Fujitsu U772 and UH572

Fujitsu brings its Lifebook Ultrabooks to the US, NH532 and Esprimos tag along for the ride -- Engadget

Dam if that isn't one nice looking ultrabook, I wonder if it looks as nice in the flesh as it does in the photos.

 

Bumping this thread - does anyone have a Fujitsu U772 Ultrabook and could share some thoughts/feedback?

I have one for review right now and while it looks killer, I can't get over the abysmal keyboard and even more abysmal trackpad. After lifting my finger off the trackpad the mouse keeps moving for a second or two .... it's really annoying and makes me hesitate to even use the notebook. The keyboard has so little key travel it's hard to tell if you pressed a key. I'm confused how Fujitsu released a notebook to production with these flaws. They're almost defects.
Just wondering if anyone had a similar experience. I do have a production model.

 

Would you mind posting a link to the review once you are done?

 

I have the UH572 model. It's not a great laptop to be honest. I only got it for the form factor and because it was reasonably cheap with mail-in rebate.

The keyboard is shallow and yes there isn't much travel room. Also, the Home, Pg Up, etc. keys are on the far right and the delete key isn't so there's some getting used to. When I first booted the laptop I did notice that the mouse slides even after lifting your fingers from the trackpad.

These two issues don't bother me as much. I have a full size wireless keyboard that I will be using 90% of the time. As for the trackpad, the first thing I do with any laptop is completely reinstall the OS so I put Win 7 Pro on it with all the drivers and I don't have the moving mouse issue anymore. Plus, I use a wireless mouse 90% of the time too.

Here's some other quick things that come to mind. The display screen size feels small. There's huge black borders around the screen. It's still probably 13", but it's not edge to edge. May be an issue or may not be. It slightly concerns me, but I have an external monitor too, so we'll see. No ethernet port or dongle for the 572. I totally forgot about this when I bought the machine. So far, haven't had a need for ethernet, but I may in the future. I may end up buying a usb dongle.

That's all I can think of right now. If you guys have any questions or want to know more, let me know.

 

I most certainly will. I have submitted the review and it should be live shortly - by the weekend at the latest, I'd imagine.

Bottom line, the U772 has a great design and quality but the poor keyboard is a deal breaker as is the low-quality 1366x768 screen; at its price point, a high-res screen is expected (especially considering this is a 14" screen, not a 13.3"). The Toshiba Portege Ultrabook is a much better choice and about half the price.

Thanks for the feedback - I don't have the UH572 model but it sounds like the keyboard has the same issues on my U772.

Does your 572 model have a Synaptics trackpad? The U772 does and I figured out why my cursor kept going after lifting my finger off the surface. You have to go into the Synaptics control panel and disable the "Momentum" feature. This is the most asinine "feature" I've seen in a touchpad out of all the notebooks I've reviewed. It blows my mind.

 

Yep, Synaptics trackpad. And yeah the momentum setting must have been reset when I reinstalled the OS. Completely useless feature.

 

Here's the review guys!
Fujitsu Lifebook U772 Review: Don't Judge An Ultrabook By Its Cover

 

The sad thing is that the less expensive (but by no means better) U572 actually fixes some of the flaws of the higher end business U772 model. For some inexplicable reason, I have more keys that your model. I've got all the dedicated Home, PgUp, etc. keys on the far right. It doesn't make sense that they include it in the 13" model but not the 14" one. And as far as speakers are concerned, mine are right underneath the screen in a wide strip. I never use laptop speakers so I don't expect top notch quality, but it won't be muted down coming from a right hand corner.

My previous laptop that I've been using faithfully and still works is the Dell M1530. I gave the machine away to a family member and decided to buy an ultrabook. I first tried the Samsung Series 5 (before Ivy Bridge) and it was a nice looking machine, but I had issues with it. First, the turbo boost was so throttled back, I don't know why they even advertised it as a machine capable of it. Second, it's idle temperature was 65 degrees C (20 degrees more than the Fujitsu) which makes no sense (my guess is bad thermal pasting job). I promptly returned it and I needed a laptop quick so I chose the Fujitsu. These are two things, as highlighted by the review, that the Lifebook is good at. Performance is not as bad as some other ultrabooks and the machine remains cool, and that's very important to me because I want it to last a long time.

