Fujtisu Siemens Amilo Xi1554 Review

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Fujtisu Siemens Amilo Xi1554

By Sunny Sunjhoon Lachanah, England

Described by Fujitsu as the 'X-treme multimedia X-perience' the Xi 1554 offers the best in multimedia applications from watching films to playing games. Being the newest edition to the X series it is based on its predecessor the xi 1546, but also incorporates ATI's new mobility x1900 graphics card. This desktop replacement is designed with multimedia, connectivity and performance in mind.

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Fujitsu Siemens Xi1554 Specs:

• OS: Microsoft® Windows™ Vista Home Premium
• Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo Processor T7200 (2 GHz, 4 MB L2 cache, 667 MHz FSB)
• Memory: 2048mb 533DDR2 SDRAM (2-1024MB modules)
• Screen: 17.0-inch Widescreen Crystal View wide WUXGA display (1920x1200)
• Hard Drive: 240GB  (2*120 GB FUjitsu SATA @ 5400RPM)
• Network: Realtek RTL8169/8110 Gigabit Ethernet
• Wireless: Intel(R) PRO/Wireless 3945ABG
• Graphics: ATI mobility Radeon X1900 with 256MB GDDR3 (MXM-III technology)
• Optical Drive: 8x Multi-format DVD Burner with double layer
• Connectivity: Integrated Bluetooth® 2.0 and Infra-red
• Sound: 2.1 (2 Speakers and 1 subwoofer) with Realtek High Definition Audio.
• Weight: 4kg
• Dimensions: (W x D x H) 408 x 289 x ~25 – 41.6mm
• Battery: Li-Ion battery 8 cells, 14.8V / 4400mAh
• Warranty: 1 year collect &amp; return
• Ports: 4 x USB 2.0, ExpressCard/54 Slot, IEEE 1394 Firewire, LAN port (RJ-45), Modem port (RJ-11), Memory card slot(SD,MS.MSP,MMC), S-Video output, DVI-I port, Microphone port, Headphones/SPDIF port and Line in.

Reasons for Buying

I've had my desktop for a very long time so I had been looking around for the last few months to see what was available. A lot of the time I tended to go to NBR or TrustedReviews to check what laptops/news they had on new products. I wanted a desktop replacement so immediately it was between a 15.4-inch or 17-inch notebook. However, 15.4-inch notebooks only come with mid-range graphics cards (mobility x1700/ go 7700) which are perfectly acceptable cards, but I wanted to go all out in buying a notebook and have top end specs (high-end graphics card, 2GB RAM and a big hard drive) so that I wouldn’t have to consider upgrading for at least 6 months to a year. So it came down to 17-inch notebooks as high-end graphics cards only come in 17-in notebooks or above. It was between the Dell Inspiron 9400, Toshiba P100-286 or the Fujitsu Xi1546. After careful consideration I was going to go with the Xi1546 because it was the best performance-to-price ratio. I was just about to go for the purchase when I started reading about the Xi 1554 with ATI's new graphics card. Having read the reviews of the Xi 1546 and also people's impressions of the Xi 1554 I thought for that price it was a bargain. Both the Dell and Toshiba are well over £1300  (with Go 7900 graphics) and I felt they weren't really going to be good value for the money when I could be saving £200 by getting the Amilo Xi 1554. Unfortunately, the UK prices for the Dell and Toshiba are far too expensive (the Toshiba cost £1499 from PC World and configuring a Dell with similar specs cost around £1300).

Packaging and Software (What's in the box)

As standard with most Fujtisu laptops it came in two boxes, one plain brown box with the actual Amilo box inside it. Both came in good condition and there was a good amount of protection around the laptop. Within the actual laptop box was another box containing all the extras that the laptop came with things such as the battery andsoftware.

Here is the full list of the extras:

• Vista Recovery System DVD
• Driver and Utilities
• Norton Internet Security
• Connect2Air Bluetooth Software
• Nero 7 Essentials
• Microsoft Works 8.5
• Tiscali Broadband, BT Broadband and AOL Broadband promotional CDs
• Warranty Information
• Restoring Installed Software Manual
• Safety Manual
• Remote control and IR receiver
• Quick Start Guide
• Modem Line cable
• DVI-VGA adapter
• Carry Case

I was greatful that this laptop did not come with a lot of bloatware. The only preinstalled software was Norton Internet Security, MS works 8.5 and Nero 7 Essentials.

