Fujitsu U810 Ultraportable Tablet Review

Fujitsu U810 Ultraportable Tablet Review

Published August 25, 2008 at 01:16:12 PM, by Raymond So

Overview

Look, on the desk! It's an uber small laptop! It's a UMPC! It's a tablet! No wait, it'sall three? The Fujitsu's LifeBook U810 is quite literally the Swiss army knife of ultra portable computing. Sure it's got a functional keyboard and a traditional notebook design, but flip the screen over and it effectively becomes a tablet with full touch-screen capabilities. Whatever you call it, this convertible UMPC will certainly turn a few heads. Has Fujitsu hit the sweet spot when it comes to those who want the smallest computing experience possible? Read on.

Design
Fujitsu has been designing stylish ultra thin, ultra small notebooks for years and with the U810, you certainly will not mistake this for any other UMPC currently out on the market. It's absolutely tiny, especially when you consider it's a fully Vista-capable computer running inside. The Fujitsu is also very versatile, with 3 setups: laptop, tablet, or UMPC modes. When closed, the U810 has a sleek and glossy exterior finish that is clean and handsome and no bigger than an average novel. Its basic clamshell form shares a basic design carried from Fujitsu's larger laptops. It's definitely not a great looking piece, but considering how much Fujitsu has crammed inside this little thing, it's quite impressive. It's not ugly, but neither is it good looking either. Make no mistake, this will certainly grab attention when you're out at your coffee shop. Unfortunately, the bulk of the battery extends out too much on one end, ruining the otherwise clean shape.

Just how small is this thing? Let your hand do the talking

Swivel and flip the screen over, and the device can be used as a UMPC (Ultra mobile portable computer), hiding the keyboard underneath and utilizing the mouse buttons and mouse thumb pad to navigate around. The screen folds nicely and neatly over the bottom half of the computer. Pull out the stylus on the top end of the screen and use it as a portable tablet. It almost looks like you're holding an e-book reader.

Swivel and fold the display and it becomes a traditional UMPC/tablet

The casing is solidly built with sturdy plastics and a quality finish. The heft also adds to the sense of sturdiness.

Keyboard
The U810 has a tiny 56-key QWERTY keyboard that you can (barely) use if you find you need to type as a laptop. The keys have a good tactile feel when pressed but real estate is certainly cramped, and should only be used for short email and website URL entries. The lack of a 'bar' in the spacebar is a pain as you'll be missing critical spaces between words. You'll also look like a complete dork trying to type using the keyboard. Save the face - you're much better off using the stylus in tablet mode. But as far as UMPCs are concerned, this as good as a keyboard can get for its class and size.

The tiny 56-key QWERTY keyboard has a good tactile feel to it, but it certainly doesn't feel good to type on

Thumb pad
Looking for that trackpad? Look again, buddy. You really think with its diminutive size Fujitsu would still be able to cram a trackpad into this? Of course not! That's why the U810 incorporates a digital thumb pad at the top right corner for controlling the mouse pointer. The left- and right-click buttons are on your left side. Like holding a video game controller, you control your mouse inputs in the same fashion. Whichever setup you choose to use with the U810, Fujitsu designed something wonderful for your hands to hold. Inputs are quick, sharp and although a tad overly sensitive, the controls are very responsive.

The square thumb pad controls your mouse pointer. Also note the built-in biometric fingerprint scanner

Size and Weight
Weighing in at 1.56lbs and measuring 6.75' x 6' x 1', the Lifebook U810 is certainly small, but the protruding battery definitely detracts from the already clunky looking aesthetics. Not to mention, the thick bezel surrounding the 5.6' LCD display makes the screen look much smaller than it actually is. Nonetheless, Fujitsu has differentiated from the crowd of UMPCs out on the market by going with a more traditional foldable 'notebook' design that can easily change to accommodate tablet functionality. Brilliant.

The U810 sitting pretty next to the iPhone

Heat & Noise
In an afternoon's use, I found the U810 relatively quiet. The device does run warm but that is to be expected, and surely the Intel mobile processor has helped keep this baby cooler than I was expecting.

Connectivity
Let's get something straight here: The Fujitsu U810 is a UMPC device and it's certainly no laptop despite similarities in design. Those expecting tons of ports and expandability will need to look on as this device isn't about mass connectivity but purely a simple portable computer. That means no VGA output, expansion slots, and a half dozen USB ports.

There's only one USB 2.0 port for the U810,a
a Compact Flash slot and on-off switch complete the right side

That said, the U810 only has a single USB 2.0 port for attaching additional devices. There's an SD media slot AND Compact Flash slots on either sides, for quickly viewing your camera pix. At the bottom, you'll find a dedicated iPod-like connection port to connect a Fujitsu's Ethernet dongle and accessories. The remaining ports include the charger, headphone and microphone ports. It would have been nice, however, if Fujitsu included an Ethernet jack built into the actual unit and not having to attach the optional dock which also adds more USB ports and VGA-out.

A lock slot, power port, SD media card slot, volume control, mic-in, headphone-out occupy the left side of the Fujitsu U810

Features
We already mentioned that the Fujitsu U810 UMPC has 3 modes to play with, but let's dive into the meat of things.

