LifeBook S6311 (LBS6311-AA250E0B1)

Built with a certain air of class and constructed using quality hardware for a reasonable price, the Fujitsu Lifebook S6311 is a solid performer and shows you don't have to forgo image for functionality.

Only slightly heavier than the Lifebook Q2010, the S6311 is one of the lightest and thinnest notebooks we've reviewed, weighing in at just 1.7Kg. Despite its diminutive frame, the S6311 has quite a sturdy chassis. The back of the LCD is built using magnesium alloy, giving it flexibility and strength, while the base is built using carbon fibre, which provides better insulation for your legs when the system is running hot.

Running at a resolution of 1024x768, the display looks sharp. Brightness and contrast are excellent, but there seems to be greater brightness towards the bottom half of the screen when viewed at certain angles. Aside from this uniformity issue, it's clear to view from fairly sharp, obtuse, vertical angles, with only minor colour inversion evident.

With an Intel Core 2 Duo E5600 1.83GHz CPU and 1GB of DDR2 667MHz RAM, the LifeBook S6311 achieved a score of 97 in World Bench 5. This means it's more than enough for most applications you'll be using on the fly. As a business notebook it comes with a fingerprint scanner for added logon security, as well as a hard disk and bios lock with password. The keyboard is comfortable to use, with evenly spaced keys, while the touch pad seems responsive. A set of four function buttons act as both media controls and application shortcuts for mail, internet and other software users can personally customise.

Users will get up to three hours of DVD playback, according to our DVD rundown test. Obviously, normal usage will extend the battery life beyond this time frame. The DVD re-writer drive can also be hot-plugged and changed over to a reserve battery or a spare hard drive in case you need to backup or access more data.

A media card reader supports SD, MS/MS-Pro and xD cards for access to your digital media. The two tiny speakers actually produce reasonable sound if you need to present with audio or simply want listen to music stored on the 100GB hard drive.

With Gigabit LAN, Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g, Bluetooth 2.0 and a 56k modem, networking and connectivity are well covered.There is also a FireWire port, a PC Card (type II)/Smartcard slot and three USB 2.0 ports available for other devices.