Product Reviews

Despite being the number one in consumer PCs across Europe, Fujitsu Siemens has yet to break the UK. It's all down to brand recognition - we're familiar with Siemens memory and Fujitsu hard disks, but apply the two names to a PC or notebook and they just don't seem as well-known as Dell or HP.

But this could soon change. With the Lifebook E-7010 (see p54) landing on our A List this month, Fujitsu Siemens is a strong contender, and the thin and light Lifebook S-6010 also offers the build quality, specifications and design to appeal to the consummate professional.

In terms of aesthetics, Fujitsu Siemens has gone for class and subtlety. It's not conservative, but there are no flashy gadgets either. There's a beautiful magnesium alloy lid that gives the exterior a professional and stylish finish with solid protection. And the insides proudly present an attractive two-tone silver and blue-grey scheme.

All that lets the styling down is the bland grey keyboard, which is also a disappointing component. It's adequate and easy to tap away on without making too many mistakes, but there's a slightly unnerving bounce if you get up to speed and it's nowhere near the quality of the IBM ThinkPad T30's solid keyboard (see p114).

We criticised the Lifebook S-4546 (see Reviews, issue 77, p155) for its small Shift key, but liked the sensibly sized Return key. Unfortunately, Fujitsu Siemens has just swapped them on the S-6010 - you now get a huge left Shift key, but only a half-height Enter key and, annoyingly, tiny Full stop and Slash keys too. These are minor complaints though, made up for by the S-6010's impressive string of features.

At the top of the list is connectivity, where the S-6010 is a thoroughly modern piece of design. There are no parallel, serial or even PS/2 ports, but you do get IEEE-1394, two USB ports and infrared. More importantly, there are both 802.11b and Bluetooth as standard. There's

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also a single PC Card slot, which is enough given that wireless, Ethernet and modem functionality are already integrated. This also gives you room for a removable storage device like an IBM Microdrive.

A 20Gb Toshiba hard disk is supplied as standard, and this can also be removed easily - just undo two screws underneath and flip it out. The flimsy orange ribbon connector that we condemned in the S-4546 is still there, but this is the only criticism of build quality.

Other upgrades are also made easy, with a secondary SODIMM socket under a bottom panel and the optical drive removable at the push of a button. That said, it will be a while before you'll want to replace the existing DVD-ROM and CD-RW combo drive.

Having both a DVD-ROM and CD-RW is useful, but it will be impractical to watch a whole DVD movie on battery power, as our DVD movie battery test gave out after just 69 minutes. The battery life elsewhere was above average though, with our intensive test running dry in 76 minutes and our simple timer test lasting 164 minutes. You can expect roughly two hours under normal conditions.

Another slight issue is the screen, which is merely adequate. It's sharp at its native XGA resolution and offers ample viewing angles when viewed straight on, but it loses them quickly when tilted. It's also not very bright and lacks the deep, vibrant colours and brightness of the Sony VAIO PCG-VX71P (opposite) and IBM ThinkPad T30's screens.

Screen brightness was also the main problem with the ACi PowerLite (see Reviews, issue 93, p108), which is similar to the Lifebook S-6010. It didn't have the wireless connectivity or combo drive, but offered a similar form factor and performance. The 1GHz Pentium III-M ACi scored an overall 0.61 in our 2D benchmarks, while the 1.13GHz Pentium III-M Lifebook managed 0.66. This difference is negligible, which is more than you can say for the £524 price distinction.

Is this really what it costs to add a combo drive and wireless connectivity? There's a minor saving grace, however, in the form of a three-year international collect-and-return warranty - better than the ACi's one-year offering. The PC Card smart card reader will also interest business users, allowing you to lock the system by removing your card.

The Lifebook S-6010 is a decent notebook despite our criticisms. It offers good build quality, wireless connectivity and adequate performance and battery life, but the screen is dull and the price needs to be more competitive.