Fujitsu Lifebook A1110 Review

The Fujitsu Lifebook A1110 is a low budget to mid range notebook. It has a nice standard design with customizable lid covers which is mainly aimed at the younger generation. It is priced quite well and you can get a very nice configuration at just around one grand. In this review, we check out the Fujitsu Lifebook A1110 and see how it stacks up against its competitors – mainly the Dell Studio series of notebooks.  By the way, this is the last laptop we will be reviewing this year.

Fujitsu Lifebook A1110 Specs:

• Dimensions: 14.56 inch x 10.43 inch x 1.85 inches
• Weight: 6.4 lbs
• Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo Processor P7350 at 2 GHz with 3 MB L2 cache, 1066 MHz FSB
• Operating System: Windows Vista Home Premium with Service Pack 1
• Display: 15.4 inch Crystal View WXGA display, 1280 x 800 pixels
• Graphics: Integrated Intel GMA X4500
• RAM: 4 GB DDR2 800 MHz Memory
• Hard Drive: 320 GB 5400 RPM HDD
• Wireless: Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n
• Optical Drive: DVD +/- RW DL
• Battery: 6 Cell Lithium ion Battery, 4000 mAh, 43 Whr
• Ports: 3 USB 2.0 ports, LAN, modem, VGA out, headphone, microphone, SD card reader

Design and Build Quality:

The Fujitsu Lifebook A1110 has a plain design as it stands, with the base design being very bland – just a plain one, but the new feature here is customizable lid covers. You can use any of the various available lid covers and customize the notebook to your liking. This is sure to strike a chord with the younger generation looking for a personal touch. It has dimensions of 14.56 inch x 10.43 inch x 1.85 inches and weighs about 6.4 lbs. The dimensions and weight are in line with the category average. The build quality is very nice and the notebook feels quite sturdy. There is minimal flex in the lid as well as in the keyboard area. The build materials used are standard and have a nice feel. The notebook feels very durable and should last for a couple of years easily with decent usage.

Display and Speakers:

The Fujitsu Lifebook A1110 sports a 15.4 inch WXGA Glossy Crystal View Display with a native resolution of 1280 x 800 pixels. The display quality is very good and the brightness levels are optimum. It also offers good contrast and has nice picture quality with vibrant colors. The Fujitsu Lifebook A1110 offers a very nice video watching experience. The display area has very little flex as said earlier, proof of its nice and sturdy build quality. The viewing angles are also pretty decent, both horizontal and vertical, with the horizontal angles being wider. The screen legibility under direct light is not very good as it is a glossy display.

The Fujitsu Lifebook A1110 comes with built in speakers. The speakers have average sound quality but decent volume levels. and also offer good volume. It might suffice for casual movie watching but won’t satisfy you if you take your music seriously. In that case, we would recommend that you can attach custom headphones to the notebook if you want better sound quality.

Keyboard and Touchpad:

The Fujitsu Lifebook A1110 sports a standard full size keyboard with the standard key layout. The key spacing and travel is perfect and flawless. The keys offer nice feedback and have a distinct click. The keyboard is spill resistant which increases its durability. The keyboard is ideal for touch typists. At the extreme right, the keys are not in the normal layout for normal desktop users but that should take a slight amount of time to get used to.

The touchpad is located below the keyboard. It is slightly small in size but is very responsive. It also has nice sensitivity. The touchpad has a nice feel and offers a good grip. The touchpad buttons located below the touchpad are extra large but offer good feedback and with a distinctive click. There are no frills like a fingerprint reader in the Fujitsu Lifebook A1110.

Performance:

The Fujitsu Lifebook A1110 has a nice and capable hardware configuration – It is powered by the Intel Core 2 Duo Processor P7350 at 2 GHz with 3 MB L2 cache and 1066 MHz FSB. It also comes with 4 GB DDR2 800 MHz Memory. The graphics part is handled by the very power efficient Intel GMA 4500 integrated graphics solution with up to 384 MB shared video memory. The storage department is handled by a 320 GB SATA HDD at 5400 RPM. This configuration is one of the best currently available, and has all the latest hardware components. Fujitsu has been particularly generous and offers 4 GB DDR2 RAM a 320 GB HDD even at this price. You can easily run the bundled Windows Vista OS with zero delays or lags. The notebook can handle light and casual gaming easily atleast at low settings. It is suited for multitasking, thanks to the 4 GB RAM. This is one of the best configuration you could possibly get at this budget.

Battery Life and Other Features:

The Fujitsu Lifebook A1110 is powered by a 6 Cell Lithium ion Battery, 4000 mAh, 43 Whr. The battery life is average at just about 2 hrs and 40 mins with moderate usage, the maximum you can squeeze out of the Fujitsu Lifebook A1110 is about 3 hours if you follow power saving tips like lowering the display brightness, lowering the system volume, disabling the Wi-Fi when not in use etc. If you do some intensive multimedia playback, the battery will drain very quickly. The battery life is a bit low considering it has the best power efficient hardware, but then most other laptops in its range also have similar endurance. The Fujitsu Lifebook A1110 runs very cool at normal temperatures. The Wi-Fi reception is also decent with good data speeds.

Pros:

• Nice hardware
• User Customizable Lid Covers

Cons:

• Average Battery Life
• Poor Speaker Quality

Final Words:

The Fujitsu Lifebook A1110 is a decent deal and could easily have competed with the Dell Studio series of notebooks. However it also has many shortomings like average battery life, only integrated graphics, poor speaker quality etc. Though it does offer a nice hardware configuration, it does not offer much more than that. The user customizable lid covers are an interesting addition though.

Our Rating: 3.25 / 5.

Note: As an end note, Happy New Year from the whole DigitGeek team. Have a great 2009.