Fujitsu P7120 (P7120D) Review (pics, specs)

by Brian Beeler, Ohio USA

Fujitsu P7120 (view larger)

Fujitsu has released another refresh to their popular ultra portable P series of notebooks. While the last update was largely chipset based, the LifeBook P7120 offers up an entirely new body design and several other updates like integrated Bluetooth, no CPU fan and support for a docking station. The end result is a well-built machine that's definitely worthy of consideration by ultra portable shoppers.

Specifications

Fujitsu makes two models, the P7120 and P7120D. The only difference between the two is the wireless card. The D model comes with the Atheros Super AG wireless card. The other uses Intel's 2915 ABG card.

• Weight: 3 pounds (4 cell battery), 3.2 pounds (6-cell battery)
• Dimensions: 10.28" x 7.83" x 1.26" -- 1.43"
• Intel Pentium M Processor Ultra Low Voltage 753 (1.20 GHz, 2 MB L2 cache, 400 MHz FSB)
• Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 900, dynamic memory up to 128MB
• Microsoft Windows XP Professional or Home
• 10.6" Crystal View wide XGA TFT display 1280x768, external support up to 1600x1200
• 512 MB DDR2 400 MHz Micro-DIMM (Upgraded to 1GB, supports up to 2GB)
• 30 or 60 GB hard drive; 1.8" 4200 rpm; P-ATA 100; shock-mounted
• Modular DVD/CD-RW drive or Modular Dual-Layer Multi-Format DVD Writer
• Multinational 56K V.90 modem
• 10/100 Ethernet LAN
• Intel PRO/Wireless 2915ABG Network Connection (Tri-mode 802.11a/b/g) or Atheros Super AG
• Bluetooth (v1.2) Personal Area Network (PAN)
• Embedded TPM and Fingerprint Sensor
• RealTek ALC260 with HD audio
• Ports: Headphone/line-in jack, Microphone/line-out jack, three USB 2.0, 4-pin IEEE 1394, S-Video out, VGA out, Docking connector, Ethernet, modem
  PCMCIA card slot
• Shared slot for Memory Stick, Secure Digital and xD memory cards
• Dual mic array with noise cancellation
• High-capacity main battery: Lithium ion 6-cell, 7.2V, 7800 mAh, 56 WHr or 4-cell, 7.2V, 5200 mAh, 37 WHr
• 82-key keyboard with 18 mm key pitch and 2 mm key stroke
• One-year International Limited Warranty

Form and Design

My favorite part of the P7120 is the new design. My old FujitsuP7010 looks fat by comparison. The size difference isn't that great, but the total volume is noticeably less and the weight has been shaved down a little bit. While not as sleek as Sony's TX design, the P still holds it own. The entire body is black with the exception of a few gunmetal accents and trim pieces.

Top view (view larger)

The lid is magnesium alloy and very sturdy with hardly any flex; pressing hard on the lid results in no screen rippling. Fujitsu's branding on the whole machine is very minimalist. A small Lifebook logo in silver is the only external marker. The screen is secured with two metal hinges that are much improved over prior models. The hinges are secure allowing for no screen wobble. Between the hinges are the WiFi on/off button, battery, disk and lock LEDs, power management button and power button. The back of the unit is rounded, with embedded speakers in either corner. Between the speakers is the battery hump, in this case the 6-cell. The battery sits flush with the back of the unit though, so the larger battery really consumes no more space than the 4-cell. The biggest difference between the two is weight.

Front view (view larger)

The screen doesn't lock shut, but the hinges are sufficiently strong to keep it closed. In the middle of the lid there's a tiny lip on the lip to use as leverage to open it. The lever on the left side is the release for the PCMCIA card slot. The microphone in and audio out ports are on the front and pretty convenient for headphone access.

