Fujitsu Lifebook U2010

When is a notebook not a netbook?

When it’s got enough bells and whistles to satisfy any geek.

Like it or not, netbooks are here to stay, and nearly every notebook manufacturer has released their own take of the popular low-cost mini notebook design. But is there still a market for MID/UMPC-style machines? That’s the question Fujitsu poses with the Lifebook U2010. It’s tinier than the most miniature of netbooks, with a footprint that’s smaller than this mag’s DVD cover, and it weighs a petite 610g (the lightest netbook comes in at just under a kilo).

Performance and battery life
Specs-wise, the U2010 is run by a 1.6GHz Intel Centrino Atom processor, but rather than use the N270 chip favoured by netbooks, it uses the MID-designated Z530 chip. The main difference is that the Z530 generates less heat and supports virtualisation technology – otherwise, the two chips have the same 512KB L2 cache, 533MHz front side bus and 12x clock multiplier.

Paired to Intel GMA 500 graphics and only a gigabyte of RAM, we weren’t expecting any fireworks in the performance department, especially not with Vista running the show. To that effect, our expectations were met with a moderate 983 in PCMark05 and 79 in 3DMark06. If you’re expecting notebook-class performance, you’ll be disappointed; the U2010 takes a couple of seconds longer to do anything compared to a standard notebook – even clicking on a link to load a new webpage takes three or more seconds. Another expectation you’ll have to check at the door is instant-on. The U2010 may come close to a PDA in size, but it takes a full 30 seconds to wake up from sleep mode, which rules out using it for quickly looking up an email or phone number.

Performance always needs to be balanced against mobility, however, and when you take the U2010’s Lilliputian form factor into account, the laggy system is a worthwhile tradeoff. If you stick to a couple of tabs in Internet Explorer at a time, it isn’t sluggish enough to be irritating, and there are lots of techniques you can use to pare down Vista’s voracious resource requirements.

The U2010 comes with a small 2-cell 2900mAh battery that clips to the rear. Using the power-saving profile and with screen brightness set to 40%, we got just over two hours of web browsing over Wi-Fi before the system shut down. An optional 4-cell 5800mAh battery is available that, according to Fujitsu, offers up to 7.5 hours of run-time.

Conclusion
The Lifebook U2010 occupies an interesting space in the laptop spectrum. It’s smaller than a netbook, but doesn’t have the bargain-basement pricetag that’s made them such a rip-roaring success. Extra features like the tablet PC design and built-in GPS and FM transmitter make it slightly more appealing, but we’re not sure these are worth paying the extra premium for – especially when you can get a high-performance notebook for the same money.