Product Reviews

There's a depressing trend among subnotebook manufacturers to supply half the kit that you need and charge for the rest. This typically means the CD-ROM drive, and almost invariably the port replicator. I've often said such things should come as standard, so I was very pleased when I opened up the box containing the LifeBook and discovered that, in this case, they were included.

The LifeBook is a sensibly-sized machine - small and light enough to be easily stowable and carried, but wide enough to preserve something of the ergonomics of an A4 portable. Perhaps most importantly, it has enough room for an internal CD-ROM drive. This is a removable module, so you can swap it for a full set of options including a six-speed DVD-ROM player, a CD-RW drive, an LS-120 or a second battery. This approach will undoubtedly appeal to buyers who don't want to deal with two external drives or who value the machine's ability to support two batteries for extended running time.

The build quality is excellent throughout, with often overlooked features properly considered here. For example, the battery pack release catch has a secondary lock, and there's a retaining catch that secures installed PC Cards in place. There are no vulnerable port covers and no obvious weak spots in the main body of the case either, and the lid surface is magnesium alloy, not plastic, giving the screen a greater chance of surviving to a venerable old age.

As for ports, the LifeBook itself has a VGA output, infrared link, a USB port and a mini-serial port with an adaptor cable terminating in a standard nine-pin male connector, and there are sockets for the internal modem and LAN adaptor plus a single Type II PCęCard slot. This is where the port replicator comes in, as it's the only means for hooking up the external floppy drive, and it also adds a parallel port and two PS/2

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connectors for a mouse and keyboard to the overall tally. There's also a network jack so you can simply dock with the replicator and be back on the LAN.

Fujitsu Siemens has given the subnotebook a keyboard that preserves some of the more important features of a full-sized pad, most notably large Enter and backspace keys and a long spacebar. The main pad is compact but not cramped, and as a result the LifeBook is easy to type on. There are also four buttons above the keyboard that give you programmable shortcuts to whatever apps you choose.

The screen is bright and displays a very readable combination of SVGA on a 12.1in diagonal, which is fine for a subnotebook. Nevertheless, if you wanted the LifeBook to run in XGA on an external monitor it can easily do so thanks to the 2.5Mb of video memory, although this does restrict it to a maximum resolution of 1,280 x 1,024 in 256 colours.

The machine's lithium ion battery pack isn't very large and I wasn't expecting miracles when it came to running time, so the two hours, 30 minutes I got wasn't a great disappointment, but neither was it anything to get excited about, especially as the Dell Latitude lasts for another 30 minutes. Another area where the LifeBook suffers in comparison with the Dell Latitude is its warranty. Where Dell provides next business day on-site for three years, Fujitsu Siemens only offers one year as collect-and-return and the following two years as return-to-base.

With an overall speed rating of 1.16 in the PC Pro benchmarks, the LifeBook is no more than an average performer for its class, but this isn't to say that it's too slow for a subnotebook. The biggest hit came from having only 64Mb of RAM. I'd recommend upgrading this to 128Mb from the outset if you need more; this costs £175, but as there's only one SODIMM socket, upgrading at a later date would mean replacing the existing module. However, even with 64Mb of RAM there's more than enough power here for the kind of tasks the notebook is intended for.

Considering the inclusion of 128Mb of RAM, NT 4 and the superior warranty for a very similar price, the Latitude wins on value for money. But thanks to the LifeBook's integrated CD-ROM, it's a far more convenient solution if you need to install software regularly, or are using software that requires a CD to be in the drive. If you don't mind paying a little more for the luxury, the LifeBook should be your subnotebook of choice.