Left side (view larger)

Another great change from the prior models is Fujitsu abandoned all the port doors. The end result is easier to access ports without doors that break off or stop closing after a period of time. Along the left side is the Ethernet, VGA, S-Video, lock, modem, 2 USB 2.0, Firewire and PCMCIA ports. Fujitsu uses a plug for the PCMCIA port when it's not in use. A few models back they used a door to block the port, which is preferred.

Risght side (view larger)

The right side houses the flexible bay which can be used for an optical drive, second battery or weight saver plug. Since the bay has moved to the right from the left, accessories from earlier P models will no longer fit. The connectors still work, it's just the bezels that are a problem. For the battery, you just need to obtain a new bezel from Fujitsu, but optical drives aren't going to fit. Further down the right side is another USB 2.0 port, memory card reader and DC power jack.

Bottom view (view larger)

Since Fujitsu went fanless with the P7120, they've covered nearly the entire bottom in suede. The suede is not only soft to the touch, it also doesn't get hot like metal. Even the screws have suede covers, except the two I removed to upgrade the RAM and have not replaced. In the past Fujitsu only used the suede on the memory door. The other new feature is the docking station connector. This is a huge benefit. I had been using a port replicator from Targus on the P7010, but this is so much easier. Just plop the P7120 into the dock and that's it. It lifts straight out as well, so plugging in cords of any kind is no longer needed.

Screen

Fujitsu P7120 Screen (view larger)

The P7120 display is a 10.6" Crystal View wide screen with a resolution of 1280x768 pixels. The screen is extremely bright, I generally crank up the display to max brightness, but found that a notch or two down from the top was the best with this model. Brightness is adjusted with the Fn and F6 and F7 keys. It's well lit throughout with no noticeable dark spots or shadows. The light leakage is minimal and not noticeable outside of a black background.

Black background, almost no light leakage (view larger)

Processor and Performance

The ultra-low voltage (ULV) Pentium Mobile 1.2 GHz processor is used in the P7120. The processor is more than adequate to handle most tasks; definitely the standard office and productivity related ones. Some owners have even done pretty well with Photoshop, so don't let the speed rating fool you, it's quite capable. This machine has 1GB RAM, though I ran with only 512MB for several weeks. The difference is noticeable, largely do the resources Windows XP needs, but getting by on 512MB is fine. The RAM is DDR2, which is an improvement over prior models.

The one thing that really hurts from a performance perspective is the hard drive. Fujitsu moved to the 1.8" form factor, down from the 2.5" notebook standard. It's a double edged sword. They wanted a smaller package with less heat, but had to give up hard drive performance in exchange. When I initially heard about this change, I was upset. I thought the drop would be awful, but after being on this machine exclusively for a month now, I'm totally fine with it. For what I do, and what most buyers of this machine will do, it's really a non-issue. Sure, it takes longer to load Windows and more intense applications, but that's part of the trade off. The bottom line is I'm happy to give up the hard drive for the smaller size and silent operation due to the lack of fan.

Performance Benchmarks

We use the program Super Pi to get a benchmark of processor speed. The Super Pi program simply forces the processor to calculate Pi to a selected number of digits of accuracy. Calculating to 2 million digits is our benchmark. Below is a comparison chart of how theFujitsu P7120with it's 1.2 GHz ULV processor stacked up to other notebooks when running this calculation:

Notebook	Time to Calculate Pi to 2 Million Digits
Fujitsu LifeBook P7120 (1.2 GHz ULV Pentium M)	2m 32s
Dell Latitude X1 (1.1 GHz ULV Pentium M)	2m 40s
IBM ThinkPadX41(1.50 GHzAlviso Pentium M)	2m 02s
Fujitsu LifeBook N3510 (1.73 GHz Alviso Pentium M)	1m 48s
IBM ThinkPad T41 (1.6GHz Banias Pentium M)	2m 23s
Compaq R3000T (Celeron 2.8GHz)	3m 3s
Dell Inspiron 600m(1.6 GHz Dothan Pentium M)	2m 10s
Dell Inspiron 8600 (1.7GHz Banias Pentium M)	2m 28s

Now let's look at some more benchmarks pitting the P7120 against the competing Dell Latitude X1 notebook. TheP7120 has a ultra low-voltage 1.2GHz processor and the X1 has an ultra-low-voltage1.1GHz processor so it's not a very even match.

