Fujitsu Siemens LifeBook S6410 review

Fujtisu Siemens has fitted its 1.3 megapixel ConfCamera above the screen. The lens is exceptionally small and is in a fixed location. This can make positioning yourself conveniently in relation to the laptop somewhat challenging. It's also impossible to show video callers anything that's behind the laptop.

We prefer webcams to be swivel mounted for greater flexibility. The automatic face tracking works well, though, keeping your face in the centre of the picture and zooming in and out appropriately. The camera also auto-adjusts brightness successfully, even in a dull room with a bright window to the rear.

The camera will shoot stills at 320x240 pixels, 640x480 pixels and 1,280x960 pixels, and video at the two lower resolutions.

The LifeBook S6410 comes with an 80GB, 120GB or 160GB hard drive, all spinning at 5,400rpm. Our review sample had the 80GB model. The hard drive is shock-protected, with sensor that causes the drive head to be retracted if movement is detected. You can set the sensor's sensitivity so that head-parking doesn't happen constantly when you're computing on a train or plane, for example.

There are just three USB 2.0 ports, and two of these are vertically stacked towards the front of the right-hand side. If your peripherals have chunkier connectors it will be difficult to use both ports at the same time. The third USB port is at the back of the right edge, behind the optical drive. The modem connector is also on this side.

On the left edge is the Ethernet connector, the infrared port, a PC Card slot and a memory card slot supporting SD/MMC, Memory Stick and xD media. Also, behind a protective plastic cover, is the VGA-out port. The front is home to a FireWire port plus the microphone and headphone mini-jacks.

Performance
We enjoyed using the LifeBook S6410. The keyboard is responsive and the system is neatly and ergonomically designed. Our only gripe -- and it's a common one with today's laptops -- is the difficulty of using all three USB ports at the same time.

Fujitsu Siemens claims up to eight hours battery life for this laptop using the primary 6-cell, 5,200mAh Li-ion battery. We suspect you'd have to be tough on your use of Eco mode to approach this goal, although we did manage more than 2.5 hours continuous graphics-intensive activity in one working session. If necessary, you can fit an optional second 6-cell 2,300mAh battery in place of the optical drive. Fujitsu Siemens claims a total of a little more than 11 hours' life for this configuration.

Conclusion
The LifeBook S6410 is a good all-round ultraportable laptop. We like the integrated 3G connectivity and the webcam, although there are also one or two let-downs. In particular, the webcam should be swivel-mounted rather than fixed, the USB ports more thoughtfully arranged, and the wrist-rest area strengthened.

Additional editing by Shannon Doubleday