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What I particularly liked is that they placed all the drivers onto a CD and included an application called DeskUpdate. If you run DeskUpdate it will tell you which drivers are not installed and will take care of the installation for you. The restore disk was very easy and simple to use. The actual manual is on the ‘Drivers and Utilities’ CD.

The laptop was purchased online from a company called NicePC. It cost £1,200, it can be bought for cheaper (around £1130-1170) however most of these companies are out of stock. I would have to say that it was a great deal. I am anti-UK when it comes to prices because for around the same price you could get the same laptop with 320GB hard drive rather than the 240GB elsewhere in europe.

Build &amp; Design

I'd have to say looking in shops and seeing a 17-inch feels different from actually owning one. When you have one in front of you, you realise how big it is. Also the fact that it weighs 4kg (8.8lbs) means that you will not be looking to carry it for long periods of time. Although I have put it to the test and have lugged it around my university and lectures. Carrying a 17-inch notebook felt like I was doing an extra work out. It wasn’t so bad for a few minutes, but after spending hours at university and then to going through rush hour back home the last thing you want to lug is a heavy notebook.

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The build is solid, but I would have to say the back-lid of the LCD is the weakest part. If you push on the back it causes ripples, however the rest of the chassis is much more solid and in particular the base. The hinges are solid and there is minimal wobbling when pushing on the screen .

The design is attractive although I would envy those that had an Xa1526, they look cooler.

Screen

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The screen for me has to be arguably the best feature. It's a WUXGA (1920*1200) CrystalView display and is absolutely stunning. Fortunately my model does not have any dead pixels and the leakage is very minimal. The contrast is great and it really captures all the vibrant colours. The brightness is adjustable, and whilst the lowest setting is too dim, the highest setting is more than enough to use. I tend to use it just a little lower than the highest setting. Both vertical and horizontal angles are great. It retains true image colors at high angles. Having a high resolution on a big screen means that I can have multiple windows up in different areas of the screen and can look at several different things without having to push Alt-Tab to select a different window.

Having watched a few movies and the high-def trailer for Halo 3, I can say I am in love with the screen. Movies are great to watch on it. Being a 17-inch means that it's just that extra bit bigger which is nice when it comes to watching movies. The good news is that it came with a remote control so you can sit back and relax and watch the movie and not have to go back and forth to the laptop.

The screen also supports HD video Playback for up to 1080p and furthermore the graphics card has HDCP Support.

Speakers

This being a multimedia laptop I’d expect the speakers to be better than adequate. Unfortunately they weren't. That isn’t so much a problem for me. The sound is crisp and the speakers are loud, however if you turn it up to the max volume it starts to lose its clarity. I still think that I will stick to my 5.1 surround sound. It comes with a built in 2.1 sound system (2 speakers and a subwoofer) however in my opinion I don’t see why they put subwoofer in a notebook. You can notice the subwoofer, but I still think it is pointless in laptops.

Heat and Noise

The most noticeable heat is on the palm rest and the bottom of the laptop. They do get hot but they never get uncomfortable. The laptop is fairly noisy. The good news is that if you are playing games etc it doesn’t get louder than that and you will not hear it over your music or games. It does have a silent mode which I believe slows performance down, but in return the laptop does get quieter. I do have a notebook cooler that sits perfectly on the notebook and it keeps the underside cool.

Keyboard and Touchpad

The keyboard is comfortable to use and the flex is minimal. The good news is that it is a full sized keyboard. There is some bad news though. One complaint I have is where the 'Fn' button is positioned. As you can see it is on the far bottom left. I personally found it annoying as whenever I want to push 'Ctrl' I always naturally put my hand on the far left bottom (as that’s where the 'Ctrl' key is normally located). I’d be pushing the key and then try to ‘cut/paste/copy/undo’ but it wouldn’t happen. I'd then look down and realise that I wasn't pushing the 'Ctrl' key but in actual fact the 'Fn' key. That is a small annoyance and as I use the laptop more I will get used to it. Another thing I didn't like was that they made some of the buttons smaller towards the mid-right of the keyboard. In particular the arrow keys and the secondary keys. Those with big hands may find themselves having to be extra careful around that area when they want to use those buttons.

