Review Fujitsu-Siemens Amilo M4438G - Page 2

How many pins does the RAM have (so I know which RAM to purchase)?

Oh this sucks. I contacted F-S again and they told me that the OS has only one language, so I'd have to buy Windows in Finnish separately if I bought the M4438g in Sweden. Anyway I did a little searching around the net and it seems that M4438 (as well as M3438) are very hard to find. Maybe there's some hope still but F-S told me that they believe that it's not worth it to sell M4438 in Finland because people wouldn't be buying them so much.

Well I think I'll wait to August or September and then buy the best notebook that is available in Finland. If the M4438 is not released here then I guess I have to buy M3438 with PM750. But can I survive with WXGA+ when I could have WUXGA... Although as Belch told us, WXGA+ might not be such a bad thing because I doubt even the M4438g can run all the newest games in 1920x1200 without low FPS. And we all know that playing outside native resolution weakens the image quality. So wouldn't logic say that playing with M3438 in 1440x900 (native resolution) would offer better image quality than playing with M4438 in a non-native resolution (below 1920x1200). However, when considering the fact that HDTV is coming and when I watch dvds, I bet WUXGA would be better than WXGA+.

The only other choice for me in DTR-notebooks is Dell Inspiron 9300 here in Finland. Still, I won't be buying that since it's expensive and I've read many negative reviews on it (bad display, keyboard).

After endless years of waiting and suffering, I now finally decided to damn the torpedoes and bite the bullet. I just ordered myself the d*mn M3438G with 2 hard drives... Hopefully it wasn't a mistake...

The M3438G is nice, I've seen it myself. Only in a shop though, so I didn't get too much chance to examine it.

Belch, if you could answer this question I'd appreciate it immensely. You mentioned that your Windows XP in your M4438G (that was bought in Sweden) was in swedish. How about the programs? Are the dvd-playback program, Photoshop and other programs that came with your laptop in Swedish too, or are they in English for example.

Sure I think that M4438G is probably better than M3438G. But wouldn't you say that M3438G might be better in games since you can play games in its native resolion of 1440x900 while the newest might not run well in M4438Gs native resolution of 1920x1200, and that means that if you have to run games with M4438G in a non-native resolution the image suffers. That being said, I'm sure WUXGA is way better in dvds and for example editing digital pictures.

Anyway, I'll wait for 2 months and then decide what notebook to get. If the M4438G is not released in Finland by then then I will have to decide whether to buy the M4438G from Sweden or Germany and buy a Finnish WinXP (Pro) from here, or whether to just get the M3438G from here and try to live without WUXGA. The deciding factor is whether the program package (dvdplayback, Photoshop et cetera) in Swedish M4438G is in Swedish or in English. Belch, help me out!

I would have liked the WUXGA in my laptop no doubt as well, but the "run games in the native resolution" argument was the one that I used to convince myself into buying the M3438G.
After all the WUXGA resolution gives the GPU a lot more filling to do, and I think it would have been the best choice if the Go 6800 were an Ultra version.
Which it sadly isn't, of course

I guess it would be a good idea to ask Belch how well the screen handles scaling the resolution down, so, how is it Belch? How low res have you tried out?

Indeed, we are all interested. Belch, don't forget to answer my 'what language versions were the included programs: Photoshop, dvdplaybackprogram' question.

And mine as well if you can : )

How many pins does the RAM have (so I know which RAM to purchase)?

John, if your thinking about getting the WUXGA screen to be ready with the HDTV, remember that you would most likely need to restrain with the HDTV material available on the internet for viewing coz the HDTV "dvds" will be in either Blu-Ray or HD-DVD format (though I'm not an expert in HDTV).

Well to be honest with you, the ability to view HDTV is not a priority for me. I'd prefer the WUXGA screen simply because I believe the picture in dvds and TV would be better than with WXGA+. Also, I have noticed that as technology progresses resolutions go up. As I'm buying this notebook as my only computer and as I'm not going to buy a new laptop until 5-7 years from now, I want a notebook that is as futureproof as possible.

I'd think that WXGA+ would be better in gaming because newer games demand so much power that it's hard to run games in WUXGA with a notebook. But as I'd play only a couple of hours a week, and mainly Half-Life 2, WUXGA might not be a problem for me.

Belch, sorry but I'll remind you again so you won't forget: Please tell me the language of the included programs such as the dvdplaybackprogram and Photshop. The reason I ask is that if I buy the m4438g in Sweden and buy WindowsXP (finnish version) in Finland, I don't wanna be surprised and find out that all the included programs are in Swedish.

Hi all!
I'm just dither between the m4438 and m3438. For Office and Internet applications which I use most (99%), I'm sure the m4438 screen does better fit. I find the icons ond font in 1440x900 on a 17" screen too big, but 1920x1280 seems to be too small. So I'd like to use 1600x1200 or something equal. On a Dell screnn I saw that the interpolated 1600x1200 looks not too bad. What about the m4438?

For the 1% gaming a smooth game speed is much more important for me than a high resolution. So is a screen interpolated down to 1440x900 or ~1280x800 are really so bad or unplayable in games?

