S7010 Review

I have had my S7010 for about a week and I wanted to give my opinion on it. When I was looking for a new laptop, I was keen on Centrino technology, lightweight, smallish screen and good build. I do not play games so all the high end graphics were not an issue for me. I initially looked at the HP range and they just didn't do it for me. They were not _sexy_ and seemd to be limited in terms of features for price. I simply didn't like their feel. I looked at the sony 505 series and it had a lot of appeal. The model I saw did not come with built in bluetooth (which I wanted) and sony is very expensive compared with the other brands. I looked at dell and there were some really nice models but also out of my price range. (By the way, I live in South Africa where the relative pricing may be different from other countries).

I saw a review for the lifebook series somewhere on the internet and my interest was piqued. I researched further and further and the s7010 became very appealing. It was somewhat disconcerting considering buying a laptop that I had never seen but I held my breath and went for it.

I ordered a s7010 1.7 Dothan with 60 gig HDD, 512 RAM and CD-RW/DVD.
I don't need a dvd writer and I wanted the Dothan processor (maybe just so that I could feel that I had the latest and greatest).

The laptop arrived from siemens about 5 weeks after I had ordered it and i went to pick it up from the reseller with lots of excitement.

Here is my two cents.

The s7010 is a fantastic machine. The screen is large and bright - especially when plugged in with the brightness setting on max. I payed attention to the complaints about it only having XGA but it wasn't a big issue for me. I am happy with the screen and its resolution but acknowledge that if you are doing lots of photoshopping etc then the resolution may be less than what you are used to on your desktop. The machine is very very quiet. Compared with the last clunker I had, it is a dream come true. I use my wireless internet connection in bed whilst my wife is sound asleep and the machine doesn't make a sound. The keyboard feels firm and responsive although the layout of the keys is slightly different from what I am used to - will take a bid of adjusting to. The machine does seem to get a bit warm but it causes no discomfort for me and more importantly, my fan doesn't fire up much at all so the warmth can't be too bad.

The battery life is superb and whilst I haven't timed it yet, I am pretty sure I could get around 3 hours out of it. Perfect for my needs.

My bread and butter work on my notebook is outlook/word/acrobat/coreldraw/photoshop and all seem to be carried well by the machine. The startup time is great as well.

All in all I am happy with the s7010. I feel that I could have coped quite easily with the 13.3" screen but I am not unhappy with the 14".
The build is solid and it doesn't feel plasticky.

I can unreservedly recommend this notebook and have no regrets. Loving every minute with it.

Hope this helps some prospective buyers out there.

Take care
Dean

 

Have you ran the SuperPI benchmark test:

http://www.notebookreview.com/forums/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=2657&SearchTerms=let's,measure

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Fujitsu S6210: 1.6Ghz PM ~ 768MB RAM ~ 60GB 7200RPM Hard Drive
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hey Dean, this is great! thanks for sharing your thoughts on the Fujitsu S7010, glad it has worked out for you so well. Fujitsu is a great brand, most owners end up being happy with their purchase such as yourself. They always look great too, very nice and clean finish.

 

will run the benchmark over the weekend... results monday

 

2M calculation of pi

2min9sec on battery and AC

s7010, 1.7 Dothan, 60Gig HDD, 512 RAM