The touchpad is located slightly to the left of the laptop, but sits in the middle of the letters. There is a vertical scroll on the right side of the touchpad but I never use it. I don't find it quite as effective as pushing the middle button on a mouse to scroll up and down but it still does the job.

Wireless &amp; connectivity

It has a standard Intel Pro/Wireless 54Mbs wireless card. This is turned on at the front of the laptop. It picked up my wireless no problems and I was able to use the internet with a good strength when the wireless router was three floors above it. It also has Bluetooth which I have tried and works well.

Battery Life

As expected the battery life is not great at all. If I’m lucky it can get around 1hr and 50mins, that’s with wireless off and dim settings. I didn't expect much of a battery life as I intend to keep it connected to the mains 90% of time.

Input and Output Ports:

Front: CIR interface, Wireless, Bluetooth On/Off switch (view large image)

Back: Vent, S-Video out, DVI-I monitor port, Modem Port (RJ-11) (view large image)

Right Side: 3 x USB 2.0, Express card Slot, Kensington Lock, LAN port (RJ-45), Memory card slot, Firewire port (view large image)

Left Side: DC IN jack, 1x USB 2.0, Optical drive, Microphone port, Headphones/SPDIF port, Line in, Volume control (view large image)

My First Impressions of Windows Vista

My first impressions of Vista were good. I like its new GUI and its improved security features. However, they can be annoying. It can be a tad tedious having to accept each time when you are doing this and that (with regards to UAC) but I suppose it's all part of the improvements for security. One of the annoyances of UAC is that in order to play PREY I had to disable the UAC as it wouldn’t let it save files and furthermore the graphics drivers installed did not support openGL! No Quake 4, PREY etc. (there is a way around it though).

Installing XP back on this PC was not as simple as I thought it would be (it couldn’t detect my hard drives). After a lot of research and help from the NBR forum and also a German website (which I used google to translate into English) I was able to create a Windows XP CD with the drivers slipstreamed. Finding out how to do it was the hard part, but once I knew what I had to do the job became much simpler. After modifying the setup files in notepad and integrating the drivers with XP I had a brand new XP CD with my drivers in it and it finally detected my hard drives. On that note I would also like to point out that for some strange reason 2GB of the hard drive wasn't being used and it was unpartioned space. I know that generally around a couple of MB is unpartioned but 2GB is a lot of unused space! I am now dual booting so I think I will use Vista for watching movies and doing my work but stick with XP for gaming and 3D applications. 

Graphics Card Drivers

One thing I did notice is that I don’t think that there are any drivers officially released for the ATI Mobility x1900. Even the Fujtisu Siemen’s drivers aren’t official. It seems more as though they are forced than the actual drivers for it. If I’m mistaken the codename for it is m59. However when looking at setup files for the drivers I noticed that the old drivers had some lines QUOTE:

&quot;ATI Mobility Radeon X1900&quot; = ati2mtag_M58, PCIVEN_1002&amp;DEV_7284&amp;SUBSYS_23621584

&quot;ATI Mobility Radeon X1900 &quot; = ati2mtag_M58, PCIVEN_1002&amp;DEV_7284&amp;SUBSYS_23631584

&quot;ATI Mobility Radeon X1900 &quot; = ati2mtag_M58, PCIVEN_1002&amp;DEV_7284&amp;SUBSYS_10AC1734

The m58 is the mobility X1800. The mobility x1800 and mobility x1900 are based on two different cores. The x1900 is based on a 80nm fabrication process where the x1900 on a 90nm fabrication process.

Tagging it as m58 could be a slightly false interpretation of what the x1900 can actually do in the benchmark and games. I’m hoping that the next drivers and catalyst released from ATI support it as I would like to see how the x1900 can really perform. The only games I have tried on it so far were PREY and BATTLEFIELD 2142 and both games ran very smoothly.

