Monday, November 03, 2008

Fujitsu LifeBook U820 available now, starting at $999


Continue reading..


Yep, it's there. And there is 2 versions:

$1299:
Windows Vista® Business
120 GB, 4200 rpm hard drive

$999:
Windows Vista® Home Premium
60 GB, 4200 rpm hard drive

Shared specs:

Intel® Atom™ Processor Z530
5.6" WXGA Crystal View display with touch screen
Integrated Webcam and Fingerprint Sensor
1 GB DDR2 533 MHz SDRAM memory (1 GB x 1)
Integrated 1.3 mega-pixel webcam
Fingerprint Sensor
Built-in GPS receiver and integrated Garmin Mobile® PC
10/100 Ethernet (with included cable)
Atheros XSPAN® (802.11a/b/g/draft-n)
Integrated Bluetooth wireless
Main battery: Lithium ion (4-cell, 7.2V, 5800 mAh)

Remember to check the review of it's Asian version U2010

Jump to Fujitsu Direct Store

Details, News and Links for Fujitsu LifeBook U820







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21 comments:

Anonymous said...

The FCC test showed that one with the FM transmitter but no where in the specs on Fujitsu's website do they mention it. I think the final release they may have nixed the FM transmotter. Anyone know for sure?

I have one ordered so should have it by end of next week so I guess i'll find out.

Anonymous said...

I received mine today (minutes ago) and while I haven't finished setting up, so can't comment on the FM transmitter, I can clearly see that the integrated "fold-out" GPS antenna is gone, replaced by a plug in version.

JKK said...

Great! thanks for info... any unboxing pix or first impressions?

Anonymous said...

No pics, too swamped with work, but first impressions: the glossy is GLOSSY and has a large subdued Fujitsu logo on about 1/4 of the cover...it looks more like a "luxury" finish that one would expect in a cell phone. The resolution is amazing, it almost looks like a fake screen from a store, though there is one dead/red pixel. It runs really quiet, and heat is comfortable (for the short time I've been working with it). The tablet accuracy is very good, but you have to touch with a little more force than I expected. I'm not sure how I feel about the GPS replacement. I don't think that'll be a high priority app for me, but if it were, I think I'd have favored the fold out design. (particularly since that's what's shown on the site). There is an odd warning on the package that handling the power cord may cause cancer...perhaps that's standard now, it's been a couple years since I've bought a new machine. Also, the navigation button works fine, but the placement relative to the buttons will take some getting used to. They do provide a replacement navigation button, so it makes me question durability. They do not provide a replacement stylus.

Anonymous said...

as far as I can tell, no FM transmitter, but the night is still young. also, backtrack-3 does not recognize the Atheros ar928x and updating may need a new kernel (as per madwifi)

Anonymous said...

oh, forgot to say the fm transmitter IS mentioned in the on-device help guide...but doesn't seem to actually be here

Anonymous said...

ok, more feedback: don't have much to say about Vista, but I've successfully run Backtrack 3 (w/o support for wifi), Ubuntu 8.10 (for a few minutes) before switching to nUbuntu 8.10-alpha. These latter distros do support the wifi card, and it seems that the card is particularly weak. I am running on battery, so that could be part of it, but on my lenovo r61, in my current location I can see upwards of 20 APs, and with the u820...two. I will try with wall power tomorrow. Also, packet injection has not worked yet, but that could also be related to the power issue. Oh, make that ONE AP (the one ten feet away)...the second just disappeared (it's about 30 feet away MAX)...

Anonymous said...

still no improvement with the wifi strength, but I've noticed the machine runs cooler with Vista than linux...

Anonymous said...

I withdraw the vista comment...that was a fluke...it just heats up a little if you have it on a soft surface since airflow gets impacted. Also, re:wifi, I'm convinced there is a flaw in my machine, perhaps an internal antenna is broken...I'm taking it in for diagnostics/replacement

Tim said...

http://guru-tim.blogspot.com/

I have a little review and some pics on a blog here. The FM transmitter has been omitted from the U820 in the US.

Tim said...

Also the add-on antenna for the GPS isn't needed. Only if you have poor reception. I rode around town without it and it worked great. Better not to have some antenna sticking out of it if you don't need to I guess.

JKK said...

Great Tim!

Is it ok to link you unboxing post?

Could you also open the bottom door to see if there is free pci-e slot?

Anonymous said...

Tim, how is the wifi strength on your machine? I sent mine in to have it checked out, it was so low something had to be broken.

Anonymous said...

Ok. So apparently there is nothing physically wrong with my machine. First, I should clarify that I was gauging wifi strength by ability to see APs in the area, not the speed of an established connection. Now, it turns out that the most likely reason the u820 is seeing next to none is driver based, but because it is a relatively new chipset, support for the driver is non-existant. Madwifi created the ath9k driver for Linux, but so far, Atheros has NOT created a Client Management Utility for the 9000s, and the 5000 version is incompatible, so you're stuck with Windows Zero Config, or a very new driver for Linux...AND apparently Bluetooth is a significant impedence to wifi performance. When I get the machine back from testing, I will shut down bluetooth in the BIOS and report any meaningful change. However, for real mobility, I think we're going to need dramatic improvements to the driver (and I'm toying with the idea of testing an external antenna as well)

Anonymous said...

I got a laptop battery from http://www.bestebuy.o.uk/ for my Dell Latitude notebook. My old one lasted just 1 hour after just about a year of use. Needed another one, and now things are back to normal.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the nice read, keep up the interesting posts…..

Anonymous said...

Got the machine back, killed bluetooth (and GPS just for good measure) in BIOS...still unable to pick up more than one AP (using the ath9k linux driver in 2.6.27) I will try to find any patches that may provide better performance.

Anonymous said...

Can gps be installed in u2010 unit from Japan?

Anonymous said...

According to some of the other information I've found on the web, the U2010 had what looked like a SIM card slot that wasn't hooked up. Considering the U820 should be coming out in Q1 2009 with 3G support, does the SIM card slot look usable? And does it look like it's hooked up to the PCI-E slot that normally has the GPS card in it (I assume that the PCI-E slot is hooked up to the antenna, which would also be used for 3G)?

Anonymous said...

So, re:my earlier posts about AP ident, looks like I'll be trying an ext antenna, but the drivers for wifi are really lacking. ath9k thankfully has a lot of attention directed to it, but just an update in case anyone is in the same boat: I implemented the 2008-12-10 version of ath9k in compat-wireless, and have no change in ap identification, however i have found some issues with aircrack. if networkmanager is left running, the channel keeps hopping with airodump, so it has to be killed, but if it is killed, any injection causes a total system lockup. if it's left running, aireplay-ng -9 reports injection working fine, fakeauth is fine, and arpreplay works, but never sees an ARP, so never starts injecting. so we need either/both changes to ath9k and aireplay. maybe a driver patch from aircrack would be the best solution. so i've opened a ticket outlining this data there.

Anonymous said...

don't know if anyone is watching this thread, but aircrack does work on the u820, it just needs python and scapy installed. See ticket 558 on the aircrack bugtrac for detail.

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