[/TD]

Futuremark PCMark04 Scores
	Dell Latitude X1 (1.1 GHz)	Fujitsu LifeBook P7120
Multithreaded Test 1 / File Compression	2.0MB/s	2.06MB/s
Multithreaded Test 1 / File Encryption	16.26MB/s	17.4MB/s
Multithreaded Test 2 / File Decompression	14.43 MB/s	15.29MB/s
Multithreaded Test 2 / Image Processing	6.5MPixels/s	6.87MPixels/s
Multithreaded Test 3 / Virus Scanning	1309.7 MB/s	1245.16MB/s
Multithreaded Test 3 / Grammar Check	1.79KB/s	1.85KB/s
File Decryption	32.66 MB/s	34.68MB/s
Audio Conversion	1495.55 KB/s	1602.83KB/s
Web Page Rendering	3.39Pages/s	3.03Pages/s
DivX Video Compression	32.9FPS	34.81FPS
Physics Calculation and 3D	65.05FPS	66.71FPS
Graphics Memory - 64 Lines	374.57FPS	362.33FPS

Below are the results of running the program HDTune (www.hdtune.com)on the hard drive to gain benchmark results.

Minimum Transfer Rate	0.7MB/sec
Maximum Transfer Rate	21.2 MB/sec
Average Transfer Rate	14.9 MB/sec
Access Time	21.7 ms
Burst Rate	63.7 MB/sec
CPU Usage	7.4%

Keyboard and Touchpad

Keyboard layout (view larger)

The keyboard is 82-keys with 18 mm key pitch and 2 mm key stroke. The layout is actually slightly better than past P models. The arrows have dropped down a bit, giving a bunch more space to the right Shift key and the punctuation keys between M and Shift. They keyboard has almost no flex and is easy to type on. Of course the biggest complaint is still there, no dedicated home, end and paging keys, but that's a sacrifice with an ultra portable and since the arrow pad is done better, these functions are actually a little easier to use than before.

Touchpad, mouse and biometric scanner (view larger)

The touchpad is roughly 2" x 1.5", making it much smaller than earlier models. I was concerned about this at first, but it's actually more responsive, so the smaller size isn't an issue at all. The left and right buttons are also a little smaller, but more square and easy to use. The best part about the buttons is they're dead silent. The buttons on the P7010 click fairly loudly, but these don't. A minor issue, but I'm happy with the change.

Between the mouse buttons is the biometric scanner. We'll detail this more later, but it should be noted here that the scanner also acts as a scroll mechanism. So running your finger over the scanner either up or down, will scroll you up or down in a document or internet window.

Flexible Bay

I touched on this earlier, but it's an important feature and worth mentioning again. The flexible bay lets users add an optical drive, second battery or weight saver plug. This option is great, the only downer is accessories for earlier models either won't work or need new bezels since the bay is on the opposite side this time around. There's a small latch on the bottom of the machine that releases whatever is in the bay, letting it slide out easily. The flexible bay is hot swappable, so no need to reboot to swap out the optical drive or battery.

Sound

The sound on the P7120 is fine for what it is. The speakers aren't that loud and the bass is almost non-existent, but then again, you're not buying this machine for its integrated sub-woofer. You'll be fine listening to lecture notes and the occasional web cartoon. The headphone jack works well, the quality for movies and such is very respectable. There aren't any hardware buttons for adjusting volume, that change is done with the Fn key and F3, F8 and F9 for mute, volume up and volume down.

The P7120 also supports a dual array built-in microphone with noise cancelling. This is new and something that previously was only found in their Tablet PC line. For recording meetings or lectures, this microphone is going to perform extremely well. The microphones are embedded in the frame around the LCD panel, one on either side.

