Fujitsu Lifebook N7010 Review

It’s raining 16 inchers in Laptop Land these days and the latest one to arrive is the Fujitsu Lifebook N7010. Fujitsu has never been known as a major laptop manufacturer, atleast in this part of the world, but it seems to be hell bent on changing that with the recent spate of new releases – each sporting superb hardware configurations, sporting a nice modern design, offering nice features and most of all, being relatively inexpensive. In addition to the normal stuff, it sports a secondary 4 inch touch display above the keyboard used to access shortcuts to applications and also view multimedia quickly. In this review, we check out the new Fujitsu Lifebook N7010 and see if it is a better option than the Acer Aspire 6930, HP Pavilion HDX 16 and the Dell XPS Studio 16.

Fujitsu Lifebook N7010 Specs:

• Dimensions: 15.2 x 10.9 x 1.9 inches
• Weight: 7.7 pounds
• Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo P8400, 2.26 GHz
• RAM: 4 GB DDR3 RAM, 1066 MHz
• Hard Drive: 320 GB SATA HDD, 5400 RPM
• Optical Drive: BluRay Drive / DVD ± RW DL
• Display: 16 inch Crystal View Wide XGA TFT active matrix Display, 1366 x 768 pixels with 1.3 MP Webcam
• Secondary Display: 4 inch WVGA touch Display, 480 x 272 pixels
• Chipset: Intel PM45 with ICH9M
• Graphics: ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3470 with 256 MB VRAM
• Wireless: Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/draft-n, Bluetooth 2.1
• Operating System: Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium
• Ports: 4 USB 2.0, Ethernet, Firewire, HDMI, Headphone, Microphone, VGA, eSATA, ExpressCard slot

Design and Build Quality:

The Fujitsu Lifebook N7010 sports a nice black design which combines style and elegance. The glossy black lid, the polished black interiors all give the Lifebook N7010 a distinguished look. Almost all of the 16 inch notebooks reviewed so far, have sported great designs and the Lifebook N7010 is no exception. The notebook has dimensions of 15.2 x 10.9 x 1.9 inches – almost near others in its category. It weighs 7.7 pounds or 3.5 kgs which is acceptable for any 16 inch notebook. It is obviously not suited for use when commuting but is more of a desktop replacement. The design seems a bit boxy and is quite thick – 1.9 inches width. It has a sturdy chassis which improves the build quality a lot. There is minimal flex around the display area. There is plenty of space to pack in expansion ports on the Lifebook N7010 and Fujitsu has packed lots of them. The N7010 has an array of expansion ports including 4 USB 2.0 ports, Ethernet, Firewire, HDMI, Headphone, Microphone, VGA, eSATA and an ExpressCard slot.

Display and Speakers:

The Fujitsu Lifebook N7010 sports a 16 inch Crystal View Wide XGA TFT active matrix Display with a native resolution of 1366 x 768 pixels. The display quality is very nice, the display is bright and offers good contrast. The viewing angles are quite wide allowing for a nice multimedia experience. It is great for watching movies and videos. You can also plug it to a HD display using the HDMI output for an even better experience.

The Lifebook N7010 has built in dual stereo speakers which provides nice sound quality and decent volume. The sound quality is definitely not audiophile grade but will surely satisfy casual listeners. Obviously we will recommend that you use earbuds / headphones for a truly satisfying sonic experience using the built in headphone jack. The Lifebook N7010 also packs in a built in microphone for all your voice chatting needs. Above the display, you also get a 1.3 MP webcam which has decent video capture quality.

Coming to the main highlight of the notebook, the Lifebook N7010 sports a secondary 4 inch touch display just above the keyboard. It is primarily used to access customized shortcuts and launch applications faster which improves the productivity. You can also use it to view images and videos. It has a resolution of 480 x 272 pixels and looks cute. You can add your own shortcuts to the display using the Menu.

Keyboard and Touchpad:

The Fujitsu Lifebook N7010 sports a standard full sized keyboard sans the numberpad. The key spacing and travel is perfect and the keys feel nice. The keys also offer good feedback and the keyboard is spill resistant. Normally you would expect a numberpad also in a 16 inch notebook, but Fujitsu decided against it and instead wasted the extra space by increasing the border on both sides.

Below the keyboard is the SYnaptics touchpad with two mouse buttons. The touchpad surface is textured and provides a good grip. It also supports basic multitouch gestures like pinching and swiping. The touchpad buttons have a nice feel and offer good feedback. Coupled with the secondary display, the keyboard and the touchpad provide a superb user interface.

Performance:

The Fujitsu Lifebook N7010 sports nice hardware specs, very similar to other notebooks in its range. It is powered by an Intel Core 2 Duo P8400 processor clocked at 2.26 GHz with 3 MB L2 cache. It has 4 GB DDR3 RAM clocked at 1066 MHz, more than enough for any application. The storage is handled by a 320 GB SATA HDD at 5400 RPM. It comes with a BluRay / DVD ± RW DL optical drive. It has the latest Intel PM45 chipset and the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3470 discrete graphics with 256 MB VRAM. This hardware configuration is very capable and can run the bundled Windows Vista Home Premium easily. The ATI Radeon HD4870 can handle most games easily, atleast at low settings. It also handles HD video easily and has smooth playback.

The Lifebook N7010 has good Wi-Fi reception and offers good data speeds. It also has a wide range. It is powered by a 8 cell Li ion battery which offers about 2 hrs and 30 mins of battery life on a full charge. Using some battery saving tips, you can extend the battery life to about 2 hrs 50 mins maximum.

Pros:

• Secondary Touch Display
• Nice Display Quality
• Good Hardware Specs
• Nice Touchpad

Cons:

• No Numeric Pad
• Low Battery Life

Final Words:

The Fujitsu Lifebook N7010 is a very capable notebook and is priced well at $1500 for the above mentioned configuration. Its main positive point is the secondary touch display which completely floored us. However, I would prefer Dell Studio XPS 16 for everything else, you can check out its review here, even though the Lifebook N7010 is also a very good option.

Our Rating: 3.5 / 5.