First Thoughts Review - Fujitsu N3510

N3510 open and ready for work

There was a collective sigh of relief when Fujitsu finally announced the N3510, a 15.4" widescreen with Sonoma and an enhanced CrystalView display. It's one of the first out of the Sonoma gate to even include DDR RAM, several hard drive options and...get this...respectable battery life. The only thing that hampers this notebook in the least is the video card. Don't get me wrong, the 64MB dedicated X300 isn't terrible, but with a 128MB X600, this machine would absolutely hum.

N3510 Closed

N3510 Left

N3510 Right

N3510 Back

First things first. The N3510 is nice to look at. The case is mostly black with a few Fujitsu logos on the magnesium alloy lid. Around the back of the unit are the phone and Ethernet jacks, fan exhaust, monitor and full size S-video out, three USB ports that are widely spaced and the AC input plug. Down the left side are firewire, microphone, speaker and a fourth USB port along with the Secure Digital/Memory Stick reader and the PCMCIA slot. I thought the N3510 was supposed to include support for Express Cards, and I see a plastic cover for where that could have happened, but it didn't for whatever reason. The right side of the unit houses the CDRW/DVD drive.

N3510 keyboard and interior

Display in the dark

Notice how much brighter and more white the N3510 is compared to the P7010

The best part comes when opening the N3510. The display is absolutely phenomenal. It's even throughout, with bright vibrant colors on even the middle settings. The display offers 8 brightness settings, at 6 you're happy; at 8 you know why you bought Fujitsu. I ran a dead pixel test and found none, which is always a great start. The inside of the unit is silver, with the purple-ish translucent keyboard. The keyboard is very good, with great feedback, little flex and reasonably sized and placed keys. It makes me wish my P7000 which I use day-to-day was a little larger. Other goodies on the inside of the machine include a WiFi on/off switch, power button, LCD panel showing battery status, etc., volume up/down button and a set of four buttons that are used for multimedia in one mode or programmable hot buttons in the other. I found the touchpad to be responsive, but would appreciate a little larger click buttons. Flanked by the left and right buttons is an up/down toggle that is useful for web browsing and the like.

I had to beg the N3510 to not eat my tiny P7010

Beyond nice styling, Fujitsu is respectful of the user; they don't load up their machines with a bunch of garbage software. The first boot is easy and aside from a few trials of things like Quicken, there's not much too immediately remove.

We'll be back in a few weeks with a full review. But let me leave you with a few benchmarks.

Super-Pi 2mm Calculations
1 minute 48 seconds

PCMark04 Free Version
Multithreaded Test 1 / File Compression 3.24 MB/s
Multithreaded Test 1 / File Encryption 25.58 MB/s
Multithreaded Test 2 / File Decompression 22.72 MB/s
Multithreaded Test 2 / Image Processing 10.03 MPixels/s
Multithreaded Test 3 / Virus Scanning 1752.97 MB/s
Multithreaded Test 3 / Grammar Check 2.8 KB/s
File Decryption 51.45 MB/s
Audio Conversion 2346.96 KB/s
Web Page Rendering 5.25 Pages/s
WMV Video Compression Test failed (test had trouble with WMP 10)
DivX Video Compression 46.08 FPS
Physics Calculation and 3D 168.02 FPS
Graphics Memory - 64 Lines 1486.18 FPS

3DMark05 Free Edition
Main Test Results
3DMark Score 721 3DMarks
PU Score 3242 CPUMarks

Detailed Test Results
Game Tests
GT1 - Return To Proxycon 3.7 fps
GT2 - Firefly Forest 1.8 fps
GT3 - Canyon Flight 3.5 fps
CPU Tests
CPU Test 1 1.6 fps
CPU Test 2 2.9 fps

Battery Eater Pro v2.5
All tests were run at a screen brightness of 5/8 with wireless on but not active. The time, in minutes, reflects how long it will take for the machine to shut off with 4% battery remaining.

Idle test -- 172 minutes
Classic test (minimum battery life) -- 89 minutes
Charge time (from 4% to 100%) -- 173 minutes

Pricing and Availability

 

Brian, great preview.
You have a typo in the battery life section that should be fixed [ ]

2 questions:
1- So there is nothing inside the other expansion card slot? Is this how it's shipping or is it just the demo unit that you got? Cause express card is listed as available on this model at fujitsu's tech specs.
2- You said their is an LCD panel showing battery status. Is this like the ones on the S6000? Is it backlit?

That display looks awesome! The P7010's bright display looks dim next to it! It seems that fujitsu really delivered an improved CV.

 

Sweet!

I'm considering getting this notebook, and I'll be patiently waiting for your full review!!

Thanks!

