Fujitsu Lifebooks U904 and S904 look pretty awesome

Just received my notebook 5 minutes ago. I love it so far but the keyboard is different. I think I will need time to get use to. It is very shallow but ALOT better than ASUS zenbook I returned a couple days ago. Coming from TP user, I can say that as far as keyboard, nothing beats a Thinkpad.

My U904 is made in Japan. I took 1 picture...more reviews coming soon



U904 next to my X230 IPS

 

True. I'm pretty happy with its speakers. I had the new Haswell X1 Carbon for a day and it didn't sound nearly as good as my Ivy Bridge S9. I wonder how the Asus UX301LA compares with its Bang & Olufsen speakers they proudly emphasize.

I thought you said you won't order it because of the speakers?

Nice! Congrats. It looks great. The picture looks less washed out than the X230, but so much more reflective. How do you like the quality of it? Also, how hard is it to open the bottom piece to access/upgrade the SSD and RAM? I've heard there are some glued on rubber feet that need to be removed first.

 

I think I might order it (matte version) if I'm not happy with the Samsung alternatives. I currently own an old Lifebook E8020 which also has bad speakers, so I know I can live with it somehow, so the U904 will be a fallback.

 

I see. Why not consider the Asus UX301LA or UX31LA?

 

Afaik they have a proprietary ssd format - when the ssd fails, it will be expensive or even impossible to replace them.
Also, I do not like the reflective screen and glas back of the ux301.
(and I had some bad experience with Asus quality and support recently)

 

Makes sense. I had the same bad experience on numerous times with Lenovo so I'm pretty much done with them. It's a shame, because they have a great keyboard. I'm also not a fan of reflective screens, though it would be nice to keep the touchscreen capabilities. But as a graphic designer, I think the matte panel is more important to me. I just hope it keeps the same quality has the standard gloss/touch panel. There's still a bit of uncertainty.

 

Well, I read that it is the same IGZO panel, just with a different coating.
See this data sheet: http://globalsp.ts.fujitsu.com/dmsp/Publications/public/ds-LIFEBOOK-U904.pdf
It is even slightly brighter than the touch version if these numbers are correct.

 

Oh good to know! 400 nits vs 360 nits even. That's reassuring. Thanks

 

here is a couple more pics I took just now next to my x230. the last picture is the bottom corner of u904 showing the rubber feet and seal covering the screw

u904 tips the scale at 3 lbs and 2 oz (x230 3lbs and 6 oz)

 

When you get the time, can you post a few pictures of the display at different angles? I'm curious how the vertical and horizontal angles compare to an IPS panel. Thanks

 

here you go from the side



I believe thinkpad x230 has better screen and viewing angles

 

2 more...u904 on the left



both with max brightness (I didn't adjust u904's auto brightness if there is any)

 

Really? That's not good. The IPS is known to have greater viewing angles, so it makes sense though. But I was hoping the Fujitsu was at least on par. Hmmm...

 

Would it be possible to have the same image compared? and a reference image. Kind of hard to compare when different images are used.

 

I'm unsure how to disable the UEFI bios, or bypass it. I reviewed the numerous options and settings in the BIOS and didn't see something that would do this (at least, as I interpreted it)... any thoughts?

 

I don't have a notebook with uefi jet, but a search turned up this post:
https://forum.ts.fujitsu.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=95&t=46490

Setting a pasword seems to be required to enable changing the options below, see [ubuntu] Fujitsu lifebook ah512. Secure boot options blocked in bios

 

Urbanglowcam (and others having the 904 Series):

How happy are you with the Scaling, and what level did you configure? 150%? 200%? Or are you running a non-native resolution (i.e. 1600x900)?
I wonder if it makes a difference (scaling vs. resolution)?

I'd still rather have the S904, as 13.3" is the max. acceptable size in my book (coming from the devices in my Signature) and I want the 24h Battery life or an ODD when needed, but remain concerned about the resolution. WQHD seems too high to work on natively w/o scaling, and too low to work on half of the Resolution (720), unlike the U904 that may be ideal on 1600x900.

Are the reflections problematic at all, or does the brightness go high enough not to be bothered?

 

right now, I scale the u904 at 125% because I constantly need to open 2 windows side by side. So far so good for me because I have decent eyesight. At 100% scaling, I found the text is hard to read but the notebook came with 200% scaling out of the box

screen is quite reflective btw, that's expected for touch notebook nowadays

 

lol, decent eyesight i don't think Windows 8 will do any better on the scaling problem in the future as majority pcs are still 1080p or below. damn windows 8 vista.

 

Thanks, I'll take a look this evening ; chaos at work today, so won't be able to check before 7 pm est.

 

Hey handai, sorry to bother you again. But can you make sure the auto brightness is off and possibly post another set of comparison shots? Only if you had the auto brightness on before.