Benchmarking

HD Tune

1st hard drive (view large image)

2nd hard drive (view large image)

 

SuperPI

Notebook	Time
Fujtisu Siemens Amilo Xi1554 Review (2.0GHz Core 2 Duo)	1m 01s
MSI M677 (1.8 GHz Turion X2)	1m 53s
Fujitsu LifeBook N6420 (2.00GHz Core 2 Duo)	1m 02s
LG S1 (2.16 GHz Core Duo)	1m 11s
Dell Inspiron e1505 (2.0GHz Core Duo)	1m 16s
Lenovo ThinkPad T60 (2.0GHz Core Duo)	1m 18s
Toshiba Satellite M100 (2.00GHz Core Duo)	1m 18s
Samsung X60 (1.66GHz Core Duo)	1m 29s
Sony VAIO FS680 (1.86 GHz Pentium M)	1m 53s

 

Windows Index Score:

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I did benchmarking both in XP and Vista. The results are pretty interesting. Drivers for the graphics card for Vista are stock and for XP are FORCED NEW drivers with catalyst7.2. The hard drives were also defragged prior to benchmarking. (GPU core @398mhz and mem clock @ 468mhz)

PCMark05

Notebook	PCMark05 Score
Fujtisu Siemens Amilo Xi1554 Review (2.0GHz Core 2 Duo, ATI X1900, Windows Vista)	5,088 PCMarks
Fujtisu Siemens Amilo Xi1554 Review (2.0GHz Core 2 Duo, ATI X1900, Windows XP)	5,066 PCMarks
Fujitsu LifeBook N6420 (2.00GHz Core 2 Duo, ATI X1600)	4,621 PCMarks
Fujitsu LifeBook N6410 (1.66GHz Core Duo, ATI X1400)	3,487 PCMarks
Sony Vaio SZ-110B in Speed Mode (Using Nvidia GeForce Go 7400)	3,637 PCMarks
Asus Z84Jp (2.16GHz Core 2 Duo, Nvidia Go 7600)	4,739 PCMarks
Asus V6J (1.86GHz Core Duo T2400)	3,646 PCMarks
Alienware M7700 (AMD Athlon FX-60, Nvidia Go 7800GTX)	5,597 PCMarks

 

Comparison Results for 3Dmark05

Notebook	3D Mark 05 Results
Fujtisu Siemens Amilo Xi1554 Review (2.0GHz Core 2 Duo, ATI X1900, Windows Vista)	6,740 3DMarks
Fujtisu Siemens Amilo Xi1554 Review (2.0GHz Core 2 Duo, ATI X1900, Windows XP)	7,114 3DMarks
Asus Z96Js (2.0 GHz Core Duo, ATI X1600)	3,842 3D Marks
Alienware Aurora M-7700(AMD Dual Core FX-60, ATI X1600 256MB)	7,078 3D Marks
Lenovo ThinkPad T60 (2.0GHz Core Duo, ATI X1400 128MB)	2,092 3D Marks
Asus V6Va (2.13 GHz Pentium M, ATI x700 128 MB)	2,530 3D Marks
Fujitsu n6410 (1.66 GHz Core Duo, ATI X1400 128MB)	2,273 3DMarks
HP Pavilion dv4000 (1.86 GHz Pentium M, ATI X700 128MB)	2,536 3D Marks
Dell XPS M1210 (2.16 GHz Core Duo, nVidia Go 7400 256MB)	2,090 3D Marks

 

3DMark06:

• Using Windows XP: 3,517 3DMarks
• Using Windows Vista: 3,242 3DMarks (7.82% decrease in performance)

Gaming Screenshots

Here are settings the game was set to:

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The only game I have played on it properly is PREY on windows XP and I was getting generally around 55-68fps (average was 64FPS using FRAPS ) on 1280 x1024 with AAx4 AFx8.

Here are some screen shots of the games:

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The mobility X1900 is ATI’s fastest notebook graphics card. It will handle anything thrown at it well. It can be considered as a gaming laptop as the x1900 is a good performer. I’m anxious to see how the official drivers for x1900 will perform. I do know that it will be a little while before the true performance of the x1900 is shown. As drivers mature the graphics card will improve. I am confident that with improved drivers (and maybe a little overclocking) it will reach the 4k in 3DMark06 with no problems. Under vista there is a drop in performance in the 3DMark. More noticeably in the 3Dmark06 where the drop was 7.82%. 

