When it comes to notebook sales, Fujitsu ranks
somewhere behind giants Hewlett-Packard, Lenovo, Dell, Toshiba and even Acer.
But sales volume is a poor indicator of product value, and that is where
Fujitsu aims to trump the competition.
The Fujitsu LifeBook E8410, the latest in the E
series, surely won’t win any awards for portability, or even innovation. Where
this large notebook is intended to excel is on performance and affordable
construction to keep prices down.
As Fujitsu’s top-of-the-line desktop replacement
system, the E8410 offers a large (15.4-inch) WXGA display, a speedy Intel Core
2 Duo T7500 processor (Santa Rosa, 2.2GHz) and a 100GB SATA hard drive. The
unit also includes 1GB of RAM, a dual-layer DVD
burner, integrated Wi-Fi (802.11a/b/g/n), integrated Bluetooth and an eight-cell
74.9WHr battery. Other integrated elements include a 1.3 MP Webcam, a 56K-bps
modem, Gigabit Ethernet, a fingerprint reader and a slew of other features.
Check out these images of Fujitsu’s LifeBook E8410 notebook.
Sure, there are units on the market that may be
smaller or offer bigger screens or more storage or even more standard features,
but the E8410 proves to be a good value at an MSRP of $1,599. While the overall
specs and look of the system may shout “gamer” or “consumer,” realistically the
unit’s lower-end 8400M-G DX10 graphics card is probably not up to the demands
of today’s gamer. Even so, the unit will do just fine on any executive’s desk,
thanks in part to the E8410’s excellent connectivity options and the inclusion
of Windows Vista Business Edition.
Don’t expect to run through the airport at top
speed carrying this 7-pound notebook. But, with close to 5 hours of battery
life, you can probably afford to take your time. What’s more, the unit is easy
enough to lug to a conference room or even to another office for presentation
purposes.
The E8410 proves that quality construction and
liberal use of plastic parts can go hand in hand. We repeatedly knocked
it off a desk onto a carpeted surface, and we did not damage the unit in any
way. That said, the unit’s case and lid does suffer from the flexing that is usually
associated with plastic-cased notebook systems.
On the performance side of the equation, the unit
scored very well, with an overall rating of 545.0 according to PassMark’s
Performance Test v6.1.