

 

So after having the Lifebook for a couple weeks how do you like it? Also, do you think you will run some benchmarks to see how it scores with the 7k disk and a gig of ram? (I'd be interested to see how it compares with the TR)

-Brian

 

I absolutely love it...I was a little nervous when I saw the news of Sony's TR3, but after working through the specs, I don't have any buyer's remorse. There's really not a single thing I don't like about the 5020. Having all the card slots built in is nice, it works very well with my air card and the integrated 802.11g is sweet. I'll try to get something on the review up soon, I'm just a little over-extended at the moment. I can continue to answer any questions you have though.

Editor in Chief http://www.bargainPDA.com and http://www.SPOTstop.com

 

I've had my P5000D for about 7 months now. I LOVE IT!! I only wish it had two more things:
1. a slot loading DVD-R like apple. A tray on a laptop is a studid idea!
2. A built in web cam like the sony.

But I am thrilled, I edit pictures in Photoshop 7
I Edit video in Vegas Video, and the fast and easy Windows Movie Maker
I also edit audio in Wavelab.

No it isn't as fast as my desktop, but it is supprisingly quick! I was able to copy 9 gigs of mp3s to my iriver jukebox in under 10 minutes!

Rendering pictures is instant!

For DVDs on a plane:
I don't use the optical drive-
I instead rip DVDs to the HDD using DVD Decrypter
and play them back using Deamon tools Optical drive emulator.

This way i can keep my DVDs safe at home and use both batteries on the plane. But at 8 gigs per movie even the 60gig drive fills up fast! I suppose I could use my iriver to store the dvd images, and then durring playback the P5000's c drive could sleep giving me even more batttery life

Another essential utility is Network stumbler. You'd be supprised at how many people share their internet connection

The system seems very stable. I use XP pro and never turn it off. I just let it sleep when i am not using it. I only need to reboot once every couple of weeks. Every once in a while the hot swap drive bay, or the wireless networking requires a reboot to work.

I chose this because of the features, but mainly because when you combine the light weight with the great battery life, it truley IS portable.

An 8 lb. notebook that only gets 2 hours of battery life is hardly portable.

~Jay

if you have any questions, email me [email protected]

 

Thanks for the review, its just the sort of thing I'm looking for. Have you seen the Sony TR's screen? I'm just wondering how you would compare the two screens. It's funny too, at first I though the web cam on the TR was pointless but now that I've played around with it a little bit I can think of a lot of handy things to do with it. (I'm in college and it'd be great to just take a picture of a diagram on the board than copy it all down. Heck, maybe even record lectures with video and then transfer them to my desktop. [ )] lol)

-Brian
(I still think I'm going with the Fujitsu though, especially with 7k HD and gig of ram for almost the same price as the TR)

 

The Sony screen is too glossy in my view. Although some don't like the Fuji screen, so it's a matter of choice.

Anyway, I'd spend the extra money on the RAM before the HD. Are you buying from laptopsinc.com? They just lowered the price of the 1GB upgrade to $399.

B

Editor in Chief http://www.bargainPDA.com and http://www.SPOTstop.com

 

Hi folks, I was wondering how warm the P5020 gets and where it warms up at? I usually put the laptop on my lap and I'm looking for an ultraportable that wont heat up on my lap.

I'm looking for a good ultaportable where I can do some video/image editing, program, and taking notes on the go. I have a Dell D600, and an Apple iBook, but I dislike how the dells heat up on the bottom thus warming my lap and the macs uncomfortably heat up my wrists too much when it was charging. The Sony Vaio X505 doesn't seem to have vents, so I'm guessing its going to be pretty cool since the wireless card isn't even integrated. The Sharp MM10 is a performance joke, but I actually contemplated on that for a while. I have a Panasonic W2, but thinking I'm going to give it to my bro so I can get something better. The keyboard on it doesn't feel all that great and doesn't feel sturdy and solid. The Sony TR series is cool, but seems the the Fujitsu P5020 has a lot more bang for its buck. Wish it was lighter though. Thanks!

 

The 5020 is a better deal than the TR2, no question about that. As for heat, I find it to be insignificant. In fact, my fan rarely turns on. I would say it's beeter than half as hot as my old Inspiron 8200, but that's far from scientific.

Editor in Chief http://www.bargainPDA.com and http://www.SPOTstop.com

 

Hi,

Thanks for the great information. I have a few questions though and I was hoping you might have some time to respond to them.