Processor & Memory
The U810 makes use of Intel's mobile A110 processor found in other mobile devices (Smart phones and UMPCS) and runs at a modest 800MHz coupled with the Intel 945 chipset. Because this is a mobile processor, don't expect the performance to blow you away. This is not to be confused with your typical laptop CPU. 1GB of DDR2 RAM is standard running at 400MHz. A 4200RPM 40GB harddrive is included as well. Sorry, but nothing can be upgraded.

Graphics
If the processor won't wow you, then don't expect much for the video capabilities either. This Fujitsu uses the Mobile Intel Express 945GM integrated graphics chipset and it does a fine job at displaying the colors and graphics on the small screen, but that's about it. Let's move on.

Sharp, crisp visuals on the small 5.6' LCD touch-screen display

Touch-screen/Tablet Display
The 5.6' LCD screen is a sharp little glossy display with accurate touch-screen functionality that gives the UMPC plenty of flexibility to work with. So much flexibility, you can swivel and rotate the screen to your liking. That's not all - there's also a button that changes the view of the display 4-ways to suit landscape and portrait modes no matter how you hold it. The high native resolution of 1024 x 600 pixels delivering sharp and crisp visuals and text, even if sometimes they're hard to read.

Pull out the stylus for tablet functionality

The Other Stuff
Built-in 802..11a/b/g WiFi comes standard as is a finger-print access reader for security authentication. A surprise feature in this category is a built-in webcam for video conferencing and basic snapshots. There's also a button to illuminate the keyboard via LED lights.

Cramped and tiny: typing with the keyboard proved quite a chore. Plus, you'll like a really cool geek doing it, score!

Performance
The Fujitsu comes pre-installed with Microsoft Vista Premium and yes, you can groan about it. Vista isn't exactly an efficient and lightweight operating system to begin with - it's downright buggy and awful -and pairing it with the anemic mobile Intel processor will result in a less than stellar computing experience. Take the system startup for example. The load times are downright atrocious, taking up to 2+ minutes to get to the desktop screen when powering up. It's so slow that by the time Vista is fully ready to use, you already feel like the computer has already drained half the battery. It doesn't help either that the U810 utilizes a sluggish 4200RPM hard drive. Pool all these elements together and you can certainly see the U810 struggling to perform.

That battery protruding out definitely ruins the clean exterior design, like an eye sore

In actual use, however, things run much better than I expected with little to no slow down in web browsing and general desktop usages. We found the Lifebook U810 fairly easy to use, especially in tablet mode where the device proved more manageable in real world situations. Just flip the screen into 'tablet' mode, pull out the stylus, and start tapping away. The ability to change the rotation of the display with the button on-the-fly is definitely a neat trick and is so simple to adjust. Waking the device from sleep mode took some time before resuming the current Windows session.

Baby got back? That's the battery, alright.

Unfortunately, for a device of this class, the Fujitsu U810 managed only an average 3+ hours of battery time running mixed video, web browsing, and data entry. That's very disappointing, especially considering how big that battery juts outside of the unit like a big tumor. C'mon, Fujitsu and Microsoft, you guys can do better than that!

Despite the flaws of Vista, I found the hand recognition algorithm for the tablet very accurate. No matter how sloppy my hand writing is, Vista was able to accurately input the correct words I drew out on the screen. As a tablet, the Fujitsu truly shines.

The U810 with the included power brick. That brick almost looks huge next to it

Conclusion

Fujitsu managed to cover the right areas in bringing out a balanced UMPC that takes the key features of a tablet and laptop computer and blend them together into a very versatile and unique UMPC device. It's certainly not perfect with its sluggish performance, lack of ports and expandability so don't look for it to replace your notebook computer anytime soon. With its best in class keyboard and touch screen capabilities, this is definitely one of the better UMPCs out on the market, but there's certainly a lot of room to improve upon. You'll also either love or hate the utilitarian styling.

Looks like a laptop: One final look at the U810 UMPC from Fujisu

Rather than leading the pack for UMPCs, the Fujitsu falls behind its competition with its sluggish performance. Using a slow mobile processor designed for small devices in the first place, and then expecting it to perform smoothly under Vista, is like a total oxymoron. Hopefully Fujitsu will smarten up and include a real processor to power this device. For those looking for a compact, flexible computer solution, this is worth a check out, but if you don't mind having something bigger, I'd go for a real tablet PC or ultra-portable laptop.

Pros:

• Amazingly small
• Unique swivel and fold design for versatile applications
• Best-in-class UMPC keyboard
• Tablet and touch-screen capabilities
• Well thought-out ergonomics and controls
• WiFi, Bluetooth, fingerprint scanner, and webcam come standard
• Quality materials and build finish

Cons:

• Sluggish performance
• Abysmal startup time
• Runs on Vista
• Too tiny to type comfortably
• Love it or hate it styling
• Obtrusive battery
• Poor battery life
• Lack of ports and expandability
• No Ethernet port built-in

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Technical Specifications

No specifications are available.