Hands-on with Fujitsu's teeny tiny laptop

We mentioned this guy a few weeks ago, when it was first announced. Now, we're pleased to report that the FedEx guy has just dropped off Fujitsu's new ultra tiny laptop, the LifeBook U810, and we just had to snap a shot of it to show off how small it really is.

The U810 is a hybrid between an ultraportable convertible tablet and a UMPC (that's ultramobile PC, if you haven't been paying attention). We've always liked UMPCs in theory, but these pocket-sized systems, including the OQO model 02and Sony VAIO UX390, were more like suped-up smart phones than actual computers. There's only so productive you can be on a BlackBerry-style thumb keyboard.

The new LifeBook U810 takes a different approach, mimicking a traditional laptop's form factor, shrunk down to a 5.6-inch swiveling touchscreen, along with a fairly full-featured keyboard, fingerprint reader, Bluetooth, and Wi-Fi (but no EVDO yet). It runs Intel's A110 CPU and had 1GB of RAM and Vista Premium.

The street date for this $999 mini-laptop is Sept. 18, so look for a full review then, but be forewarned: We're holding the black-and-white European version in this photo. The U.S. version is only going to be available with an all-black design. Apparently some focus group types decided that white gadgets aren't hot anymore in the American market (come to think of it, even the iPhone and new iPod Touch are black--maybe there's something to this).