My new Fujitsu N5010

Ok...I'd planned on waiting awhile longer, but I was in fry's the other day and saw this baby. ....oooo, that screen...and I couldn't resist.

This laptop is a tank. It's solid as a rock..and weighs 10 lbs or so with the battery in. The keyboard is quite good and the trackpad has a nice textured feel. So far...no dead/or stuck pixels. and the screen is to die for bright and contrasty. I've calibrated it with a colorsync spyder and my pictures look great. No blown highlights or shadows that mud up.

I had a compaq presario laptop prior to this one and after seeing this screen, it was all I could do to look at the compaq's while I migrated my data. The screen on the 5010 is better than all of the desktop freestanding LCDs I looked at when I contemplated building a desktop system.

The graphics card is only a 64mb ATI, but compared to what I had before, it's a dream. My previous system benchmarked at 1500 in 3dmark2001, but this one is getting 7500. I know that doesn't sound great compared to some of the real power lappys, but it's pretty dog gone good in my book. I haven't optimized anything and there are probably some background processes running. Also, if I'm not mistaken, hyperthreading speeds things up ONLY if you're maxing the CPU, otherwise it actually slows things down. So I may turn it off and retry the benchmarks later. At any rate...I only play RPGs,(and single player at that) so I don't need the kind of frame rates that other folks do.

I'd been thinking about buying a 128mb 9700 system, or a centrino based laptop, but when I saw this screen, I just imagined doing my photoshop work on it and that was it. I was sold. Even though this is a desktop processor system, the heat isn't at all bothersome. The fan(s) are actually quieter than my compaq was. So I'm not annoyed by any noise at all. I do think it gets hotter than my compaq, but with the quieter fan, I don't notice it. The wireless card is built in a picks up signal strongly. And the speakers aren't bad for a lappy.

It's only been a day, but so far I'm quite pleased with this laptop. I'm going to put it through it's paces a bit more since I have 15 days to take it back if I find anything wrong. But so far it's looking and acting perfectly.

Ceci

Ok...here are more observations after a solid day of use.

This laptop can get quite hot and it moves alot of hot air out of the left side. Nevertheless, the fan is very quiet. Due to the heat though...I sure wouldn't call this a laptop. It'd probably scorch you. I'm using it on a desk so it's not really an issue.

I am noticing that the screen appears a bit more cyan at the top than at the bottom. I'm trying to make sure I'm looking at it perpendicular to the screen. The slight cyan cast appears to be more to the top left, so it's not just a bottom to top gradient...it's like a diagonal gradient. I didn't notice it until I got through with all the data migration and application installs. If I put blank white on my desktop I seem to notice it going in a diagonal. This being said though...I asked someone else and they saw nothing. I told them about the color shift and they still couldn't see it well. Perhaps I'm imagining things and managed to also put an idea into someone else's head. Does anyone else with a 5010 notice anything like this? I'd hate to return something if it's just a characteristic of the screen.

Anyway...I've done a complete retrospect backup of my starting application and data build, so if I need to swap this one out at Fry's for another one, it should be easy to move into a different 5010.

Other than that...this is an awesome desktop replacement. I'm off to go play Neverwinter Nights now!

Ok...another day of use. I'm going to chalk the screen up to my mind playing tricks on me. I had to rebuild my laptop today because of a data migration snafu. Afterward, I couldn't see the color shift at all. Actually, I think what it might have been was a bad calibration. When I ran the colorvision utility, I accidentally double clicked and the routine started before I had the spyder on the monitor. I moved fast and put it up, but I think it affected the results. So...I haven't recalibrated yet...and there's no color strangeness. I'll recalibrate it later ...more accurately thiis time.

I'm loving this screen. Neverwinter Nights has never looked so good. The blacks are so deep and dark, but not muddy. It's so bright also, but whites don't burn out. Amazing! This laptop is putting all the desktop lcds I looked at to shame. It may not be the speed demon in gaming performance, but for pixel pushing, it's awesome. Based on a few benchmarks though, it is 6x faster in 3d games than my year old compaq presario was. Since I only play RPGs, that should hold me for a few years.

...now...I need to see if I can convince my sister that she needs the presario. Honestly, I don't think she'll care about 3d performance or the screen quality. You ought to see what she's using now. The presario would be a step up.

Welll...I'm still in love with my new n5010. I had to make a decision between the raw horsepower laptops versus fujitsu's screen. I chose the screen and I'm not regretting it at all. Right now fujitsu is running a $100 rebate so that helps the cost a bit. If it's of any interest...the rebate ends at the end of April. Perhpas that signals that they'll be refreshing the 5010 sometime shortly after that???

Those of you who want a screen like the fujitsu, but have the time to wait, might want to see if the 5010 gets updated in a month or so. Me...I needed a laptop now and the performance of the present unit was much better than what I'd had before. The only things I can think they might change would be to get rid of the floppy drive/ replace it with something else, upgrade the memory speed to ddr400, and upgrade the GPU to either 128mb radeon 9600 or the 9700.