Fujitsu Siemens LifeBook P8010 review

The P8010's strongest point is arguably its wireless capabilities. It uses the Intel Wireless WiFi Link 4965AGN adaptor, which lets it connect to virtually any form of wireless network: a/b/g or high-speed n.

In addition, there's an integrated 3G adaptor that gives you HSDPA access to the Internet at up to 7.2Mbps, whether you're in a Wi-Fi hotspot or not. You also get Bluetooth, which is good news for anyone who wants to use a wireless Bluetooth mouse or synchronise their mobile phones without cables.

Bizarrely, the P8010 has a glossy screen. It might look good in the shops and appeal to the magpie in all of us, but it renders the laptop virtually useless outdoors or anywhere where the lighting isn't perfectly diffuse. All you'll see is your own reflection. It's not particularly great indoors either, thanks to the rather limited horizontal and vertical viewing angles.

Performance
The LifeBook P8010 isn't going to win any awards for its performance, but don't let this put you off. Its CPU is optimised for good battery life and the 2GB of RAM ensures applications open without too much of a delay. It failed to return a score in our PCMark 2005 test, but we can tell from anecdotal testing that it's perfectly capable of performing basic everyday tasks without struggling.

Though it uses an ultra-low voltage CPU and a massive 8,700mAh battery, the P8010's battery life wasn't as impressive as we'd hoped. Fujitsu Siemens claims a maximum battery life of up to 6 hours, but in our BatteryEater Classic test, which stresses the laptop to the limit, it lasted a mere 2 hours 16 minutes. If you aren't pushing the CPU too hard, it'll last considerably longer. It stayed alive for 5 hours 18 minutes in our anecdotal light use tests.

Conclusion
It's difficult to recommend the LifeBook P8010. It ticks most of the boxes required to make a good ultraportable, but it's simply too expensive in comparison to things like the MacBook Air. Business users might find some of its features useful, but for the rest of us, something like the Eee PC 1000 will do just fine.

Edited by Shannon Doubleday