Fujitsu LifeBook A6010 First Thoughts

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The Fujitsu LifeBook A6010 is a 15.4&quot; widescreen multimedia notebook that offers an Intel Core 2 Duo and a bunch of nice media-centric features, but doesn't break the bank in terms of price. The Fujitsu A6010 is nicely designed and offers just the right feature set for a home media computer, here's a first thoughts look at this laptop.

Initial Impressions

The LifeBook A6010 I have contains the following specs:

• Intel Core 2 Duo T5500 (1.66GHz, 2MB L2 Cache, 667MHz)
• Windows XP Media Center
• 15.4&quot; Crystal View WXGA display
• 2GB RAM (1GB x 2)
• 120GB P-ATA 4200RPM hard drive
• Dual Layer Multi-Format DVD Writer
• Integrated Fingerprint reader
• 3 USB 2.0, IEEE 1394 (FireWire), Memory card slot (4-in-1)
• PCMCIA card slot and ExpresCard slot
• Spill Resistant keyboard
• Remote control for XP Media Center
• One year warranty

Fujitsu A6010 and included accessories (view large image)

I've had the LifeBook A6010 for just a couple of days now, but that's been enough time to become quite impressed with this $1,350 notebook. The look is just great, it's sleek but not overly flashy with a mostly silver casing and black accents and black keyboard. The LED lights at the front are pleasing and look good. The case is made of plastic, but it is thick and protective with no hint of flex anywhere. I was worried that Fujitsu would compromise on build quality like I feel they did with their budget LifeBook C1410 offering, but that's not the case at all. There's no doubt the A6010 is sturdy.

Lid view of A6010 (view large image)

The keyboard is a real doozy, it has no flex whatsoever and each key feels individual. It's best described as a blend between a Dell keyboard and ThinkPad keyboard -- it's fairly light to the touch in terms of keystroke but each key feels set apart and has great travel. The instant access keys at the top for launching a browser, web search page or controlling volume are nice touches.

Keyboard view (view large image)

And for a consumer notebook the the LifeBook A6010 does a great job in terms of data protection and security. It comes with a built-in hard drive shock protection system that so far is working great and also a biometric fingerprint reader for hassle free login security (no excuses for disabling password protection on your Windows login).

(view large image)

The Intel Core 2 Duo offered with this notebook is the &quot;low end&quot; 1.66GHz version, but still offers very good performance, I got a Super Pi calculation time to 2 million digits of 1m 22s. That's slower than the under 1 minute results that 2.33GHz Core 2 Duo processors get, but still demonstrates the processor can chug through calculations fast. There's no dedicated graphics card included with the A6010 as it's not meant for gaming, simply productivity and multimedia. The A6010 is &quot;Windows Vista Capable&quot;. The 2GB of RAM offered standard with this configuration is great and ensures you'll be ready to upgrade to Windows Vista when the time comes.

And the screen? Oh wow, it's such a treat to have a Fujitsu CrystalView screen to look at once again. Although for me it's somewhat bitter sweet because once again my poor ThinkPad T43 notebook screen looks like a dim star in a far off galaxy next to the sun like brightness and clarity offered by the A6010 CrystalView widescreen display.

Fujitsu A6010 CrystalBrite screen (view large image)

Stay tuned in the coming weeks for the full review of the Fujitsu LifeBook A6010 to come!

 

 

abaxter, it feels like you are in search for a new notebook, to replace your current...

 

it looks so nice, but the fact that they put a 4200 rpm drive in there is just rediculous

 

Agreed, 5400RPM should really be the standard. Note that they were generous with the size though.

 

nice alternative to those who want a Z61m but dont want matte screen!

 

As far as build quality goes this could be a great alternative to the other budget offerings out there. If only it were custom configurable like Compaq's V6000 or Toshiba's A100. Asside from the harddrive, the 4cell battery is a dissapointment.

 

I haven't tested battery run down yet, but they quote 1.75 hours of battery life. And since they usually exaggerate that number -- I'm a little scared to how bad it'll be.

 

Wow... I figured it would be bad. What a shame, I know it's a budget notebook. But...

 

Well, you can buy the 6-cell extended battery. Doubt it'll be cheap though.

Yeah, great looking laptop. Classy yet doesn't give you the feel that it's 10-years-old (ahem IBM). Pity it doesn't come with dedicated graphics; should've been an easy decision for me to buy otherwise.

 

Less than two hours with integrated graphics???

 

The six sell is $107.00. x.x;