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Hi everyone,
I received my new P5020D last week and have a long winded review....
I bough mine from Laptopsinc.com. I had a couple issues but Ivan addressed them immediately and showed that they are willing to make the customer happy. A happy customer is a repeat customer and they seem to know that. I wouldn't hesitate to shop there again.
The configuration I selected was XP Pro, 512MB RAM (upgrade to 1GB at $400 was a bit steep - I felt 512MB was adequate and the best bang for the buck given Laptopsinc free upgrade from 256MB), 802.11g, 60GB 7200RPM drive, extra modular battery and 3-year warranty.
This notebook is much faster than I thought it would be. It boots up faster than my 2.53GHz desktop and my work-provided IBM A31P. It appears to not have any lag when opening up programs, saving files, or accessing anything it needs to over the network. While my SiSoft Sandra benchmarks confirm the numbers others have posted, (this *isn't* the fastest notebook) it still performs well enough it's tough to believe I am working on a tiny notebook! The upgrade to the 7200RPM was a good move. I recommend everyone opt for that upgrade if available
The build quality is very good. My one complaint is that the left mouse button does not click along its entire width. It clicks if you press the far left to middle, but if you press the far right, it doesn't click though it still works. I'll either get used to it or send it in within the next three years. The hinge is nice and tight and the plugs and connections are all solid. Nothing rattles yet after a week...
The screen is the best I have ever seen on a laptop. There are no dead pixels at all. The native resolution *is* small but workable. The other modes that stretch the screen are not really acceptable though you can turn off "compensation" in the BIOS. The drawback is that the selected resolution is still displayed in the native resolution of 1280x768 so text and icons are still tiny at 800x600. The compensation needs to be selectable so you can "fit height" instead of "fit width" which is the problem. In most programs though, you can set the font size or zoom so you can still read what you need to without squinting.
I have not installed every program I own, but most of them including RedShift 3, Photoshop 7, Virtual Drive, Office 2002, Quicken 2002, Norton Utilities, etc. all work as well as on my main office PC. Tt works fine. Any high powered tasks I can do on my main PC in my office. By the way, Virtual Drive by Farstone is the way to go. That software allows you to copy most CDs onto the hard drive so instead of carrying around the DVD/CD-RW you can install the extra battery yet still have the CD available. This works very well for travelling since you don't need the DVD/CD-RW or the CDs! I have not installed any games yet because I haven't installed a mouse yet. The touchpad is not a good gaming device so once I decide to lug around a mouse, maybe I'll test some games on it.
There are some who have mentioned problems with the screen being either matte or shiny. Mine has a matte finish so it's not ultra reflective. That's nice when you have lighting behind you. So I am not entirely certain what others' problems have been. This is one nice screen as far as I am concerned.
Also, most of the documentation I have seen claims one of the front jacks is an *optical* audio output and this is not correct. It may be *digital* but it's definitly not *optical*. I would have preferred some of the connections to have been on the back (where the battery is) instead of the sides or front but that's a preference rather than an issue. The wireless on/off button is pretty stiff but I guess that's good so it doesn't accidentally turn on in a case when not using the notebook. I also think they could have installed a trackpoint device as there really is room in the keyboard for it. Not because I would use it over the touchpad, but given that laptops and notebooks seem to have both these days, it would have been nice to include it.
The keyboard is not bad at all. I think it rivals the IBM keyboards. Yeah, the ,./ keys are too narrow and they could have easily fixed that by moving the up arrow to the right and making more room but it's just something to get used to. The documentation and reviews say it's a full sized keyboard but I think it is a bit on the smallest side of that definition. Overall width is about an inch less than my IBM Type M keyboard but that's on the large side of "full size" so the Fujitsu is comparable.
The sound is pretty weak from the speakers but considering it's one of the few if any notebooks that has STEREO, it's worth the compromise. Besides, the audio software has some good configurability and can be tweaked for the best sound. The video controls are a bit weak, but I am used to a full featured video card with lots of bells and whistles. On the P5020D, you are pretty limited to brightness control but I may be missing something so I'll have to look around a bit more.
The Wi-Fi is pretty powerful and seems to connect to my Linksys router better than any other device in my house so the antenna/power of the Fujitsu is pretty capable. It reports the full 54mbps connection rate even in the living room on the other side of the house.
The restore function works as claimed and I restored it to factory condition in only a few minutes. Now that I have installed my own software and removed some (I removed the installed version of Quicken and MS Works and substituted my own Quicken and Office XP) I need to back that up so I have to figure out the process. There's a 2G partition for this purpose but it's filled with the factory image. The laptop came with a DVD that functions as a restore disk and I assume it has the same image on it so perhaps I can remove the image on the hard drive and replace it with my current setup yet still revert to factory condition with the DVD. Anyone know for sure?
There was no formatting option that I know of and it shipped formatted in NTFS which would not have been my choice. I would have selected FAT32. Only way out of that is to buy Partition Magic or Partition Commander I guess. Otherwise the loaded configuration was not bloated with garbage or features I had to spend much time tweaking or removing.
So far, this has been an excellent purchase even if it was a bit pricey.
Kevin
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Nope, I haven't done that yet. But, when I do, I'll probably use Ghost. I'm holding off for now until I get everything loaded and running the way I prefer. Then, it'll be backing up. Of course, by then, 7200RPM drives should be under $100! (Fingers crossed.)[
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New P5020D - My Comments
Discussion in 'Fujitsu' started by kevinkar, Mar 4, 2004.