To easily adjust toggle this off, go to the start menu and just search "auto brightness"....the "Turn auto brightness on or off" app should come up. Just click that and toggle it off. Then crank the brightness up all the way.

Sorry if I'm stating the obvious, but I just want to be sure. The reason is that the X230 IPS should have a lower brightness of 280 nits and roughly the same contrast ratio at 1037:1 according to NotebookCheck.

Test Lenovo ThinkPad X230 2306-2AU Notebook - Notebookcheck.com Tests

Thank you

 

I will post more picture soon. I am on a project right now

 

Whenever is convenient for you! Thank you.

 

Here is a couple more pictures I took just now. Both notebooks are using battery (same power profile), and max brightness setting on (no auto brightness). I darken the room for better results. Keep in mind, I used cell phone to take these pictures (moto x is known to have bad camera). X230 clearly has better viewing angle (U904 on the left)

 

Why am I not able to find a single in depth review for this ultrabook on the usual review-sites?!

 

Folks who wanted linux info and pasted commands: Fujitsu U904 linux queries - Pastebin.com <--- results

I think one or two of the commands may not have worked. It was a USB live version of Ubuntu 13.10 I believe. If you have any ideas how to resolve the missing info, let me know. I can run the commands again no problem

 

Thank you for that. These were very helpful. From the front it looks like the Fujitsu holds its own in brightness / contrast. But yeah, I can see where the IPS on the X230 has the superior viewing angles. I'm not sure if this would be a deal breaker or not for me. But it's definitely making me lean towards the Samsung or Asus more. Too bad they don't offer a matte display.

 

I actually bought asus before u904. I decided to return it only after 10 minutes of using. The quality is just not there. Coming from thinkpad, I am picky. The U904 is far from perfect but i will keep it because I can upgrade hdd and memory (important for me).
The notebook boots less than 10 second after upgrading to Samsung 840 ssd

 

I handled the Asus in person, and felt it was built well. But you obviously feel the U904 is superior in quality, right? I'm also pretty picky. I'm happy with the Series 9 I have now, but would like something with more ram and a high resolution display. Only the viewing angles worry me on the U904 because even this Samsung has low distortion at angles.

How hard was it to swap the SSD? I'm just wondering about the "glued" rubber pieces. Were they hard to put back in place?

 

actually, its quite easy (x230 was easier). The glued rubber feet, I just used my fingers and rubbed it gently and it will fall off with double tape intact (which you can replace). Once the cover open, memory and HDD were easy to pull and replace. I actually surprised that there is no screw holding down the hdd

 

That's good to know. That's a great strength of this laptop over others for sure.

I just wish the display angles were better.

 

Thanks for that. Those interested in installing Linux might also find the information here useful, https://wiki.debian.org/InstallingDebianOn/Fujitsu/LifebookU904/jessie

 

thank you very much for the information. looks like i'm going to pull the trigger

 

That looks quite promising, thank you!

 

There are no screws holding the hard drive in my P770 either. Has not made and difference after a few years use....

 

I like this notebook more after upgrading memory and HDD to SSD. My boot time reduced to about 12-16 seconds. also, the weight of the notebook itself now is about 3 lb flat

 

Good to hear.

When you put the bottom piece back on, were the rubber pieces easy to stick back on? Do they use an existing adhesive to stick on? Or did you have to get some kind of additional tape? I'm just wondering if they look like they were removed after you have taken them off.

How is the screen after using it for a few weeks? I know it's not quite as good as the X230, but are you happy with it overall? Also, would you say the keyboard is similar, worse, or better than the asus ux301la or samsung series 9?

Thanks

 

only the 2 rubber foot have double tape and I use the existing one. The other ones still sticks on the screw. I might just pulled all of them off and keep them safe somewhere (except the foot) because I might replace the ssd again soon.

I only use this notebook for 3-4 days (received on Wed). Quite happy overall. There are some sacrifices I made to keep this notebook but definitely U904 is better than zenbook (dunno about samsungs). Keep in mind those notebooks are 13.3 (u904 is 14").

Here are my personal pro and cons so far (based on my comparison with my usual thinkpads I use and familiar with):

pros:
- good screen res (comfortably using 125-150 % zoom)
- light (3lb after replacing ssd - lighter than regular spinning HD)
- replaceable HD and Dimm (carbon cant do that; also this is the main reason I choose u904 over carbon). I repeat, the ability to replace Dimm and HDD made my decision easier. Also, I don't recall ultrabook like u904 using 7mm drive,most use msata)
- made in japan (crossing my finger - my made in china thinkpads are always good)

cons:
- worst speaker in any notebook I have ever had (adjusting DTS level helps a bit in the setting)
- not as sturdy as thinkpad (some flex on the chassis)
- shallow keyboard (asus has deeper keyboard but my UX31LA has crooked keyboard so I decided to return it only after 10 mins of using)
- so so viewing angle (compared to my x230 but it has low res)
- not cheap (but x1 is more expensive)

I cant judge battery life yet because I am still tweaking the notebook so battery life might not be maximize for now. Support from fujitsu website (downloading manuals and drivers) seems good, my notebook runs good without any junk and still had about 85-88gb left (from 120gb Samsung ssd).
There is an empty slot in the MB, not sure what it is yet. Might be msata(don't think its m.2). I need to check that out and see if I can put wwan card

 

Thank you again. I'll wait for the matte/non-touch and possibly put an order in for one if another competitor like Samsung doesn't grab my attention. I do like the Fujitsu's 14" panel over most of the others.

