N5010 or Sony GRT260G

The Xbrite screen is up there but I'd take the Fujitsu's MVA screen (especially the current iteration in the 5010 series) anyday.

I just figured this out: MVA, along with IPS and PVA, are just types of panel technologies. Cheap screens use twisted nematic (TN) panels, while better screens uses one of the previous three. So the Fujitsu N3000 series with MVA are not that special. The N5010 on the other hand has so much more than just MVA, it has dual fluorescent tubes for 600:1 contrast ratio and 350cd/m^2 brightness, as well as an AR coated glossy surface for very vivid colors. But then again the XBrite screens offer the same characteristics. I did a side-by-side comparison of the two at JandR in NYC, and they looked almost identical to me.

Thanks deltawalkerl. Do you think that the Crystal View screen by Fujitsu is worth it? Are they that much better than the screens (SXGA/UXGA) offered by Sager/Voodoo/Hypersonic? I would prefer the Fujitsu to have a 128Mb Vram ati plus some of the extras that the other manufacturers offer. My primary work will be in Photoshop, extensive photo editing etc plus 3d/video work

Photoshop work you say? Then these screens are a must! Many people have concluded that it is very difficult to edit photos on a LCD because the colors change so easily when viewing slightly off-angle. The Crystal View and XBrite screens solve that problem by providing a much wider viewing-angle. But there are even wider-angle screens out there. When I compared the CV and XBrite screens to others, they have much better colors and contrast/black levels. Compared to them, other LCDs seem to have a greyish translucent screen placed in front of them. The glossy screen has great colors, but it does have increased glare, however.

Here in Japan, I've also had the opportunity to look at the Fuji and Sony screens side by side. They are very comparable. VERY difficult to tell the difference at first. However, by fiddling around, I found the Sony's weakness. If you run at a lower resolution, the Fuji holds its clarity much better than the Sony does. The icons on the desktop seemed far more pixelized than the Fuji's did at the same resolution (I think it was 1024 that I cranked 'em down to).

Not sure if this helps, but that's really the only difference that I can remember having noticed.

Shingo, even if you haven't seen a Fuji in person, I'm pretty sure that you wouldn't be disappointed. Very nice machine. I'd get one myself except it's lacking in a few areas that I'm not willing to compromise on.

Thanks, Yep when i am at home or in the studio I will have the laptop connected to a calibrated Lacie monitor. However when on the road or abroad i would like to use the laptop screen and accuratly edit and color correct images in photoshop. Most of the time i will darken a room anyway so as to reduce glare anyway. I plan to use this laptop as a desktop replacement so i probably wont use it on a location job (for which i intend to get a smaller notebook eg the LifeBook P5000D when I can afford that!)

It seems to get the best screens i would have to compromise and loose some of the extra features of other makes eg 128Mb VRam, media reader, faster hard driveetc. I am also considering getting a laptop based on the AMD Athalon 64 processor just to get a bit better battery life, some future proofing in terms of 64 bit apps (whenever they come out!). So I am interested in the quality of the screens of say the Voodoo envy ot Hypersonic Aviator AX6.

My ideal laptop seems to be one with an AMD64, 128Mb VRAM, 7200RPM drive and the Fujistu Crystal View Screen!!! Oh and maybe a cool paint job!!

The N5010 has a non-Pro version of the M10 with only 64mb of memory. The system memory is lacking as well: only 333MHz and dual channel is not a option. The system also has a floppy drive, which for most people is just added weight.

I believe the GRT series has nVidia VPU's. Steer away from those if you can.

You know...the Fukjitsu is very tempting...I dont care about the 64MB Radeon 9600 - it is certainly an improvement over the 64MB Radeon 9000 that I used to play with!!

If there is no 8790 in sight by the end of this month then its fujitsu time...

maybe even earlier if I cant stop myself...I need this laptop BAD...school work is getting overwhelming and I havent played a single game of BF1942 with my clan in 3 months!!!

They are both great machines. I had the exact two side-by-side in my house for several days. I took pictures, which I will post later. I chose the N5010.

Delta covered an important part- the vram. The N5010 only has 64mb. I'm pretty much set on 128mb. I figure if I'm going to put out big money for a laptop, I might as well get the best so I can make it last as long as possible.

Another thing that I really want is the ability to have multiple HDs. I'd narrowed down my search to Alienware and Clevo/Sager. However, I just learned that you have to pull your DVD drive if you want to use your 2nd HD in the Alienware machine, so that effectively puts them out of the running for my money.

Those are my 2 main points. When I look @ the specs for the Sager 8790 coming soon and realize that, for roughly the same cost I'm guessing, I'd be getting dual-channel RAM, dual HDs, 7-in-1 card reader, internal wireless, maybe internal bluetooth (haven't decided that yet) and... what else? It's too late, I can't think.

Anyway, that's basically what I'm seeing. The Fuji's a sweet machine, but it just lacks the options that a similarly priced Sager has. If the 8790 falls through for some reason, it'll be back between AW & Fuji...

I've been trying to figure out the origin of the Fujitsu name for a while, and I finally found the answer...it's confusing.

It seems that Fuji Electric Co., Ltd. was founded in 1923. Fujitsu was a spinoff of the Communications division of said company in 1935.

Fujitsu is not related to Fuji Film Photo Co. founded 1934.

Man...the word Fuji is way overused.

We've got a Fujitsu fridge here at work

Alright, here is a super quick summary of what I found when I looked at both the Sony GRT260G and Fujitsu N5010. The screens are quite similar, both exactly the same size, and both SXGA+. The Fujitsu’s screen measured slightly brighter with a light meter in the center, and has more contrast. The white on the Sony, however, seemed “whiter” to me. Both systems use the Sis 648fx chipset so they are essentially the same beast. The GRT 290G and above compare more favorably with the N5010 as far a specification go, have UXGA screens, but they are much more expensive.



N5010 Advantages:

Screen has more contrast
3 or 3.2 GHz processor
800 MHz fsb (Sony is 533)
Hyperthreading CPU
4 USB ports (Sony has 3)
Floppy disk (some may call this a disadvantage, but it makes creating book disks easy)
2 PCMCIA slots (Sony has 1)
802.11a/b/g (Sony only has 802.11b/g)
ATI Radeon 9600 (Sony has NVIDIA GeForce™ FX Go 5600)
Optical drive has faster specs
2 Gig memory limit (Sony 1 gig limit)
Secure Digital card slot
**Sturdier case**
Much better keyboard
Much less expensive!!
Scroll button on touchpad


Sony GRT260G advantages:

Tivo like TV Tuner setup
DVD write drive support DVD-rw and DVD+rw
CD Rom is in a modular bay
Parallel port
A bit lighter, especially because you can remove the battery and optical drive and still use the computer

Wow...the N5010 really compares favorably. What Sony sells is really prestige rather than real performance. Usually the non-technical-savvy buys Sonys, it seems. If only Fujitsu would make a lighter, longer lasting Sonoma version of the N5010 with M11, I would buy it in a second...

Yep, a Sager with a Fujitsu screen would be nice. A Sager with a Fujitsu screen and an AMD Athalon 64 would be ohhhhhh sooooooo nice! Then add a RADEON 9700........

That'd be a money maker