Fujitsu Stylistic Q550 review

With the ever-increasing popularity of Android tablets, it might seem strange that Fujitsu should release the Windows 7-based Stylistic Q550, but the company is targeting its new tablet squarely at the business and education markets. Normally, this kind of device would come at a high cost, but with some compromises Fujitsu has brought the Q550 in at a price designed to attract schools.

Although compact, at 870g, the Q550 is no light-weight and can be tiring to hold in one hand. The chassis is robust and well engineered, but we’d still recommend getting a protective case if the tablet is to be used in the wild. Fujitsu offers three, with the Portfolio Case most ideal, snuggly holding the tablet and maintaining it in a tilted position when placed on a desk. This particular case also provides a docking point for the tethered stylus, which otherwise is left dangling without a home; a design oversight that Fujitsu really should have caught, especially since a replacement costs an eye- watering £40.

Whether you’re using the stylus or a finger, the 10.1in screen’s multitouch sensitivity is good. Of course, within Windows 7 and standard Windows applications this isn’t of much use. The menus and toolbars clearly aren’t designed with touch in mind, and while the stylus offers greater precision, it still isn’t particularly intuitive. Luckily, Fujitsu provides an overlay for Windows 7 called “Infinity Lounge”, which offers an Android-like array of three screens that you can populate with widgets and flick though with finger gestures. This includes a toolbox area to manage Wi-Fi, mobile broadband, webcam software, and access to all installed applications. Windows isn’t bereft of education-ready software that supports touch, but there isn’t an awful lot about.

With the more touch-focused Windows 8 this should change, but here the Q550 presents other problems. There’s nothing much wrong with its LED-backlit screen: it’s bright and clear and, with an anti-glare coating, it’s viewable outdoors. However, while the 1,280 x 800 resolution is fine for Windows 7, it’s some way off the 1,366 x 768 resolution that’s optimal for using Windows 8. As a result, the Q550 isn’t a great bet for anyone planning to buy now and upgrade later.

Along its edges the Stylistic Q550 carries USB and HDMI ports, dual microphones, a headphone jack and a smart card slot. The bottom edge has a connector for the optional docking station, which houses further connectors and an Ethernet port . The back sports a fingerprint scanner and a 1.3-megapixel camera; there’s a second, front-facing VGA camera in the screen bezel. Both are suitable for schools, where they can be used to take quick photos or for utilising video-conferencing features within the classroom. The bezel also has a number of useful buttons: one offers Ctrl-Alt-Del (always handy), while others toggle automatic screen rotation, call up the onscreen keyboard, or switch wireless networking on and off.

Although Wi-Fi and Bluetooth are included, mobile broadband and GPS features are optional. The 30GB SSD is barely adequate, but there’s room to save data onto SD cards using the integrated smart card reader. The Q550 also has a comprehensive range of optional peripherals, including a wireless USB display adapter. This neatly overcomes the problem of requiring different cables if the tablet is taken to different classrooms, via an adapter that connects any projector or monitor with VGA or DisplayPort to the tablet using a dedicated wireless dongle.

The Q550 uses one of Intel’s “Oak Trail” Atom processors – in this case, a Z670 running at 1.5GHz. It’s a single- core, Hyper-Threaded processor with an integrated graphics processor, but while it helps prolong battery life, it’s hardly designed for lightning-fast performance. As a result, the Q550 feels sluggish. Automatic screen rotation takes longer than it should and applications don’t run briskly. Whether you’re opening a browser window or launching a program, everything seems inordinately slow.

And it isn’t as if the battery life makes the compromise worthwhile, lasting between four and five hours of constant use. It’s a good thing that Fujitsu offers an optional, swappable battery, since most schools will probably need it.

If the Stylistic Q550 has one advantage for education, it’s the total compatibility with existing Windows software and infrastructure, and it’s in this context that the security features, swappable battery and stylus might prove worthwhile. It isn’t hard to imagine the Q550 fitting in the hands of administrators, consultants and inspectors. Within the classroom, however, Android devices or an iPad would be far more suitable, since the performance, battery life and screen will be superior, the price will be lower, and there will be more classroom-ready software to take advantage of the tablet’s touch capabilities.

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