Customer Support:

There was a delay in receiving my laptop. But the company I bought it from did call me everyday to inform me whether they had it in stock or not (although each time they did tell me it wasn't in stock). When they called me to report that it had shipped out I asked them to inform me in the morning what time it was arriving. They did call me and gave me a good indication of what time it would arrive.

Fujitsu Siemens support: I did at first have a problem with the sound (I just needed the hard drives to be set at advanced performance but I didn’t know at the time) so I called the warranty line. They then told me that it was a software related issue and that I would have to ring a premium line that would cost 50p a minute (about $1)! The gentleman on the phone did try to help me but said if I didn’t have any luck to call back and he would try and help if it were a hardware problem.

Conclusions

With all laptops there are good and bad sides. I am lucky enough to only have a few small minor problems that I am happy to overlook. For me the pros outweigh the cons by a mile. The Fujtisu Siemens Amilo Xi1554 is a great value for money and I personally think I made the right choice.

Pros:

• WUXGA screen
• Big Hard drive
• Option of RAID
• High-end Graphics card (Mobility x1900)
• HDCP support

Cons:

• Keyboard (I don't mind it but others may)
• Lack of Media Buttons at the front
• Slightly loud
• Weight (4kg)

 

Thanks for this very thorough review! It is nice to see a notebook with the X1900 graphics card. Such a notebook is rare in the US.

 

Indeed it is, the screen looks pretty amazing as well, do you know who makes it? Overall very nice review, espescially with the Vista/XP benchmarks, well done

 

Good work, Sunny.

 

Great review, and notebook!

x1900
2 HDD's
WUXGA
Numberpad

Such things dont go well together, except for Clevos.

 

Only 4.5 GPU score?

My ATI Mobility Radeon x700 on my old (now broken) dv4000 got a 4.3 there! Something is off with driver support...

Anycase, nice laptop. Slightly too big for my tastes though. I'm all about "thin".

 

Dude i think your reading it wrong it says 5.9/5.6 for scores for gpu lol... thin is nice but you'll never get the raw power of bigger notebook ...(well maybe 50 years from now)

 

Very nice looking system! I've always liked the design of Fujitsu systems for some reason. Too bad they don't sell this thing in the USA. I'd want to get one and kick Vista off in favor of XP (perhaps a dual boot with Linux too).

 

Thanks for the review, machine looks great, agree that updated "real" driver for x1900 would definitely boost your overall graphical performance and kick it up a notch or 2.

 

nice review. keep up the good work mate
i like the design of the fujutisu i think it looks a bit .....well decent acctualy
havent seen a laptop with a x1900 in a long time and this doesnt dissapoint either and it incoporates a numberpad which i guess is a step over the dell which doesnt have a numberpad
and those driver cds i bet should be real welcoming for you as you dont get them in many notebooks nowadays
btw those buttons on the top are they easy to press?cuz they do luk a bit deep

 

Nice review. I love the Fujitsu models, shame there aren't more of them over here in the US.

 

buttons feel fine to push... i would also like to say that you guys in the US are probably luckier than us...some of the laptops you got out there arent available in the uk (your range of laptops is great)... i was at one stage so close to also getting an asus a8js from the US

 

There's this littel company that sells 'm. It's called Alienware or something

 

Good job on the review Great notebook... a disappointing 3dmark score though.

 

nice notebook

 

Hi there, thx for the nice review, I'm also going to buy this nice piece one day.

One Question left for me: Could you please run the Cinebench 9.5 Benchmark?
It's a Benchmark of the CAD application Cinema 4D from Maxon, and it's very good to get seperated results for cpu and gpu, particulary I'm interested in the OpenGL result.

You'll find it here:
cinebench.com

thanks a lot...

 

i guess thats more of firmware related rather than hardware an update of the latest drivers if available in my opinion would do you good im sure

 

i am living off the same hope aswell..im pretty confident that it can do a lot better... a whole lot better..im hoping that the next set of drivers will finally support it...that would really great...

 

nice review!

 

I'm curious, since this is basically the Alienware m5790 (both made by Uniwill), how does this have internal bluetooth? Alienware doesn't offer it and I didn't really see where I could install it myself. Do they solder something proprietary onto the board? Hmmm.