Fujitsu Siemens Amilo M3438 / M4438 Review (pics, specs)

by Cedric, Germany

Fujitsu Amilo M4438 / M3438 Review

note to readers, this laptop is a European only model!

Fujitsu Amilo M4438 (view larger image)

Fujitsu Amilo M4438 / M3438 Specs

• Centrino Machine
• Screen: 17" WUXGA/WXGA+ Crystal View
• Processor: Pentium M 1.6 to 2.13 GHz(review unit config is 1.86GHz)
• RAM: Up to 2GB DDR2 SO-DIMM (400/533 MHz)(Review unit config is 512MB at purchase, but upgraded to 1536MB (1GB + 512MB) after purchase)
• GPU: NVidia Geforce Go 6800 256 MB
• HDD: Up to 2 Serial-ATA HDDs (RAID 0/1 functionality)
• Network: 10/100 Ethernet
• WLAN: Intel PRO/Wireless 802.11b/g
• Modem: V.92 56K fax modem
• Optical Drive: DVD+-RW Dual Layer
• Media Drive: 4-in-1 card reader with SD/MS/MMC/MSPRO support
  Connection Ports: 4xUSB 2.0, 1xS/PDIF out, 1xFireWire 400, 1xDVI-I, 1xS-Video out
• Expansion Slot: ExpressCard
• Speakers: 2.1 (stereo + subwoofer)
• Additional Features: Instant-On function and built-in remote control
• Dimensions: 408 X 289 X 38.1 mm
• Weight: 4.1 kg (with 2 disks)
• Battery Life: 2.5 hours
• Fujitsu Siemens Product Website for Amilo M3438 / M4438: http://www.fujitsu-siemens.com/products/mobile/notebooks/amilo_m_3438_4438.html

Introduction

I was looking for a laptop I could use at home, at my girlfriend's place, and finally on my boat. As I needed it to be able to play games I wanted it to last a while before having to replace it,a desktop replacement style laptop with a fast processor (latest Pentium M with a 1.80GHz + processor speed) and good graphics card (NVidia 6800Go) seemed likethe logical choice.

The others that could have competed in my buying choice were the Dell Precision M70(a real beast, but the professional orientation and engineer target audience meant ahigher price) and the Dell Inspiron 9300.

Since I livein Europe, I couldn't get the awesome deals Americans can get on Dell Home, so the FujitsuAmilo 3438 was a cheaper buying choice, and it offered a bright screen in WXGA format (not available on the Inspiron 9300) and the possibility for a SATA RAID hard drive.

I bought the laptop online in a German shop, getting it for 1450 Eurosincluding the shipping, which was a pretty good deal considering the 1600 Euroto 1800 Europricesthey have just next door inFrance. The Fujitsu-Siemens warranty is 2-years and covers international repairs.

Impressions

This notebook's screen is a 1440 x 900 17" WXGA LCD with extra bright coating (likeSony's XBrite, etc). The colors are just great, very bright and the contrast offered is excellent.Thewere nodead pixels found on the screen,I'm crossing my fingers I don't find any as I didn't take the optional "Dead Pixels" warranty available from Fujitsu-Siemens for the extra price of29.90 Euros.

The speakers, which consists of two regular front speakers and onesubwoofer, are good enough without being anything spectacular. Basically I can say they're loud enough to watch a DVD with a small group of friends gathered in a room (well, except if they're the loud type of friends if you know what I mean!)

The 1.87 GHz Intel Pentium M Sonoma class processor is great and can handle the most demanding games (Doom 3, Battlefield 2, etc) with ease, and even HDTV clips in 1080p. I got the laptop configured with 512MB of RAM instead of 1GB. As we all know, it is cheaper to upgrade the RAM yourself than having the retailer or manufacturerdo it at the time of purchase. I plan to buy an additional 1GB.

