Fujitsu Lifebook P7010 review

Features
The Lifebook is loaded with a Pentium M processor running at 1.2GHz with built-in WiFi and 1GB RAM. This puts it in excellent stead for home office tasks and mid-level graphics work. Amateur video editing and some games are within the capabilities of the Lifebook. The onboard FireWire connection makes it compatible with any digital video camera with a FireWire port (also known as IEEE 1394 or i-Link).

Digital video enthusiasts who run software like Premiere to edit material will be happy with the 1GB of RAM installed in our review model. However, on-board memory is capped at this point, so very high-level tasks may be difficult to complete. If you demand a lot of system RAM, then you're unlikely to consider such a compact laptop anyway.

You can output video from the Lifebook on an office projector or television screen. The Lifebook includes a TV-out in the form of an S-video connector and almost all projectors are compatible with this form of video output. Alternatively, the Lifebook is equipped with VGA-out, making it easy to attach the laptop to a desktop display, be it LCD or CRT.

The hot-swappable, removable DVD±R drive burns films or data onto recordable discs. This is especially useful for backing up the system -- laptops are especially prone to theft, so it's always a wise idea to back up regularly. There is also the benefit of watching DVDs on the move. Though this type of activity significantly decreases battery life, long aeroplane flights are made more bearable when you can sit through your own film collection rather than staring at the headrest in front and watching the grainy, looping hell of The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, or similar.

Speakers on the Lifebook are enclosed in a perforated metal tube at the top of the keyboard. Sound quality on these internal speakers is good enough for casual listening but won't impress an audiophile. Laptop manufacturers will probably never attain the Holy Grail of decent sounding speakers in a case of this size, so the Lifebook's speakers come as no surprise.

Performance
Battery life on the Lifebook is specified at a remarkable 10.5 hours when using the main and additional batteries in conjunction with each other (meaning the DVD drive will have its slot occupied by the extra battery). Our experience confirmed this run time, although it will vary considerably depending on how processor-intensive your working practices are. Predictably, extensive use of the DVD increases power consumption and will use up the main battery after around two movies. You can always purchase extra batteries and use these to extend the laptop's uptime almost indefinitely -- as long as you have extra batteries to plug in, the Lifebook will stay running without powering down between battery swaps, as long as there is still power in the remaining battery.

Extreme gamers and video-editing ninjas will not find their needs addressed by the Lifebook, although performance is swift for a pint-sized machine. The Pentium M processor is nimble at most tasks, but a game of Battlefield 2 will make it list dangerously, dropping frames like a drunken art collector. Where the Lifebook truly excels is in traditional tasks like mid-level Photoshop work, enthusiast digital photography and DTP. It tackles work in these fields with the verve and robustness of last year's desktops, and for a machine so slight this is no small compliment.

Edited by Nick Hide

Thanks to CET UK for providing a review sample of this laptop