Fujitsu Lifebook UH900 hands-on: Pocketbook laptop

LAS VEGAS--How small is too small? For those with an ultraportable obsession, consider this year's pocket-computer of note, the Fujitsu Lifebook UH900 Multi-Touch handheld PC. While there more than a few passing similarities to Sony's Vaio P series of ultra-small laptops announced just one year ago, Fujitsu's adds one or two additional tweaks to the formula. The UH900's 5.6 inch screen has resistive multitouch touch that is more responsive than other pressure-based screens we've tried. While a 5.6-inch display turns productivity into a bit of a joke, at least text and images are more readable than we expected.

Weighing 1.1 pounds and coated in a very Vegas-friendly champagne-color veneer (which is the only color it comes in), the Atom Z530-running UH900 isn't the most powerful portable on the planet. On the other hand, it does have Windows 7 Home Premium, and built-in Garmin Mobile GPS.

In a hands-on session with the subnotebook, the UH900's trim size is slightly marred by its thickness proportionally--but that computer's got to fit in there somewhere. The extremely tiny keyboard was reminiscent of the Viliv S7 we played with earlier this year--it certainly could be used for typing in a pinch, but it would be a poor choice for a first novel. There's also no trackpad--instead, a rubberized square trackpoint in the upper right corner handles navigation skittishly, while dual mouse buttons hide in the upper left corner.

In the single configuration offered, the UH900 will have 2GB of RAM and a 64GB SSD drive. There are a few external ports on the Lifebook UH900 such as an SD card slot and USB, but there is a custom dongle port for connecting VGA-out.

One big punctuation mark to all of this: the UH900 will sell for $999. That's a lot of money for a subnetbook, but to each their own. The UH900 will be available starting in February.