The hard drive is a quite common 5400RPM 80GB one. I plan to buy one or two 7200RPM hard drives as this beast has a RAID controller! Having a RAID controller is a rather strange decision on a laptop though, you see that in servers usually. Following are the results from the HDtach program when run agains this 5400RPM hard drive

HDtach results (http://www.simplisoftware.com/Public/index.php?request=HdTach)

• Average read :18.2 ms
• Random access :28.7 mb/s
• Burst speed :83.5 mb/s

Now onto the real star of this laptop-- theNVidia6800Go graphics card, let's see some ofthe benchmark results in some demanding games (Demos done at 1024x768 resolution, no overclocking was used):

• FARCRY, high detail: 80 FPS
• DOOM 3, high details : 58 FPS
• 3DMARK05 : 3600 out of the box, 3800 with after doing acustom Windows XP install to clear out bloatware programs

These scores are in range for the graphic chipset and a bit better than on the Inspiron 9300, this is due to higher base frequencies on the 6800Go in the Amilo.

Below are the results I obtained running Super Pi to calculate Pi to 2 million digits of accuracy.

Notebook	Time to Calculate Pi to 2 Million Digits
Fujitsu Siemens M3438(1.86 GHz Pentium M)	1m 46s
Sony VAIO FS680 (1.86 GHz Pentium M)	1m 53s
IBM ThinkPad T43 (1.86 GHz Pentium M)	1m 45s
Fujitsu LifeBook N3510 (1.73 GHz Pentium M)	1m 48s
Dell Inspiron 6000D (1.6 GHz Pentium M)	1m 52s
Dell Inspiron 600M (1.6 GHzPentium M)	2m 10s
Sony VAIO S360(1.7 GHzPentium M)	1m 57s
Sony VAIO S170P(1.5 GHzPentium M)	2m 07s
Sony VAIO S380 (1.86 GHz Pentium M)	1m

Gaming Conclusion: ANY current top game will run flawlessly, and you have some time before the new ones will put the graphic chipset on it's knees

Design

For a 17" screen desktop replacement laptop, the M3438 is quite thin (view larger image)

The first thing you'll notice about this Fujitsu-Siemens laptop is that it isquite thin for a 17" screen sized laptop(see the pictures). The design is sober, all black and grey, with blueLEDs at the bottom of the screen and the nicely lit Power button.

Fujitsu Siemens M3438 Above view of keyboard (view larger image)

The usual black keyboard feels solid and is smooth and quiet. Unfortunately, there is no NumPad. There are just enough multimedia buttons to be useful and yet keep a sober looking design -- nothing over the top.

The touchpad works well and offers a button to enable or disable it, this is useful for peopleto be able to easily disable the touchpadwhen typing soyour palms or wrists don't end up brushing the touchpad and moving the cursor around unintentionally.

Fujitsu Siemens M3438 Right view, back view, front view, left view (view larger image)

There is a handy small wheel on the left side, which controls speakers volume. Finally, in that lower left corner, is the built-in microphone placed as far away from the keyboard and speakers as possible, to avoid noise.

Like several new generation laptops, the legacy ports have been left out, so you'll get no parallel orCOM ports. No PS/2 port either for that old mouse you might have sitting around. You do of course get USB ports, these portsare split on both sides (3 to the right, 1 to the left) to take care of your personal preferences for mouse position. Ethernet, phone and Firewire ports are present, and scattered around. The usual PCMCIA "cache" is instead a remote control with multimedia controls, so you can use the 17'' screen as a TV(a good thing!). Finally, there is a 4-in-1 card built-in card reader on the right side.

General Observations

The laptop can generate quitea bit ofheat during 3D games, which is to be expected, but it stays within reasonable bounds. It has never frozen up, crashed or any such thing due to excessive heat generated when playing demanding games. The laptop is relatively quiet, with only one fan.

A built-in Wireless G (54Mb) cardand infrared port are included. Sadly, Bluetooth is missing, but it might be included in the M4438 model (with a WUXGA screen), due out later this summer.

