Fujitsu Lifebook T900 review

You could forgive PC manufacturers for giving up on touchscreens altogether following the launch of the Apple iPad, but it would appear that the technology is all the rage right now. We’ve reviewed two all-in-one desktops – the Samsung U250 and Asus Eee Top ET2010PNT) – in recent weeks, and now Fujitsu’s Lifebook T900 laptop is attempting to draw the attention of corporate buyers.

Let’s get one thing straight right from the start, this tablet PC is no glamour puss. The T900 is as drab and businesslike as they come, with a chassis full of stark angles, and a dull silver-black colour scheme. It isn’t slim (at 38mm thick), it isn’t light (at 2.36kg), and it certainly isn’t sexy.

But it is solid and straightforward in a way only business laptops can be. The keyboard looks old-fashioned, but it feels comfortable under the fingers with a light but positive action. The touchpad is responsive and set a comfortable distance from the keyboard and its buttons are similarly competent.

And the chassis’ no-nonsense build quality lends the whole thing a reassuringly knock-resistant feel. The hinge that allows the T900’s touchscreen to rotate and fold flat against its body is particularly beefy, and incorporates an ingenious reversible latch that allows the screen to be locked securely in place in tablet mode.

Under the hood, the T900 is powered by one of Intel’s latest mobile processors – a 2.4GHz Core i5-M520 – which means fast performance in any application you care to mention. This is backed up by 4GB of RAM, giving a seriously good overall performance figure of 1.58 in our application based benchmarks.

The hard disk is 320GB in capacity, and there’s little to complain about connectivity-wise. Scattered around the edges of the T900 you’ll find three USB 2 ports, a smartcard reader, a D-SUB video output, memory card reader, smartcard and Express card 54 slots, plus – on the rear under a plastic flap – a slot for a SIM card, revealing the presence of a 3G modem.

The star of the show, undoubtedly, is the 13.3in touchscreen. Unusually, it isn’t a resistive screen, but uses technology developed by graphics tablet-specialist Wacom. Thus the screen can be used in digitiser mode with the pen, which is found tucked into the edge of the front wristrest, or a gentle prod of the finger.

It works better than any touchscreen we’ve come across in a tablet PC before. It’s highly accurate and responsive in either pen or finger mode, and it supports multitouch, so you can zoom in and out of photos and websites with a pinch. Don’t expect smooth animations, as you would with an iPad though – it’s still a Windows 7 PC at heart, after all.

Underneath the snazzy technology, you’re getting a good display too. A matte finish ensures reflections are kept to a minimum and LED backlighting offers consistent brightness and balanced colour reproduction. It’s a quality all-round screen.

And, this being a business machine, there’s no sign of frivolous games or pointless launchers either. What it does have is more useful: a series of shortcut buttons next to the screen that include the ability to change screen orientation at a button press, a touch sensitive scroll sensor (for vertically scrolling though documents and web pages without touching the screen), a fingerprint reader, and a fold out Wi-Fi aerial to support the 802.11n Wi-Fi adapter. There’s also TPM, a smartcard reader and, to aid in correct orientation of the screen, an acceleromter.

The T900 has a couple of key weakness, however, the first of which is battery life. The touchscreen and powerful processor conspired to drain the T900 of its reserves in a mere 3hrs 37mins in our light use test. That’s well short of what we’d consider acceptable for any business laptop. Under intense conditions it died after 1hr 13mins. The second problem is the cost: at £1,381 exc VAT it’s a high asking price for any laptop, even one this well-equipped.

That’s a real shame as aside from these hurdles (and its dreadfully dull styling) the Fujitsu T900 is a likeable laptop. It’s quick, well-built, and boasts a truly excellent touchscreen. Unfortunately, it just doesn’t justify the price.