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Fujitsu N3510 Lifebook Review:

This review is done thanks to member shboyles. Be sure and check out the tons of pics at the bottom which are thumbnailed from an 1100X res.

Chassis/Build/Apearance:
Laptop build is very solid/sturdy. Definitely high quality plastic. It’s kind of heavy/thick for a 15.4” notebook, but feels as sturdy as a rock.

It is mostly black in color with some silver outlining. Looks fairly sleek.

Keyboard/Touchpad:
The keyboard has no Flex, and is not flimsy by any way….However, the keys have somewhat of a stiff feel to them. The Layout of the keyboard is normal. (FN Key placement, etc..)

Touchpad is kind of small, but works well. Fujitsu has an “autodisable” feature where once an external mouse is detected, it automatically can turn off the touchpad. Also comes with an Application/Multimedia panel on the right of the keyboard which comes in handy.

Speakers/Sound:
Speakers are quite loud for a 15.4” laptop. There is no subwoofer, just two speakers in the front under the palmrest. There is a volume control in the upper right side of the keyboard….Sound volume/quality is at a sweatspot with the volume turned at about 40%.

Display:
This is one of the strongest points in this notebook.

The 15.4” WXGA Screen with Crystal View is STUNNING. VERY Bright and crisp, great response time, no ghosting.

In fact I found my self turning the brightness down a little bit. In my opinion it is far better than any other 15.4” WXGA screen (including the Sony XBRITE)

Graphics/Performance:
The laptop comes with the ATI Radeon Mobility X300 with 64MB of memory. This is basically the PCI-Express equivalent of the Mobility Radeon 9600.

It comes clocked 297/222 (GPU/MEMORY).

I was able to easily overclock it to 391/283, without any problems or artifacts. VERY OVERCLOCKABLE.

Battery Life:
I was able to watch a DVD for about 2.5 hours before the battery gave out at the brightest screen level and power management features enabled. If the screen brightness is lowered more battery life can be sustained.



Fan Noise/Cooling:
The fan’s exaust to the back of the unit, and cannot be heard at all at idle temperatures. During gaming, fans run faster, but are still hard to notice. Overall the system runs very quiet.

No heat can be detected under either palmrest.

Benchmarks:

STOCK CLOCK RESULTS (297/222):

3DMark03: 2555

3DMark05: 714

Aquamark 3: 20370

UT2004 1024x768: 84fps

DOOM3 1024x768: 13.7fps

HL2 BenchemallDemo 1024x768: 26fps


OVERCLOCKING RESULTS (391/283):

3DMark03: 3209

3DMark05: 806

Aquamark 3: 26037

UT2004 1024x768: 106fps

DOOM3 1024x768: 16.4fps

HL2 BenchemallDemo 1024x768: 31fps


Some more thoughts, Pros/Cons:
By no means is this a hard core gamers notebook. I feel that for the casual gamer, and for home/business user, it works very well. If Fujitsu were to put an ATI Mobility X700 with 128MB of memory in the unit, then it would be almost the perfect 15.4” notebook. Even though the X300 is very overclockable, it just cannot compete with the performance of the ATI X700 or Nvidia Geforce GO 6600.

The screen is top notch, the sound is very good, and the build is overall sturdy. It does have the PCI Express Card Slot as well. Also which there was a Bluetooth and Gigabit Ethernet offered in the unit. There is version of this model that has an internal TV Tuner as well.

i wonder how it will do for mobility.. carrying it from classes to classes..

o does anyone know if the graphics card are upgradable?

Nice review. Those pictures are extremely good. The LCD on this model looks stunning and I bet better in person.

I personally would have bought this model because it had everything I wanted, but the X300 graphics card was the one thing that ruined it for me.

Does the N3510 have bluetooth? I thought it didnt?

Are there any ventilation holes at the bottom of the machine?

Graphics card is NOT upgradeable.

-Scotty

No ventilation holes at the bottoms of the machine.
Bluetooth is NOT an option on either the retail models i have seen. You can check on Fujitsu's website and see if you can customize a N3510 with bluetooth, but I Don't think it is an option off hand.

-Scotty

Could someone perhaps post a pic of the bottom of the N3510? Hows wireless performance on this machine?

Oh, by the way, you feel absoultely no heat at all on the left hand side of the palm rest? Cause whe i tried out a machine at a local store, the left hand palm rest did feel warmer than usual.

I also just noticed some finer details. It seems like the first and second (from left to right) usb port are closer to each other than the second and third usb port. Is this true?

Thanks!

Here is a pic of the bottom of the unit:

The screws seem to be rusted already? Or are they naturally brown? Anyways, thanks for posting the pic up so quick! Im really supprised Fujitsu didnt place any ventilation or air intake holes anywhere.

Just one question, your model doesnt seem to have the instant mymedia button which is meant to be to the right of the power button. Are you able to play dvd's and cd's without bootup?

Thanks.

sshboyles, thanks for the review -- it's helped a lot.

i'm wondering about the 64 vid card -- i plan on gaming occasionally, probably playing games like civ III and pirates, maybe some sports games -- how will i fare?

thanks,
brian

hi shboyles, from your pics:



is those a sparkle or just because of a view angle?
thanks for a review anyway, it helps a lot!

Hi there, from this image, can anyone tell me which compartment should i open in order to upgrade my ram? thanks.

Oh yeah, does this lappie supports ram of 533Mhz? I heard it's running at only 400Mhz. Please help.

Anyone there? Please help. Thanks!

Hi, the RAM compartment is the lower left one, where the windows sticker is. Although Fujitsu did decide to install 400MHz RAM to cut costs, the alviso chipset does support 533MHz RAM (you probably wont notice much perormance increase from the 533MHz RAM).

How is the wireless unit on this laptop?? And the performance of it overall?

I ask because I had heard various complaints about the Intel Pro 2200BG wireless chipset in general - that it tends to break down every now and then for no reason, amongst other things. Can someone please give me feedback as to how the wireless performed, and what router if possible.

and are you guys sure you cant upgrade the graphics card?? (I just dont want to take no for an answer). If so, why not? And why is it possible on desktops?? (Im new to the graphics deal)