Fujitsu LifeBook T2010 Review

For five years now, users have been picking up Tablet PCs, cradling them in one arm like clipboards, sampling their appealing handwriting recognition and pen-input applications ... and saying, "They're too heavy."

Fujitsu aims to change that. The LifeBook T2010 is a convertible Tablet PC/notebook that weighs no more than some tablet-only slate designs -- 3.6 pounds.

Frankly, that's still too much to carry under an arm all day, but Fujitsu's trimming a pound or two pays off with a noticeable increase in comfort for shorter stints. That's true both in your hands -- where the 8.8 by 11.9 by 1.4-inch convertible offers helpful features such as automatically rotating the display from horizontal to vertical when you switch to tablet mode -- and in your briefcase -- where the LifeBook and its AC adapter together equal a modest 4.4 pounds.

So what are the tradeoffs? Probably the biggest is the lack of a built-in optical drive; if you want a DVD burner, you'll have to pay $279 for a USB 2.0 external unit (or $459 for a DVD±RW docking station that also provides VGA and DVI outputs, LAN pass-through, and four USB ports).

Some will also wish for a larger display than the T2010's 12.1-inch widescreen LCD, but we had no complaints with the 1,280 by 800-pixel panel. Colors and backgrounds were bright (though, as usual, we liked only the top two or three of the screen's eight brightness settings), and resolution was sharp enough to make menu-reading and icon-tapping trouble-free, although you'll want to run the Tablet PC pen calibration utility before you start to scribble and tap.

You'll also want to check your wallet: Fully equipped with Bluetooth and Intel 802.11a/b/g/n wireless, a Core 2 Duo U7500 processor, 1GB of memory expandable to 4GB, and an 80GB hard disk, our test configuration rang the register at $1,909. A trip to the company's online store, however, turned up a capable near-twin -- with a 60GB rather than 80GB hard disk and Win XP Tablet PC Edition instead of Vista Business -- for a more palatable $1,599.

Put Your John Hancock on It

For safety's, or at least for avoiding awkwardness's, sake, the screen won't swivel when it's tilted back as notebook users usually prefer. When raised to about a 90-degree angle to the notebook, however, the LCD pivots in either direction and folds down over the keyboard to turn the laptop into a tablet, though it doesn't latch or lock into place as rivals do.

Pretty much our only complaint about using the T2010 as a Tablet PC involved getting the stylus in and out of its storage hole in the front right corner of the case -- it takes a hard shove to sheath the stylus and a strong tug to remove it. Otherwise, the Wacom active digitizer accurately tracked pen input, including mouse maneuvers such as hovering over taskbar icons by holding the stylus with the tip just above the glass, and delivered impressive handwriting recognition via the on-screen Tablet PC input panel.

Numeric-password buttons (which double as page-up and page-down keys and favorite-program launchers) join a fingerprint scanner on the screen bezel to give users the same level of security whether the LifeBook's in tablet or notebook mode. Softex's OmniPass 5.0 fingerprint ID, logon, and encryption software is preinstalled, as are Microsoft Office OneNote 2007 and a three-month trial of Symantec's Norton Internet Security 2007.