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If you're becoming overwhelmed with the surge of hardware add-ons and upgrades for your desktop, or you're falling behind and need to just replace the machine, or you're tumbling in circles between your desktop and your notebook, then it's time for you to take a hard look at a good answer—an alternative to all the scrambling and juggling. That's right, it's called a Desktop Alternative—a unit with the power, reliability and security of a desktop and the personal portability and flexibility of a notebook.
Fujitsu, one of leading technology creators and manufacturers in the world, has an answer for you. It's fittingly called the Lifebook®. The machines in this series are well designed, carefully structured, and reasonably priced. With Fujitsu you get the telling of the age-old adage: you get what you pay for. It's an investment that's expandable and will last.
Fujitsu's machines compare with (or are better than) Sony or Toshiba or any other top manufacturer. The V1040 is a prime example of Fujitsu's focus on manufacturing prowess. And that's the key—hardware durability, quality control, and reliability. Along with the answers it provides as a desktop alternative, with the V1040, the hardware is "the message." Top quality parts and components, carefully crafted.
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This unit quietly sits on your desk with its own ultra-bright, ultra-clear 15.6" screen and is easily connected to an external screen for large monitor viewing. It weighs a little over six pounds which means you can take your "desktop" with you, downstairs or overseas. And even at 15.6" it fits neatly in an airline-allowed shoulder bag (tried and tested with a couple of our editors' travel gear). I won't recount all of its features and specs here. It offers everything that the leading-edge machines make available today. Just pop over to solutions.us.fujitsu.com and take a look. Be assured our testing shows that what they say you see, you will get. This machine is highly configurable with many feature options that you can access if you purchase directly from Fujitsu. (We found their pricing to be as good as or better than most resellers on the net. That's a surprise, isn't it?)
But we do want to point out a few features that we found top-flight: It's a fast machine that utilizes the Intel dual-core chip. It can employ up to 4gb of RAM memory. It has a great screen. It has the outstanding Atheros XSPAN® wireless technology. There's a spill-resistant keyboard, the latest Bluetooth, and there's even a dust filter to help keep its vents clean.
We also found that Fujitsu's tech support was quite good, which is far from common in today's world of "screen-readers" who pass for support technicians
The unit comes loaded with software and Windows Vista but Fujitsu wisely includes a set of XP Pro disks for those of us who still 'dread' Vista. And, there's a free upgrade to Windows 7 on any machine purchased before January 31, 2010
Add a full range of accessories including port replicators and docking stations and you have your answer to "what should I do now?"
Stay tuned for future reviews of Fujitsu computer products—they offer quite an array as you will see at their web site. As we said, it's the hardware, it's the hardware, it's the hardware!
—Jonathan Kantor
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