General Airstage LifeBook P1510 (Fujitsu)

Excellent – Looking for an ultraportable? It's hard to go past this model. The P1510 has taken Fujitsu past it's competitors such as the Libretto and established itself as a truly portable workhorse. Within this mighty magnesium palmtop, you find a 1.2 Ghz processor and an Intel 915GMS chipset. That doesn't mean much in many terms, but if you ignore the support for the latest shader models, you can run many games on this. I actually played Farcry in this through to the end, on an external monitor, at high settings. That's incredible performance from something so tiny!.

It will run the latest operating systems quite well, but you really need to upgrade to 1Gb of memory, which is very proprietary and not cheap... And there's limited market to get rid of your old model.

Battery life isn't great but not pitiful either. There is a bigger battery but Fujitsu really charge a lot for attachments so unless you have lots of money, forget the docking station or bigger battery - they cost far too much and you're better ordering them from Ebay in the US.

Performance in direct sunlight is dismal, especially for the price. Even bright light in shade causes too much reflection on the screen and you have trouble using it. It also gets uncomfortably warm, which is fine on a desktop but not so great in your hands.

Now let's look at what's good about this.

It has an 80% keyboard. That means you can just manage to touch type on it, so I use mine in meetings to take minutes and although cramped, it is possible. That's something the 75% and smaller keyboards get a little small on. 80% is probably borderline.

The screen is great - and 1024 x 600 is fine for the size - a good compromise between size and resolution.

Inside, the screen is good and the touchscreen, though passive, is great. The stylus is useable and you can get pen based software which can be handy at times (included and downloadable from Fujitsu).

It comes with software on CDs and DVDs which is ironic, because it doesn't have a drive, although a good USB powered external drive is fairly cheap to buy aftermarket and works well - I've even used a burner.

As for portable, this leaves the Libretto - it's biggest competitor I feel - behind.

The graphics performance is exceptional for a non-games based laptop and the sound is quiet but adequate.

Comes with VGA port built in, two USB, WIFI, Memory card slots for both SD and the older larger modules and newer models have bluetooth also.

Battery recharges quickly, although the power supply is way too large compared to the size of the laptop.

Has a keyboard thumb mouse as an alternative to the touch screen and a security biometric reader with reasonable software support.

Also, the screen supports landscape/portrait operation at a touch.

This is a little pricy for what it is, but if you just have to have the best, then this is it... THat or the later versions such as the p1610, but that goes without saying.

And support? Fujitsu is great. I had a bad pixel (zero dead pixel warranty in some places). They agreed to let me keep using it after they confirmed the fault and ordered parts. Then they called me back and fixed it in a day!... Great support.

THey also confirmed that even though this model looks like it's made of plastic, that it had an exceptionally well made magnesium frame. It's always good to get a tech's honest opinion and hear something you like.

As for my usage? This goes *everywhere* with me - and it's light enough that I don't mind. I plug it into a monitor at work and use both screens and it has no lack of power to keep up with my demanding day job.

At night? It comes home and plays games and gives me access to the Internet on the couch by Wifi in tablet mode.

Despite the faults, and I've been pretty hard on it, I would buy this again and have even considered upgrading to the newer model... I have no hesitation to give this model a five! Even considering the high price. Small size and weight - truly ultraportable. Sturdy and solid, few long term problems and plenty of features. Exceptional Performance. Lack of bluetooth (early models) lack of PCMCIA/Cardbus slot, Lack of DVI, CD not present. Very pricy. Gets a little warm at times.