Throw Me a LifeBook

Fujitsu proves it doesn't take an Armada to make a thin, full-featured modular notebook.

Peter Wayner

If you are a bit too rich and would like a notebook that is extremely thin, then Fujitsu's LifeBook 600 -- one of the thinnest and lightest notebooks to hit the world -- may be for you. (And the starting price of $3999 won't make you poor, either.) Fujitsu managed to create a 1.2-inch-thick, 4-pound package by stripping out the CD-ROM drive and floppy disk drive and leaving only the essentials. Despite the notebook's svelte form, it contains a 12.1-inch screen and 33.6-Kbps internal modem.

Of course, computers need to have disk drives, and Fujitsu provides two solutions. The basic unit comes with a 3.5-inch floppy drive that attaches to the main unit through a short cable. For more storage, you can buy an enhancement unit that comes with stereo speakers, an 8X CD-ROM drive, a 3.5-inch floppy drive, and a MIDI/joystick port. This unit has roughly the same dimensions as the main sys tem and attaches nicely to the notebook's bottom, doubling both the thickness and the weight. I used the computer with the enhancement unit, and it felt like a normal, albeit thick, notebook machine.

Fujitsu sells the enhancement option at a low price in the apparent hope that people will buy one for home and one for work. This is a great idea, but most people probably won't mind toting the 8-pound package.

The LifeBook's greatest competitor may be the Compaq Armada 4100, another thin, lightweight notebook with an expansion unit. The Fujitsu is even lighter than the Compaq (4.1 versus 5 pounds), but only if you leave off the extra battery pack, which you must have to get more than 2 hours of continuous use. The Armada offers a few more configuration schemes, but it isn't clear that the extra flexibility buys you anything. I think most people will want either the lightest configuration possible or the most feature-rich model -- and the LifeBook lets you have both .

Other design details are nicely done. An additional (and standard) battery pack adds 1.5 inches to the back half of the unit, effectively propping up the entire computer and making it easier to type. (The computer comes with a new ASIC that lets you change power consumption on the fly. You can switch between the settings that either maximize usability or maximize battery life.)

The 12.1-inch screen is quite bright, though I found it looked better from slightly off-angle. The keyboard is perfectly easy to use and is accompanied by substantial palmrests. The touchpad, on the other hand, felt a bit sticky, and I quickly resorted to plugging a mouse into the back slot.

Now that I've be en using the system for a while, I've come to the conclusion that the LifeBook's two-part design is a definite win. Fujitsu has done an excellent job of making the enhancement unit blend in with the total notebook package. If you attach the enhancement unit, you have a fat, fully loaded laptop. If you strip it off, you have a notebook that's extremely slim and suddenly almost 3 pounds lighter. Those extra pounds can make a huge difference to a tired road warrior.

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Product Information

Fujitsu LifeBook 600 Series.....................$3999 635T


Fujitsu LifeBook 600 Series.....................$4299 655Tx

(133-MHz Pentium in 635T, 
 150-MHz MMX in 655Tx)
Fujitsu PC Corporate
Milpitas, CA
Phone:    888-466-8434

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Ratings

Technology          ****
Implementation      *****


Key:

***** Outstanding
**** Very Good
*** Good
** Fair
* Poor

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Lift Your Spirits and Productivity

photo_link (34 Kbytes)

Fujitsu takes notebook modularity to new levels, compressing lots of features into a compact chassis.

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Peter Wayner is a BYTE consulting editor who lives in Baltimore. His home page is at http://www.access.digex.net/~pcw/pcwpage.html .