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General discussion

Fujitsu S6231 price

Jan 15, 2005 11:39AM PST

I'm looking at the Fujitsu S6231 Lifebook (as well as the Dell 600m and 700m) for medical school. The price is a bit steeper on the former, though overall I seem to like it better. Any thoughts on whether the price will drop, or on a preference between the three? I need at least a 1.5GHz processor, and as big a hard drive as I can get.

Discussion is locked

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Fujitsu, etc
Jan 15, 2005 2:08PM PST

If you are in the western US Fry's Electronics has Fujitsu models at retail you can try out. There not available at many other places retail at all.

Fujitsus are made in Japan so they do seem to have good quality but they are a smaller volume seller in the US so they are not rated with the major companies for service/reliability so you can really only go by Cnet posts or other forums rather than relying on Consumer Reports/PC magazine surveys for the larger company performance.

Also, any Fujitsu notebook under $2,000 has only shared/integrated video memory and you can get dedicated video memory on other brands for under $1500.

If you don't understand the difference between shared and dedicated video memory you had better research this issue as you cannot add dedicated video later to a notebook like you can on a desktop. You are sunk with what you invest in on a notebook for now up front.

Fujitsu does have models over $2000 that have dedicated video if you are willing to pay that much...

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Comparison
Jan 16, 2005 12:24AM PST

Unfortunately I'm on the East Coast, so I'll have to take a leap if I go with a Fujitsu. I'm going to check out some of the Dells in a few days, though.

As far as the memory goes, shared is fine by me. The most radical thing I'd be doing with it would be playing DVD's or short animations, and that should be fine with the shared, so it's not a concern.

I'm more interested in the overall feel of the machine; I want something nice and sturdy and with a good battery life. I saw somewhere that the 8-cell on the 6 and 700m's stick out the back; is this true? I also like a firmer keyboard and a good touchpad. The rocker on the Fujitsu looks really nice for scrolling. The screen isn't a big issue.

I guess my question is do you think that the price of the Fujitsu is likely to come down any before summer? And if not, do the extras on the Fujitsu make it worth the extra couple of hundred dollars?

Thanks.

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Wait for Sonoma Centrino standard upgrade (Pentium M)
Jan 18, 2005 2:58AM PST

Fujitsu is a smaller tier player in the US and it is sold at very few retail outlets. It is similar to Acer in that they mostly only sell over the internet but they are not the powerhouse Dell is (internet sales only) in the US.

So, you are paying a bit more for a Fujitsu for what you get. These notebooks are supposedly mostly made in Japan which is a plus but for the price of many Shared memory Fujitsus you can get a HP/Compaq or Dell with dedicated video (but you normally have to go at least 5.5 pounds to get it -- Dell 700M is under 5 pounds).

Fujitsu has the Crystal View LCD with the high contrast screen treatment but Sony has Xbrite, Toshiba has Trubrite, and HP/Compaq has Xbrite so that is not a significant selling issue on the Fujitsu either.

The most important thing you can do is wait for the new Sonoma Pentium M Notebooks to arrive very soon and you will get increased performance no mattery what brand you choose