Good review, enjoyed reading it.

 

Thanks a lot for the feedback. I do not think we have a 572 incoming for review but now I am curious. What was Fujitsu thinking!

I agree with you about the XPS M1530; it is a classic notebook and looks good even today. It's a shame Dell has not produced a notebook of that caliber since it was discontinued. The last few XPS notebooks I've reviewed have been average or a bit better than average, but not what an XPS notebook used to be.

 

I just bought a uh572 from frys (599usd after 100 mail in rebate) and love it. My previous laptop was huge ("desktop replacement laptop"). This thing is so small and light that I don't see myself bothering with a tablet anymore. It's not as svelte as the acers but it's got much better Windows Experience Index scores, can handle up to 8gigs of ram, is pretty easy to open (no need to pop off the top to replace the HD) and is very responsive.

The keyboard keys are a little small. Other than that I'm loving this thing. Portable and cheap 4tw!

 

Mind uploading some pictures?

 

sure thing, once I get home from work I'll upload a few.

 

These are up in the forum (separate thread).

 

NH532 is complete for games... theoretically it is very good specced. but it is impossible to play almost anything on the machines due to the switching and Optimus is not possible to disable in BIOS (atleast not yet) So you are stuck with the awful freezes ever 10-20 seconds even though the FPS are over the roof. This is due to the switching optimus .

 

Picked one up about a month ago for $530 CDN (couldn't not buy it at that price!). Seems to work well so far. I was pleasantly surprised by the almost complete lack of bloatware, with the bizarre exception of a CD-burning utility (it doesn't have an optical drive!). The display quality isn't the greatest and the keyboard has oddly "bouncy" keys that can be pretty loud, but overall it's not bad at all. The build quality seems very good and I'm especially happy that the underside is accessible.

 

LOL - it's a heck of a deal for the price! And I find that it's so thin that I'll either use my smartphone or the ultrabook. Very very very rarely bother with my tablets anymore...

 

Has anyone tried calibrating display color? I found it was very blue/purple out of the box and calibrated it with Windows' built-in function, but it keeps flickering between both profiles.

 

I purchased the Fujitsu UH572 core i-5 Model from Fry's back in June 2013 and barely used it at all. I was utterly disappointed with the crappy keyboard and touchpad. To add to that, the battery was defected when I opened the pkg and it never held a charge. I did not realize the defect until after Fry's 15-day return policy expired. So, I had to order a new battery from Germany to repair it myself (I'm a certified PC tech). Fujitsu insisted I send it back in for repairs and it would cost me $230 to do so. I'd rather fix it myself and i purchased the battery for $90 shipped.
Anyway, In terms of the keyboard, the island style buttons are very small and gapped apart, so it is easy to make typos when typing.
As for the touchpad/mouse, there is a reason that it moves by itself after you lift your finger off of it. This is caused by a feature called "Momentum" that allows for the mouse to continue to move after you slide your finger. Here is how to disable that feature and make the mouse act normal again. Just do the following steps ( Windows 7):

Go to " Start" > " Control Panel" > Click on " Hardware and Sound" > Click " Mouse" located under Devices & Printers > Click on " Device Settings" tab > Highlight the device and click " Settings"> Expand the " Pointing" option > Expand " Momentum" option > Click on " Glide" and uncheck the box that shows " Enable bounce off screen edge" > Click " OK"

More info:
-To help avoid mistakes by hitting the touchpad while typing:
The same " Device Settings" window does allow you to adjust the touchpad sensitivity by making custom settings to avoid making mistakes when typing and accidently hitting it with your palms:
In the same mouse settings window, Go to
SmartSense>PalmCheck.

Here's how to adjust the Touchpad Scroll issue when you scroll and it continues to scroll after you lift your finger(s) off the touchpad:
In the same mouse settings window, Go to EdgeMotion and
Select the " No EdgeMotion" radio button