 

Brian, according to P1, their N3510 ships with the express-card slot.


"The tree of Liberty needs to be watered from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants." -
Thomas Jefferson
3rd president of US (1743 - 1826)

 

All I can say is that I have a retail unit and I see where the slot should be, but it's not there...unless I missed something, which is possible. But you can tell from the pictures what I was looking at. I've sent it off to lewdvig who will perform the full, and more detailed, review. The LCD panel is a misnomer, it's more a row of status lights, sorry for the confusion there. One knock I didn't list, is that you can't see any lights when it's closed, so it's hard to tell when it's charged, etc.

Brian

www.BargainPDA.com | www.DigitalCameraReview.com | www.NotebookReview.com | www.SpotStop.com | www.TabletPCReviewSpot.com

 

PC Mag ran a positive but not glowing review of the N3510. The one part that really bugged me was how the reviewer stated that the N3510's screen was nowhere near as bright as the Toshiba Qosmio screen. That is utter BS as far as I know. Based on many visits to stores, I found the Toshiba's screen to be the least bright of the choices, right down there with HP's BrightView screens. Any comments on this?

--------------------
Laptop Requirements
- Sonoma
- ATI Mobility Radeon X700
- Thin & Light form factor
- 15.4" (bright/enhanced) screen, at least SXGA+
- Nice style

 

I really wish there was a good way to measure brightness. At the highest level the N3510 is extremely bright and clear. I hold the Qosimo in pretty high regard in this area too though, but we're talking about a machine that costs nearly $3000, so it better do well. I love it though when reviewers like the one you mention, compare notebooks that aren't in the same class. Anyway, I don't think I've seen a better display than this. I thought the P7000 was very good, the N3510 is better.

Brian

www.BargainPDA.com | www.DigitalCameraReview.com | www.NotebookReview.com | www.SpotStop.com | www.TabletPCReviewSpot.com

 

the express card slot is above the pc card slot. it supports both 32mm and 54mm express cards.

 

its actually 34mm and 54mm. Too bad theres no infrared and bluetooth.

 

Well look there, I totally missed it and of course didn't have time to check the manual. Thanks for setting the record straight.

Brian

www.BargainPDA.com | www.DigitalCameraReview.com | www.NotebookReview.com | www.SpotStop.com | www.TabletPCReviewSpot.com

 

Brian, i think the plastic cover you were referring to is meant to be the outputs for the optional tv tuner.

Does anyone know the availability of this notebook in Asia? How does it notebook compare to the Acer Travelmate 8100?

Thanks.

 

You are right.

As for the TM 8100, it will beat the Fujitsu in every benchmark I'm sure, perhaps except battery. The display is much better in the Fujitsu though and it starts at a lower price point.

Brian

www.BargainPDA.com | www.DigitalCameraReview.com | www.NotebookReview.com | www.SpotStop.com | www.TabletPCReviewSpot.com

 

Thanks for the quick look.
I have a really quick question. How is the weight of this bad boy. I read it is about 7.5 lbs. How is it carrying it around? Do you think it is proportionally heavy? Is that a problem at all? Anything else you may want to add about the weight. Thanks.

SuperG

 

I'm not going to lie, it's heavy. But, the power brick isn't bad. Keep in mind my daily notebook is a P7000 though, so this is over twice the weight. It is lighter than my old Inspiron 8200 though, which was a beast. I wouldn't want to carry this around very long on a daily basis, though a nice backpack will hel distribute the weight.

Brian

www.BargainPDA.com | www.DigitalCameraReview.com | www.NotebookReview.com | www.SpotStop.com | www.TabletPCReviewSpot.com

 

On the Fujitsu forum, someone reported that this 3510 model gets very hot. It also had a problem with dead pixels so maybe it was a bum model.
Brian, did you notice a heat problem as well with the 3510?

 

I did not, even running PCMark04 and 3DMark05.

Brian

www.BargainPDA.com | www.DigitalCameraReview.com | www.NotebookReview.com | www.SpotStop.com | www.TabletPCReviewSpot.com

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by Brian
The only thing that hampers this notebook in the least is the video card. Don't get me wrong, the 64MB dedicated X300 isn't terrible, but with a 128MB X600, this machine would absolutely hum.

3DMark Score 721 3DMarks
PU Score 3242 CPUMarks [/p]
<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'></font id='quote'></blockquote id='quote'>

Hmm... well, 721... that's roughly 20% better performance than a mobility 9700 w/ 64mb of ram. [] I'd say that's not bad at all!

nice machine overall thou.

cheers,

yass

 

how do you think the n3510 will fare for college? i am thinking about sony vaio s360 or the fujitsu.. i dont know which i want. Also, is it possible to upgrade the video card on the n3510?