 

Another fairly in-depth review in Czech. If you use the Chrome translator you can understand the gist of it.

Fujitsu LifeBook U904

 

I believe its a M.2 Socket 2 (key B) for the optinal WWAN. It might even drive some types of SSDs.
See my earlier post: http://forum.notebookreview.com/fuj...-s904-look-pretty-awesome-13.html#post9498405

 

Thanks for posting that link. Someone asked about charging times a while back and they seem to have tested it:

google translated result:

If i read that correctly the charging time from 0 to 90% is less than one hour if the notebook is powered down, and about two hours if it is still in use while charging. This would put it in the same league as lenovos rapidcharge on the x1 carbon. I really wonder why there is not more marketing around the u904, it seems to offer a lot.

 

do you know where I can get m,2 wwan or ssd (beside mydigital)

 

the wwan card used for LTE models seems to be Sierra Wireless AirPrime EM7305. It is a 42mm M.2 card, so you may want to check this thread for compatible ssd cards.

I think intel has announced a 42mm M.2 1500 series with 120GB. Due to the small board size i think we won't see 42mm cards with more than 256gb anytime soon.

As a 2.5" ssd weighs only about 50-70grams, using the M.2 for storage only makes sense if you want to add a 2.5" hdd for cheap storage and use the ssd for os and applications. Given that 500gb SSD are not that expensive anymore and even 1TB SSD are available without selling a kidney for it, i'd rather not use a traditional hdd in an ultraportable anymore.

If you want to add a wwan card, sticking with the sierra is properbly a good idea, there may be some whitelist inside the bios (that may also prevent using an M.2 ssd). Also, besides the wwan card itself you need antennas, so if there are no small round connectors dongeling around in the vincinity of the m.2 slot on your device, you'd need to buy 1 or 2 antenna cables aswell and fit them somewhere in there and make sure they are shielded properly against the internals.... long story short: if you want wwan, order a model that comes with it and save yourself the trouble....

 

thank for the info. I am looking for tmobile wwan or m.2 ssd that is faster than my 7mm drives to make it worthwhile.

 

I'm still surprised there hasn't been any mention of a matte panel availability in the US. I did manage to find a review from notebookcheck that was just posted a few days ago in Polish.

Recenzja Fujitsu LifeBook U904 - Notebookcheck.pl

As usual, it's pretty in depth but failed to give more information about color spectrum in the display section. On the other hand, it did show some really impressive tidbits on the display. It has a 1472:1 contrast ratio, deep blacks, and a high luminosity. The only downside is that they noticed a non-uniformity in the luminosity where the lower-left of the screen isn't as bright. Viewing angles look good, but probably not up to par with IPS panels like handai showed in earlier posts.

Overall they had a lot of good to say including great display, quiet under load, low operating temps, long battery, good build/housing, good size, and great placement of ports. The bad points are what we expected..poor keyboard, bad speakers, low cpu performance, and also smudges from the touchscreen (pretty typical though).

There are great pictures of the internals with the bottom casing removed too, so you can see all of the internals and how easy they look to replace.

If there are anymore impressions from owners, please post them. I'm eager to hear. I'm either waiting for the matte version or at least waiting for a deal on the current model.

 

I also found two unboxing videos. They're not the best (I got a laugh out of the second one) but something interesting I noticed that I didn't realize before is that they come with the docking station. Do they all come with this, or are these special review units?

Unboxing of Lifebook U904 - YouTube
Lifebook U904 Unboxing - YouTube

 

Nice find, the connection between dock and laptop looks a bit flimsy when it is lifted up in the first video, but i guess it's ok as a dock usually sits on a desk.

I doubt that the dock comes standard with all u904 models. On the german fujitsu shop there are special 'saver' bundles that include a dock. But the saving is below 1%, so you're properbly better off waiting for a good deal on the laptop and buying the dock from fujitsu separatly. Anyways, my guess is the reviewers received such a bundle.

 

the dock is sold seperately, somewhere around $130-150 on futjisu website

GT-I9502 Tapatalk

 

Hi
I wanted to install
Amazon.com: Intel Network 7260.HMWG WiFi Wireless-AC 7260 H/T Dual Band 2x2 AC+Bluetooth HMC: Computers & Accessories
Which is AC wifi instead of just N - do you know if it is possible?

M