Fujitsu LifeBook A6010

The Fujitsu LifeBook A6010 is a solid all-round notebook with more than enough grunt for day-to-day office tasks. However its good-sized 15.4in LCD and large footprint makes it better-suited for in-house use than on the road computing. This is made even more apparent by the well-below average run-time of 108 minutes on the standard three-cell battery during our DVD run down test.

The A6010 runs one of the newer T5500 1.66GHz Intel Core 2 Duo chips, paired with a respectable 1GB of RAM and an integrated Intel 945 Graphics Media Accelerator. Our test unit had an 80GB hard drive, which is on the low side for a notebook this size - you can bump this up to 100GB, but it still uses 4200rpm technology instead of the faster 5400rpm speed.

A World Bench score of 89 yields no surprises based on the LifeBook's specs - a solid result for everyday computing, but not the best we've seen. The 3DMark 2001 score of 6499 benchmarks is a little more inspiring given the lack of dedicated video card; notebooks using integrated Intel graphics typically achieve a 3DMark score of 4000-4500. The LifeBook is still no gaming machine, but it should be able to handle some light graphics and video editing with aplomb.

The glossy 15.4in widescreen display is well-lit, with a maximum resolution of 1280 x 800 and excellent horizontal viewing angles and contrast. The keyboard isn't as impressive - despite the LifeBook's generous 360mm width, the keyboard is slightly less than full-sized. Fujitsu would've done well to use some of the spare real estate on either side of the keyboard to make it a bit wider. The keys themselves are also flatter, with shorter travel than on a typical desktop keyboard, so typing isn't as satisfying an experience.

While the A6010 is pitched as more of a consumer notebook, its conservative design makes it better-suited for business users. The gun-metal grey chassis is accented by a dark grey keyboard, display frame and speaker grill, and there's none of the usual frills that typically accentuate a retail machine.

The integrated fingerprint reader between the touchpad buttons ups the appeal for corporate folk, tying in with the OmniPass program for binding Windows, software and online passwords to enrolled fingerprints. Setting the fingerprint recognition up is relatively fuss-free thanks to the step-by-step tutorial.

The usual mix of ports, slots and connectors can be found on the A6010; the left-hand side features the Dual-Layer DVD burner, while the front is reserved for the twin speakers, LED indicators, wireless switch and earphone and microphone jacks. The right side houses a Type II PC card slot, multi-format memory card slot, one USB 2.0 port and a mini-FireWire port. The rear contains a Kensington lock, two more USB 2.0 ports, Gigabit Ethernet and modem ports, an S-Video connector and a monitor port. Wireless connectivity is taken care of with 802.11 a/b/g and Bluetooth 2.0.

We had no real qualms about build quality; the LCD has a bit of flex, but the hinge feels robust and offers the right amount of resistance. The underside remains remarkably cool even after prolonged use, as heat is dissipated through the grills on the LifeBook's rear.