Fujitsu Stylistic Q550 (Atom Z670 1.5 GHz - 10.1" TFT)

After the first poster's highly negative review, I felt the need to add this review of my own, for the record. Particularly because my experience has been 100% the opposite of his.

Actually I'm grateful to turipz for providing such a highly detailed review. You can't fault him for stating his reasons, and that's better than when someone just gives a single star (or less) without elaborating.

This is about the third week I've had my Q550, and I absolutely love it. And No, I do not work for Fujitsu! I have loved Tablet PCs (and PDAs) for more than 15 years. Since the original Newton first was announced. In my house I currently have at least five tablet PCs. I even had the original iPad for a while, but after several months of disappointment with it, I finally just gave it away.

Speaking about the iPad for a minute, it's really a beautiful device, great for web-surfing, for reading e-books and for playing games. But it was really good for little else. Granted, there are now a slew of Apps that are geared towards productivity, and for getting stuff done, but truly the iPad is more of an entertainment device, rather than a productivity tool.

I've got another great Tablet PC, a 'convertible' Tablet from HP, which is absolutely fantastic. The only problem is that it's a little heavy, tends to get a little Hot, and it also has a fan which becomes a bit of a nuisance. Actually, the heat, fan and weight really aren't that bad, and I've used it regularly when I take classes. But the genius of the iPad was that it's size, weight and usability made it something you always Wanted to use.

Enter the Q550. The form factor is almost identical to the iPad. But it's a fully functional PC, and they've paid close attention to its inking ability. BTW, I also tried to use the iPad for drawing, but unless you're already a professional artist, it soon becomes awkward because (when using a pen/stylus on the iPad) you need to make sure that your Palm never touches the screen, otherwise it will create random Vector-lines.
No such problem with the Q550. It has an Active Digitizer which automatically senses whether you're using Pen or Touch. Which makes it great for note-taking, as well as drawing.

But addressing turipz' concerns: my Q550 was also shipped alone, without any of the accessories. But my response to that was, Thank God they sent it on its own. Because if the accessories aren't ready or available as yet, Please Don't hold up my Tablet just on account of the accessories.
At least this allows me to play with it, and get used to the device while I'm waiting for the accessories.

Turipz mentions that he hasn't received the screen protector and so if he was unable to use the Tablet.
Ok, at first I was a little hesitant or cautious about using the stylus over the bare creen. But I've since been using it for pressure-sensitive drawing, and also note taking, and I'll generally press quite firmly, especially while I'm testing out a drawing program's pressure-sensitivity.
It's still pristine and unscratched, and I Never even give it a second thought anymore. So unless someone is planning to press Furiously against the screen with the pen, this is really a non-issue.
And besides, if it's so important you can pick up a cheap screen protector for maybe $10 or $15 until the OEM version arrives.

Turipz also mentions that he didn't receive the carrying case for the computer, and writes: "what are you supposed to do with the slate if you had it for 10 days but no carrying case?"
Are you kidding me??!!

I'm not even going to dignify that with an answer!

But I will point out that when I originally ordered my iPad from Apple, it also arrived without several of the accessories. Big deal!
My Q550 carrying case is also currently on backorder.

Somehow, I think I'll survive...

He talks about the stylus/pen and how it's kind of a pain to carry it around. I'll agree with him there. It IS kind of a nuisance, because I would always worry about losing the pen. So whenever my carrying case eventually arrives, it will be nice to have a little spot to store the pen. But until then, I've just used the tether cord to attach the pen to the device. End of story. It's NOT a big deal!
Yes, it may seem a little dorky having the pen attached via a tether cord. But if I'm carrying the Tablet to business meetings I simply hold the Tablet in one hand with the pen behind it.
Honestly. What is the big deal? No one even notices. And the Pen is never at a risk of getting lost.

He was also upset about the fact that he hadn't known a free tether cord was included, and so he had purchased a deluxe one. ???!!

So what? Return it! This is Ridiculous!!

For example, one of the accessories I had ordered was a protective sleeve. But when it finally arrived I decided I didn't like it, and so I called up Fujitsu and got an RA number. Again, No big deal.

It seems like Turipz has had an unfortunate purchasing experience, and so that has colored most of his opinion of the Q550. In fact, I also purchased an HP Slate 500 several months ago. And let me tell you, THAT was one of the most horrible purchasing experiences I've ever had. By comparison Fujitsu has been a breeze. Sure, I wish all the accessories were in stock. But you know what? At least I've got this wonderful Tablet to play with in the meantime. (More on that later).

btw, the reason the Slate 500 experience was so bad was because they apparently had only made a few thousand of them in the initial batch, and so they kept giving us ship dates which were always bogus. It was frustrating, but eventually I got it.

He mentions that the Q550 doesn't support auto-rotation. Oh please! Give me a break!
It absolutely does. He mentions that it was supposedly "Factory Disabled." Well, my auto-rotation was perfectly enabled from the moment I turned on the Tablet. And even if it wasn't, it's really Not That Hard to figure out how to enable or disable it. In fact, I've personally disabled my auto-rotation because I prefer to keep mine in landscape mode.

I can't imagine someone calling Tech Support for that.
If you click on the Windows button, where you select your programs, you will see a folder called Auto Rotation Utility. That's It! Problem Solved!!
There is also a PDF manual right there on the device itself. (Like with nearly EVERY computer)
If you just open that PDF and search for the word "Rotation" you'll find it.
To complain about that is Absolutely Ridiculous! It's a Computer --- Not a Toy. There WILL be some things you have to figure out.

He Mentions: "Windows7 turns out to be a lousy platform for stylus / touch interaction."
Okay, I might slightly (only slightly) agree there. But this might just be a matter of personal taste.
Yes, it's Windows, so you won't have big, giant buttons all over the screen, which are perfectly finger sized (like on Android or IOS).
But from my experience, the Q550 and Windows 7 works Excellently for Stylus interaction. And I've found it to be merely OK (or acceptable) for Touch interaction. (Tip: just run the Touch Calibration utility once and you'll be fine).
But he apparently liked the stylus interaction of his T4215. The Q550 stylus experience is more or less the same, so it's not clear why he even mentions the issue.

And for the suggestion that you can't run Windows on a Tablet like this because it's too slow: I can run Netflix, MS OneNote, a drawing program, and a browser with multiple tabs just fine on the Q550, all at once with fine performance. It performs as well as any Netbook -- meaning that while it will never replace your Desktop system, it provides perfectly respectable performance for a Traveling portable office.

I've been following Tablet PC development for a long time, and the Q550 with its Atom Z670 processor has come closer to the mark than anything before it: IMHO, It has combined the portability and usability of the iPad, with the functionality and usefulness of Windows.
And I think it is well worth defending against an unfair, unreasonable, and uninformed review! I'll defend it because I want to see Fujitsu continue moving forward, and even improving upon this current success.

The only thing I see comparable to the Q550 is the (nearly identical specs) CL900 from Motion Computing. It's another really sweet Tablet, but it's slightly heavier than the Q550, and weight was one factor in my decision making.

(However, the CL900 Does include a handy storage bay for the pen --- perhaps that might keep some users happy).

Ok it is really so slow it is unusable. Can't even play flash video. When you wake it up out of hibernate it takes 10 minutes sometimes to become responsive and about 50% of the time you have to reboot. It is so slow that typing with the on-screen keyboard is impossible due to the lag. I can't believe it was released, such an embarrassing piece of junk to Fujitsu, my first and last of their products.