What exactly does the P5020 come with in terms of software. I believe you can get it configured with Windows XP Professional but does it come with a "rescue CD" or an actual copy of the OS?

Does it provide instructions for disaster recovery or does it neglect that completely and you're on your own in case you need to reload everything?

Is a drivers CD included in the package in case you want to reload the OS from scratch and if not, have you investigated what we need to download in order to completely and successfully get the machine back up and running? Have you had any trouble finding what you would need in case this happens?

Does the lack of a floppy drive hinder you in case of some disaster in terms of booting up the device and reloading the OS or does the BIOS allow you to boot to a CD (I suppose I could create a boot CD and recover that way in case something goes wrong.)

I am asking because I am notorious at reloading my computers every year or so and laptops are traditionally tough to reload because of a lack of driver availability. I want to make sure I can perform a reload of the OS in this situation as well as if the hard drive crashes.

I also use Norton Ghost to back up my PCs and was hoping the laptop would be no exception to that process. I would have to boot to a CD in this case because there is no floppy drive. It would be tough to boot to a CD and create a backup image ONTO a CD so this might be an interesting project.

Also, since I don't know the answer to what OS media is included with the package I wanted to also ask how Windows came loaded. Was every option installed or did they use a "typical" or pared down installation? Did they include things you don't want or need such as a whole lot of ISP trial offers and such?

Well, I am sure I have more questons but that ought to do it for now. Thanks for the help!

Kevin

 

Kevin, if you have more questions on the topic, it might be best to start a new thread.

Anyway, the 5020 comes with the OS disk, as all machines do. I've not heard of any computer not coming with media for the OS. It also comes with drivers and Fujitsu even sets up a backup partition on the hard drive that takes up about 2 GB. All in all, they've thought it out pretty well, though I've not yet faced disaster. If you want to re-install the OS in a year, you should have everything you need.

Editor in Chief http://www.bargainPDA.com and http://www.SPOTstop.com

 

'I've not heard of any computer not coming with media for the OS.'

the ibm x31 doesn't, its located on a service partition. you have to specifically request it from ibm.

 

Odd, that's a damned shame. Every computer should ship with the OS on a CD.

Editor in Chief http://www.bargainPDA.com and http://www.SPOTstop.com

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by Brian

 

You really need to decide if you want the smallishness of the 5020D more than anything else. You can get more for the money with 6000.

Editor in Chief http://www.bargainPDA.com and http://www.SPOTstop.com

 

Brian, how is it you feel one gets more for ones money with the 6120D?

Thanks,
Neil

 

With the 6000, the overall unit price with teh same specs is cheaper than the 5020. So I made that assertion based on a power per dollar methodology. For me it doesn't matter though, as I was happy to pay a premium for the small size of the 5020.

Editor in Chief http://www.bargainPDA.com and http://www.SPOTstop.com

 

Any time you consider an item meant to travel with you, you need to consider size first and foremost. The larger it is, the less likely you will take it with you on a regular basis. After only a week with my new P5, I'm noticing some great efficiency benefits of managing my time. If I'm waiting for a meeting to start at a client's office, I don't have to sit there twiddling my thumbs. I can open up my P5 and work on other projects. When my kids' various athletic events and practices become redundant, I can watch a show I've downloaded from my ReplayTV. Things like that. The Wow factor is cool. But it's the extra measure of portability that is worth the money.[ ]

 

Here's a flah presentation that shows the p5020 from a few angles, if you were wondering what it looks like.

http://www.lifebook.com.au/products/lb_p5020_vt.html

 

Anyone knows what is the Japanese equivalent model for the 5020 ?

I happen to live in Japan now and thinking about getting the Fujitsu.
I am still thinking whether to get the TR of Sony or the new Panasonic, but I am really curious about that Fujitsu!

Thanks,

O.

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by RyoHazuki

 

Yes, you can install an English version of XP on top of it. Sites like www.dynamism.com will do that and import it for you.

Editor in Chief http://www.bargainPDA.com and http://www.SPOTstop.com

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by nobbie

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by Brian

 

Right, you would want to start over with a fresh install. My only concern is whether or not the BIOS is in English. As for the drivers, XP should take care of them or you can download them from Fujitsu or the manufacturer's sites directly.

Editor in Chief http://www.bargainPDA.com and http://www.SPOTstop.com