@John: If you plan to buy the NB in 2-3 month stay cool with that language question. There is enough time for things to happen. :-)
First: The FSC hotline sometimes is not very competent. For example a few weeks ago they told that for their handheld loox 720 there will be no update to win mobile 2005 available. But meanwhile it's officially announced that there will be one. So it's absolutely not sure, that the m4438 will not be sold in finnland.
Second: I'm sure the NB will be sold in UK, so you could buy it from an online shop there. With englich OS you will not have any problems I think.
Third: If you spend 2000 Euro for a NB and want to use it the next 4-5 years the extra money for finish windows will not be such a big problem, will it? ;-)

OpaJo

Right you are, I think I need to have patience in this thing. And you know when I browse through the net it seems like M4438G is very rare in other countries as well. I could only find one online shop (from Sweden) which sold this notebook. Wow!

Well I'm studying English in a university now so I don't think an English OS would be a problem. Still, I'd prefer a Finnish OS but I guess an Eglish OS will do just fine.

Let's assume that I'd order the M4438G from Sweden or England, there are problems. Sweden: are the included programs (Elements 3.0, dvdplayback et cetera) in Swedish or in English. If they are in Swedish then that's a definate problem for me because I have no interest in buying Elements 3.0 as a Finnish version (since I have buy the OS as well). England: OK, the language is not a problem (obviously) but there might be two problems: 1) the mains cord (plug) is not compatible with Finnish outlets. I'm told that that is not really a problem since there's adapters and such but still, I'd like to have a Finnish type mains cord. 2) the keyboard layout. An acquaintance of mine told me that if I buy the notebook from Sweden the kayboard layout is same as in Finland. That got me thinking: I don't think the layout is the same in English NBs. That could be a problem as well.

Anyway, I'll wait for 2 months and then decide what to do. In the meantime, I'd appreciate it if Belch could tell me what language the included programs are (Photoshop, dvdplayback et cetera). Also, Belch bought a PM-760 version of the M4438G but I couldn't find that version, only a PM-750 versio. So I'd appreciate if Belch could tell the name of the Swedish shop that he bought this notebook from. Or maybe a online shop that sells PM760 or PM770 versions of M4438G.

Right now, the best that we have in Finland is M3438G with PM-750. This NB costs a little under 2000 euros. I'd hate to have to buy this NB since I really need at least PM-760 (preferably PM-770) and that WUXGA display (since I'm not a hardcore gamer and since I'd be using this notebook for light picture editing and viewing movies and such).

EDIT: Thank you Belch for the answer (the language question)!

Okey, are you ready guys? I have big news! Amilo M3438G's display has got 16ms:n response time, Amilo M4438G's display has got 25ms:n response time. I repeat, M4438G has got 25 ms:n response time! This info is not 100% fact but I guy I know told me so. He had read that on Fujitsu Siemens website.

I might be buying the M3438G after all because let's look at the downsides of M4438G and its WUXGA display. 1) You won't be able to play newer games in its native resolution (soon) so you will have to scale down which affects the picture quality. 2) the 25ms:n response time sucks, especially in FPS.

So I know that 25ms:n response time does not mean that for example Half-Life 2 is unplayable. Eizo is a very respected displaymanufacturer and many of its displays have got 25ms:n response time. That being said, nowadays they are selling displays with as low as 4 ms:n response time, so 25ms:n display is kinda obsolete.

So which is more important WUXGA resolution or good response time. For me, I guess it's good response time, since I have my own hometheatre already and while I'd use my laptop as a TV from time to time, a good response time is still a must for me.

So I guess I'll be buying the M3438G then. If only they would release the PM760 and PM770 models in Finland already. They are only selling PM740 and PM750 models.

Heh, welcome to the club then (still waiting mine)

I admit it, 25 ms does sound pretty bad, but then again didn't Belch say something like "no ghosting at all" and I have read some comp articles that state that the official response time given doesn't always give the real story about the actual performance of the screen.

Just FYI so your decision won't be too easy...

Hi, I have a little "problem" with my wxga fujitsu; When I put the brightness in the lower level the screen flickers; this is very apparent in a dark room and with a solid color background (fsc_swans, the default wallpaper).

In other way, my screen have no "ghost"; I play at hl2, San Andreas, Doon3 and NFS underground.

Despite this flicker problem, I think this screen is by far better than my 9300 wuxga.

It's a shame that fujitsu-siemens don't sell the wuxga version in Spain, at least for the time being.

This info is in the M4438 datasheet:
I'm not experienced in TFT displays. 25 ms means 40 fps, right? Is this too slow for games and movies? I've read somewhere that 25 fps are enough for a smooth tft display

FPS is not related to response time.

Yes, ok, in other words:
If you have a game that the NB (cpu/gpu power) can't display with more then 30 fps, then the 25 ms don't play any role, right?
On the other hand, if the NB can display a game with more than 40 fps, then you will recognize a slow down caused by the 25 ms response time.
Is this correct?
Now the question is: are 30-40 fps enough for a smooth game on tft display? And if so, can you slow down the NB to not display more than 40 fps?