Software

Thankfully the P7120 ships with a very thin software package, which means no need for a clean Windows install. Aside from Works 8.0 and a few trial packages, there's not a whole lot to talk about, with the exception of two things. The first is the Atheros WiFi manager that comes with the D version of this notebook. I think it's a terrible tool and remove it right away. Unless you rarely venture onto more than a couple wireless networks you're better without.

The other tool is a new one. It's a power saving utility that can be accessed via icon in the system tray or the ECO button next to the power button. Incidentally, you can remap the ECO button to do something else if you wish. Essentially the program lets you put the P7120 into power saving mode with the power settings you specify. The program lets the user specify LCD brightness, hard disk shutdown time and on/off for the optical drive and card slots.

The power saving tool is a nice option I suppose, though since I've owned the notebook I haven't had occasion to use it much. Any time I want more juice out of the machine, it's normally when I'm watching a DVD, which sort of flies in the face of the entire point of this feature. While all these functions could be done manually before, the utility makes it easy to enable with a click, so for those looking to milk every ounce of battery out of their machine, this is a nice feature.

Battery

As noted, the P7120 comes with either a 6-cell or 4-cell battery. The flexible bay can support an additional battery as well, for excellent battery life. There are two battery LED lights that show status for the main an optional flexible bar battery.

Using Battery Eater Pro I ran a few battery tests. The minimum effective life of the 6-cell battery is about three hours. I used their classic test with the screen on full brightness. If that's not enough, I left wireless on with Outlook open, continually syncing with Exchange, along with several other applications running in the system tray. Their idle test with the display at 5/8 killed the battery after 6.25 hours. I found the real world battery life to range between 4 and 5 hours. As already noted, if you want more battery life, you can slot a second battery in the flexible bay.

Wireless

The P7120 comes with both integrated WiFi and Bluetooth. The D version ships with the Atheros card, the regular version with the Intel card. The Bluetooth is a great addition, a new feature in the P series. The wireless radios can be managed with the hardware switch. Turning it on or off will enable or disable both radios at the same time.

The WiFi reception with the Atheros card has been excellent. Bluetooth has worked well for the most part. Using the Toshiba stack to connect to my Microsoft mouse and keyboard went perfectly well, but connecting to my mobile phone has been a problem. Bluetooth connections are somewhat troublesome by definition, so my experience is about par for the course. I have not experimented with other stacks or phones though, so some may have a better time with it than I did.

Biometric Scanner

Biometric scanners are becoming more popular in business and highly mobile machines. Fujitsu has offered this again in the latest P-series notebook. After enrolling fingers, the scanner can be used to log into Windows and log into websites. The OmniPass software is pretty good, though it still doesn't play with FireFox. It's also a little limiting, this version doesn't support BIOS level authentication, though it's my understanding the full version does if you want that level of security. Aside from the security features, the scanner can also be used to scroll up and down in things like Word files or browser windows.

Conclusion

I was really concerned that the slower speed hard drive was going to kill the performance of this machine. I'm so happy to report that I don't find it to be an issue and the resulting benefits of smaller size and reduced heat are worth it. The unit is in fact fanless, which means you'll only hear everyone else's machines. The fan on the P7010 frequently ran, so to me, this is a huge deal. There are very few fanless notebooks on the market, but Fujitsu has done a fantastic job engineering this one.

The LifeBookP7120 screams quality and stability all the way around. The new design is great, the display is crisp and vibrant, and the body is sturdy. Beyond all of this, Fujitsu has managed to add features like Bluetooth and docking station support. I love picking up my backpack, trying to remember if the notebook is actually in there because the pack is so light. I really never thought I could be as happy with this notebook as I have been; it's the best notebook I've ever bought.

Pros:

• Fantastic display
• Fanless -- very quiet operation
• Integrated Bluetooth
• Docking station support

Cons:

• Hard to see one in person before buying

Bottom Line:

For my money, the Fujitsu P7120 is the best ultra-portable on the market. There are plenty of competitors, but none offer the same blend of durability, screen quality, security, docking station support and near-silent operation as the P7120.

