Fujitsu Siemens LifeBook B-2131 review

The LifeBook B-2131 possesses a unique feature in this round-up of ultra portables: its screen is touch sensitive. The obvious advantage is that there's easy and quick pointing access to icons and control buttons to complement the trackpoint cursor navigation, which is particularly handy for data entry via drop-down lists. The downside is that the screen is noticeably more reflective than any of the other notebooks on test, and in bright light the reflection hinders work. A 2.5Mb Trident Cyber9525DVD graphics chipset feeds the screen's native resolution of 800 « 600, which is about right for its 10.4in diagonal.

The LifeBook is encased in a silver-sprayed plastic case that measures 249 « 199 « 31mm, which is one of the most compact this month. A Mobile Celeron/400 processor drives the LifeBook B-2131, which has only half the amount of Level 2 cache of Mobile Pentium III processors but is still a creditable performer. Unfortunately, Fujitsu Siemens only includes 64Mb of memory, which holds back the performance of the LifeBook B-2131.

Appropriately, the hard disk is a Fujitsu, providing 6.4Gb of storage. This capacity is basic, and some cheaper rivals manage to provide 12Gb for more comprehensive storage needs. We were also disappointed that Fujitsu Siemens couldn't find room in the budget for an external CD-ROM, which costs an extra £105. Although Fujitsu Siemens finds room for a Type II PC Card slot, two USB ports and a VGA out on the machine, the bundled port replicator needs to be mounted at the back of the notebook to link up the external 3.5in floppy drive. Our confidence in this arrangement, however, was dented when the floppy drive stopped working halfway through testing. Nevertheless, we were suitably impressed by the port replicator, which adds serial, parallel and PS/2 ports.

The company also gets the notebook's ergonomics right, with a compact keyboard that benefits from a light typing stroke and sensibly arranged keys. An internal Fujitsu LB Global LTModem provides a download rate of 56Kbits/sec, while a 10/100 Ethernet adaptor makes linking to an office network easy.

If the LifeBook B-2131 included a CD-ROM as standard it would be good value for £1,550, especially as a three-year warranty and Microsoft Works Suite 2000 are included. Unless you have an obvious use for the touch-sensitive screen, the NEC Versa FX would be the wiser option.