A notebook in miniature

Fujitsu U810 mini-notebook

(Credit: Fujitsu)

You'd be forgiven for classifying Fujitsu's U810 notebook as a slightly clunky ultramobile PC.

After all, it weighs a pound and a half, has the Intel A110 processor used in Samsung's UMPC, and allows for fairly easy and accurate thumb typing. But you'd be wrong. Fujitsu prefers to call it a mini-notebook, mostly because it's essentially a scaled-down version of its other convertible notebooks.

It opens like a notebook, but has a rotating screen, which can be swiveled and locked down like Fujitsu's other Lifebook products. The U810 has a lot of features--biometric security, Webcam, keyboard light, stylus and a touch-screen interface, and some decently sized keys for such a small keyboard. It's equipped with slots for SD cards, compact flash, USB, and has a port for an included Ethernet dongle and can connect to a docking station. It's 802.11 a/b/g and Bluetooth capable, with Wireless WAN (wide-area network) coming in February, courtesy of AT&T.

Fujitsu T2010

(Credit: Fujitsu)

There's also not a lot of choice here. The tiny notebook will only be available in black, and will come with a standard 5.5-hour battery, 40GB hard drive and 1GB of memory. Buyers will have a choice of Windows Vista Home Premium, Vista Business or XP Tablet PC. The U810 starts at $999 and ships September 18.

Fujitsu has also updated its T series line of convertible notebooks. The T2010 is 3.5 pounds with a 12-inch, LED-backlit wide screen. It's designed specifically for tablet use, so the 9-hour battery stays in the front, but the latch is moved nearer to the notebook's swivel hinge.

Fujitsu has scrapped the optical drive so it weighs less. It includes an Intel Core 2 Duo processor, has PC and smart card slots, is Bluetooth-ready, and also will have Wireless WAN in February. The T2010 is slightly more customizable than the U810. Buyers can choose between a wireless chipset from Intel (802.11 a/b/g/n) or Atheros (802.11 a/b/g), and Vista or XP Tablet PC.

The T2010 goes on sale Tuesday, starting at $1,599.

[Leria]

Forget this thing

I was excited about this notebook til I read about the lack of an optical drive. That is a NECESSITY today, it allows you to burn things off the computer, thereby compensating for the poor disk space of this machine.

[DraconumPB]

You don't get it.

Here's a simple/cheap solution:

Get a USB-IDE/SATA connector (about $20 at most computer stores now). Then buy an optical drive (sub-$50 depending on what you're buying). For about 60 or 70 dollars you can have a (somewhat) portable solution that will do the job and you can use on any PC you own.

The point is that adding such a thing would increase the size of the device unecessarily, when if you REALLY needed to use something like that (and honestly, how often do you burn CDs? Seriously!) you can do it quite cheaply and effectively. It's a little extra weight, but I'd say it's better to have it be optional weight than to have it increase the size of the device, which prides itself on being tiny.

[amylooo]

Dimensions?

I was left wondering about the screen size of the teeny one.

[Iamkar33m]

Re: Screen size

Usually laptop model numbers contain the screen size in there somewhere, however this isn't the case with the U810. According to Gizmodo

http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/umpc/hands-on-with-fujitsus-999-lifebook-u810-umpc-289126.php

The U810 is 1.5lbs and sports a 5.6" screen.

[bobbrew]

U810 / Keyboard

I'm a Fujitsu nut and have been happily using a P1510D for almost 2 years. I'd love to get this new convertible but just don't know about typing on it. My fingers are small but most of my collegues still wonder how I can type and see the screen on the 1510. I guess if the key board is too small I can get a larger bluetooth KB. If the screens too small get a portable display projector? I wish the thing made phone calls - I'd get it in a minute!