Pricing and Availability: LifeBook P7120

 

Strong review, this guy is smitten by the P7000 Fujitsu series

I like the fact it's thinner, but one thing not mentioned and that probably should be a "Con" is that the Fujitsu P7120 adopts a proprietary 1.8" HD for the first time which is non-upgradeable so you're stuck with those agonizingly slow 4200RPM hard drive speeds as demonstrated by the HDTune results here in the review. The IBM X40 and X41 get slammed for these problems, but I still love that series, so just mentioning this fact. Also, Lenovo will be dropping the 1.8" hard drive size in their ultraportables going forward so Fujitsu sort of rowed backwards a little on this issue IMHO.

 

A worthy competitor to the TX.

Excellent review.

 

It's important to understand that in this size, there's nothing else with a 2.5" drive, forget about the fact that it's fanless. It's all about compromises.

 

Looks like a good laptop.

Excellent review!!!

 

Holy freaking @#)!, me want NOW!!!!!!

Fujitsu and Sony sure hire some amazing, talented engineers. I'd really like to see both of them team up to create the ultimate ultraportable, there'd be nothing stopping them. Like its gonna happen though.

 

Found a typo...

 

Great review Brian!

And what about the Heat? Does it feel hot anywhere(Touchpad, bottom, palm rest area)?

 

It does not get hot anywhere. It only started to get warm when I was trying to kill the battery.

 

If you're in the market for an ultraportable, you're not looking for a power system (or if you are, you're shooting to be disappointed!). From what Brian says, this system gives you what you DO want from an ultra - good battery life, quiet and cool running, and enough grunt to run basic aps like Office and browsing. Sweet little machine, Brian.

 

another typo, you spelled better as "battar" great review though! I really like the looks on that thing

 

Superb review. Great pictures, especially the close-ups. Always important!

So Brian - were you thinking about disguising your current P7000 and shipping it back to them while keeping the new one? J/K.

Definitely a worthy choice for an ultraportable.

 

**** typos...

This one is mine, the old P7010 is going up on eBay in a week or two.

 

Before you sell your P7010 on ebay, is it possible that you could take a side profile (thickness) and screen at max brightness comparison shot between P7020 and P7010?

I would greatly appreciate it if you do, but if you don't feel like it, just ignore this post.

Thanks!

 

Very nice review Brian.

A couple of questions:

What docking can you use on it?
Any type from FS?
Is it possible to use DVI og VGA @ 1920x1200 on any of the dockings?

Thinking of getting this comp, but want to be able to use it on my Dell 24" monitor with the docking.

If anyone knows please let me know

 

I am using the Fujitsu docking station.
I don't know who FS is.
No.

 

FS = Fujitsu Siemens

Thanks for the answer though...

 

Great review

What are the main advantages of new P7120 vs old P7010? apart from chipset, BT & size/weight
Any disadvantage vs old P7010?

How can be compared P7120 and Sony TX1? What is the main advantage of P7120?

Thanks

 

Fanless design and the other things you mentioned.

Dis - smaller HDD.

Against the Sony, depends on your needs, but I honestly see nothing other than design preference as a reason to buy the Sony. The display is a little larger, I suppose that might be a reason.

 

Can someone please tell me the network card (wired, not wireless) in the P7120?

I ordered a P7120 and expect to receive it tomorrow. Before I boot up off the hard drive I want to boot from CD into DOS and image it across the network. I like having a virgin image to go back to since I usually repartition and whack the factory partitions.

Thanks in advance for your help.

 

Dell already offers 80GB 1.8" HDDs on their Latitude X1 ultraportable.
Sadly, Fujitsu still offers only the volume below 60GB on this latest model.
Still, it's a great laptop in the ultraportable class. Unfortunately, we will not see it in Europe, because only FS sells in Europe, not Fujitsu (and, imho, FS sells overpriced crap here).