The battery lasts around 2 hours and 30 minutes while watching a DVD and with wireless enabled. That's really not too bad considering the screen size and power this machines wields.

I had no need for the customer support so far, and I hope it stays that way, so I can't say much about it ;-)

The included OS is a standard XP Home install. As I said, this laptop was purchased in Germany where I live and to be honest I didn't get to check the software packageout simply becauseI don't understand German, so I reinstalled everything and used my native language for the settings in Windows.

Conclusion

Apart from the lack of Bluetooth, I'm still looking for things that should be improved. This is a great desktop replacement 17" screen laptop, and if you want a Dell Inspiron 9300 equivalent, with a nicer design and for less money -- wellhere it is!

Pros

• Good Price for the features you get
• Great screen (glossy finish with bright colors and good contrast)
• Awesome graphics power!

Cons

• Lack of Bluetooth (very popular in Europe)
• SATA interface means a 7200 RPM HD will cost more
• I can't finda reason for having RAID on a laptop -- but in case you can it's there.

 

Will this model or some successor to the N6000 be coming to the US? We're still stuck with the weaker X600 and only the WXGA option.

 

I'm jealous

 

that's a sexy beast

 

Great review Administrator!!

I wish we had that notebook over here in the states! We need a competitor to the Dell i9300!

Ah well, great job

 

The laptop looks good and it probably has the right price. Bring to the U.S and Canada

 

Bad news is, Fujitsu-Siemens just doesn't produce notebooks for the American market and Fujitsu of Japan (sorry, I don't totally understand the Fujitsu relationship with Siemens and why Fujitsu is solitary in Asia and North America but not Europe) does not market the Amilo line anywhere else outside of Europe. The Fujitsh N6000 series is the only 17" screen notebook you'll see with Fujitsu on over here.

 

Bummer that we can't get it in the states!
Fujitsu+NVidia=Linux heaven!!

 

This Amilo looks very nice indeed but don't be upset its not in the US .

The Amilo line doesn't compare to a Fujitsu and infact many are a mish mash of ODMs and sometimes crappy laptops , just look at the horror stories in European notebooks forums about some of the latest models .

That said I still think the reviewed model is a very nice and have some advantages compared to the 9300 which is the logic rival .

It looks much more elegant , a reason for its own .

Probably have better screen , my 9300 already got a dead pixel on ( off ) .

The 2 HD option - I don't see why the raid is seen as con , at any case you can fit 2 HD and enjoy twice the space .

Also the 3D benchmarks are superb for a 6800 , I wonder what is the factory frequency and how loud/hot is it ? 3600 out of the box is great .

Enjoy your new notebook .

 

I'm a happy owner and can tell, this baby's great! The best computer I've owned so far

 

I am hesitating to buy one, how noisy is it comparing another laptops, and how disturbing the short battery life?

Wiseeye

 

Apparently, M3438G barebones can be bought in North America:

http://www.rjtech.com/rp71n.htm

 

Hi, I just bought this notebook here in Madrid, Spain.

So far so good.

Although twice it had problems booting. I just restarted the machine and everything was back to normal.

But great great great. Just what I wanted. I really enjoy using the remote control for playing movies

Salu2 a to2,
S.

 

I am about to buy this model.All I want to know from Administrator is if it is possible to upgrade the memory and the cpu without voiding the warranty.Also want to know how fast is doing works in photoshop and dvd compressing...

 

True, but I see no way of getting the WUXGA version WXGA is too low a resolution for a 17" screen.

 

I hope Fujitsu will include a top of the line GPU in their next N series machine, i don't mind having an X600 but the N6000 would be such a good gaming machine.

 

i looked at your pictures and was wondering why they show a QUERTY keyboard if you bought it in germany.

since looking at it i noticed too that the FN key is where the CTRL should be and the <> keys are in an odd place too, do you know if that is specific to the american kb or also on the german one?

otherwise i like my i9300 which has a good keyboard layout which is very important to me as a progger and who doesnt like to use the mouse if possible.