Product Reviews

Security looks like the way forward in the IT industry, and whether it be paranoia or a genuine wish to keep vital documents safe, it's certainly a management priority these days. Acer's TravelMate 351TEV (reviewed p159) opts for a Smart Card security system, while the Fujitsu-Siemens LifeBook S-4546 has a row of shortcut buttons that double up as a security panel. When the system's locked out you can't power it up without the correct code. Next year we'll see another generation of secure notebooks though. Both NEC and Fujitsu-Siemens have promised fingerprint-based security systems.

In the meantime, the LifeBook S-4546 has a few other tricks to lure you in. Firstly, it's a beautiful ultra-portable design, with light blue and silver styling, and an orderly white keyboard that looks more like a neat Scrabble set than the usual affair. And secondly, it somehow manages to pack a 24-speed CD-ROM into its slimline chassis, without the need for add-ons or docking stations.

This, along with a PC Card slot, VGA-out, S-Video output, RJ-11 modem connector, IEEE-1394, infrared and USB all in the single unit, means you've got a fully functional ultra portable you can take on the road without weighing yourself down. All looks good, and there's even a port replicator that attaches to the bottom and gives you all the standard legacy ports, as well as the RJ-45 connector. The only downer is that you need this to get to the floppy drive connector, although the tiny port replicator doesn't add too much weight to the unit.

The white keyboard looks a bit odd and square at first, but the keys are large enough to type without being cramped, with a sensible size allocated to the backspace, Cursor and Enter keys, although I'd have liked a slightly bigger Shift key. PgUp and PgDn are secondary functions of the cursor keys. But it's easy enough to type on, and you can get up to speed quickly enough without hitting the glide pad. Unlike Dell's

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Latitiude C600 (reviewed issue 76, p138) there's no trackpoint to accidentally knock, although the Dell's keyboard feels more substantial and responsive. The Fujitsu is well laid out on top, and you even get stereo speakers.

Inside, though, here's an odd component mixture. A fairly powerful 600MHz Pentium III processor provides the backbone, but it has the slightly unusual addition of 256Mb of RAM. This is for the serious user indeed, and gave the LifeBook a great advantage in the PC Pro graphics benchmark. The high graphics score of 2.83 is unusual for a notebook, and will make it a perfect choice for portable graphics work. The high-quality screen will also help out with this.

This is a 12.1in TFT, which runs at a native resolution of 1,024 x 768, and although the 4Mb ATi graphics chip may seem fairly minimal, it allows this resolution in 32-bit colour depth, which is all you need. The screen has an even brightness across the board, and is clear and well lit with wide viewing angles. It's a pleasure to look at, and the robust lid has very little flex in it, protecting the screen from LCD ripples and damages. Which unfortunately, is more than you can say for the hard disk positioning, which sits underneath the base at the front of the unit. It's removable, but only just. You have to unscrew the base panel, and then attach a flimsy orange ribbon to the pins. It has enough shock protection round it, but the ribbon cable feels highly insecure. That said, the 10Gb of storage space is easily enough for the average notebook user. The battery life of 87 minutes under our rigorous rundown test is also reasonable, and you could even slide out the CD-ROM and put a second battery in if you like.

The only other issue is price, and there are higher specified notebooks to be had for less than £2,272. The Acer TravelMate 351TEV includes a Pentium III/700 and DVD-ROM for £100 less, and also throws Smart Card security into the deal. Having 256Mb of RAM probably doesn't help here. Although it makes a big difference to graphics work, it has little real-world impact on other applications, which is reflected in the otherwise average benchmark score of 1.70. You can't upgrade the memory, but the LifeBook is available in cheaper 64Mb and 128Mb flavours, which may be worth considering if you don't need the extra headroom, as the 64Mb version costs £1,898. Otherwise, the LifeBook S-4546 is a well thought-out, and beautiful ultra portable. If the hard disk was as well conceived as the CD-ROM then it would be perfect.