 

Have No Fan??
So it would decrease the performance when it gets hot automatically beyond your tweaks???
I really wonder after working few hour(plugged 3-4hrs) whats the clock speed and performance on office production or some heavy programs like photoshop or what...
I am new on those subnotebooks and it really sound weird it doenst have a fan..

Thanx much...

 

FS sells P7120 in Europe
http://www.fujitsu-siemens.com/products/mobile/notebooks/lifebook_p.html
FS sells some Lifebook series notebook, but not all of them, for instance there is no S2000 or S6000 (only S7000)
Apart from Lifebook there are other class, the "Amilo" labeled as "home notebook", that AFAIK are not Fujitsu maded but some Honk-Kong or Taiwan relabeled notebook (¿Uniwill?)

 

Thanks for the info. Those cheap made Amilos have so much undermined FS's reputation in my eyes that I did not even try to check about the P series.

I found another review of P7120:
http://asia.cnet.com/reviews/hardware/notebooks/0,39001743,39096101p,00.htm


He-he, the current price of P7120 in Germany is 2040 Euro.

 

Excellent review! Looks like you got a winner here!

 

Yes, Lifebook are too expensive here in Europe
I'm in Spain and P7120 has more or less the same price Much more expensive than in USA ! (the same for old P7010)
2040 Euro = 2476 $
just compare wih USA prices, 1700-2000$

 

Mr. Baxter,

This new 7120 might be the first ultraportable to pose a series threat to the IBM X-series- for one major reason- its screen is something like twice as bright, not to mention better displaying moving color images.

Before with other 7000 series laptops the keyboard was always the problem, no-where near the IBM's. Now it would seem that the keyboard looks to be about 75% there.

Really I think a through back to back comparsion is in order, if the keyboard isn't to comprimised my thinking is that the screen will puch things in the Fujitsu's favor. Thougts? Thanks JL

 

You're talking about two machines that are in the same class but going after dramatically different audiences. If you go head to head the X60 is going to win almost everything but display.

 

Brian,
But the question is, is the Fujitsu's much brighter/crisper screen enough to put it over the top? Which would you go for, the screen or the keyboard? I think its now very close, as I think a super bright screen goes a long way towards making writing, internet use all manner of programs etc that much easier to view over time. JL

 

It's a personal decision, I prefer the Fujitsu because of screen, no fan, memory card reader and weight. Others want the larger screen and trackpoint.

 

Brain,
I was under the impression the X-series was actually a bit lighter?
Which of the X-series are you refering to, the X40?

 

The X60, depends on the config.

 

Brian, thanks for an excellent review. I would like to ask you about something that I read at a different forum. Some people mentioned that the writing on the keyboard was coming off after a few weeks of use. Can you confirm this? Thank you.

 

I cannot confirm this, I don't have this problem.

 

Thank you for the clarification. I examined a Fujitsu P7120 at a store and was very impressed by its features. In the past I have only owned ThinkPads, partly because of their superior keyboards, but I really liked the keyboard of the P7120, it was very comfortable to type. However, I would not buy this model if the printing on the keyboard wears out quickly or if the plastic in the wrist area becomes shiny after a few weeks of use, as some other users reported.

 

Some of my letters are dark from heavier use, but it's more dirty than the labels wearing off. I didn't go through that thread in-depth, but I would assume if you had this issue it would be a warranty repair.

 

Fujitsu did replace the keyboard that had the labels worn off but I would rather not have that problem to begin with. I have a heavily used ThinkPad that is over three years old and the keyboard looks like new, aside from a few shiny spots, for example on the space bar. In any case, one owner of a P7120 who was quite vocal about this issue got no responses when he asked if anyone else had the same problem ( see post here). I will monitor this and other forums to check if the keyboard problem is mentioned by others. Thanks again, Brian.

 

How does the 7120 screen look outdoors in the sun? They say it's 'outdoor' enhanced, or something, but I haven't heard anything direct from a user about it.

 

It's usable, it won't get totally washed out. I've used it in Florida by the pool a few times.

 

i think keys on keyboards going shiny after alot of use is just something all notebooks suffer from but that is hardly an issue, i can see very slight shiny spots on my N6210 only if i am in direct bright flourescent light.

 

Shiny spots don't bother me but it is unacceptable to have a keyboard where the printed letters disappear and one is left with completely blank keys. More on this problem related to the P7120 in this thread: http://www.leog.net/fujp_forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=9350. The third post contains this statement: "The only real complaint I have is that the keys are rubbing out remarkably fast." One response recommends clear coating the keys! I think no one who buys a new computer should be expected to do that kind of repair. By the way, I hope I don't violate forum rules by pointing to posts in another forum.

 

ahh i understand, but atleast Fujitsu will replace it when it happens alot of manufacturers would make this a hassle.

but i agree the actual letters should wear off, does the P series use the same type of slightly see through black plastic keys as the N-Series?

 

That Fujitsu will presumably replace the keyboard - although only during the warranty period - is nice but not an ideal situation. Say you have a car that has to be repainted every three months because the paint gets washed off by the rain. The manufacturer paints the car for free but there will still be some time during which you are driving around in a car that makes you feel ashamed because it is so ugly. In the same way I don't want to go to business meetings with a shabby looking computer because my new keyboard is only coming next week, not to mention the constant hassle of getting the keyboard replaced. After I saw the P7120 at a store I was set on buying this model but I hesitate to do so now after I heard about the poorly manufactured keyboard.

 

Different question: Can the P7120 run Google Earth?

 

All I can say is that I don't have this issue. Maybe there was a bad batch?

Yes, it runs Google Earth, nearly any machine will run it, of course the video card dictates zoom levels.

 

Thanks for the excellent review! The unit looks to be a top
contender for this market segment.

I've got a question regarding the screen. Is it one of those shiny LCD screens or is it the non-reflective type? I tried looking at your pictures but it was not entirely evident. From your pictures, I'd have to guess that it is the non-reflective type.

Thanks for answering my question.

Willy

 

Brian, are you sure you actually have used the P7120? first i can tell by the pictures of the keyboard, you have not typed or used the touch pad or it would be shining like mine. I am on my 3rd keyboard since December and i need a 4th one because the letters are so worn off.

As for heat, i gues if you are in a cold climate it might not get hot but using it in an air con building in thailand, you could fry an egg on the bottom of the case. even in san diego it gets too hot to put on your lap.

what i can not understand is why did they make such an industructible case and then use such a poor material for the keyboard and the surround? you can see on the leog site a photo from another owner where the key actally wore though and has a hole in it. and yet Fujitsu says they do not see a problem. yet here like the Leog site, i see a discussion of this problem. i have had a P2120D and a P5020D and after a few years the keyboards are fine. I only changed the one on the P2120 because it was getting really grooty and in cleaning it I broke off a key top. in a week of owning the P7120, the t key popped off on its own.

If you have no problem witht he shine then you don't go to business meetings where people look at the worn keys and the shine and think you have a 5 year old computer.

 

Mike -

Not sure what you're after here, but I've been using the P7120 as my primary computer since it was released. Mine is not hot, never gets more than a little warm. I don't have glossy keys, though I am starting to get some that are dingy. I plan on asking for a new keyboard in another few months. I'm just glad mine isn't nearly as bad as some of the others in the first batch.

 

Do you have any pics comparing the P7120 to the older P7010?

 

Great review Brian!

Just got a P7120 and i love it!! It's encrecible how much can fit in such a small package!

I only have a question: Because the P7120 is fanless and extremely silent you start to hear everything else. I wonder if your P7120 also makes a constant buzzing sound if you listen very close? Its probably the processor or the harddrive and something that can't be avoided but I just want to be sure that its not only on my notebook? Im kind of "paranoid" about such things!

Thanx in advance,

Chriz