Fujitsu U810. $999. Intel A110 800MHz (Santa Rosa) / 1GB DDR2 / 40GB Hard Drive / 5.6-in Touchscreen LCD / 802.11a/b/g wireless / Vista Home Premium. Ok, I saw this and just had to have one. It’s “the” geek toy of the moment. They are kinda hard to find in the retail channel right now, so when Frys got them in stock again I snapped one up. Who in the world uses these things ? Well people that need to get online on the road do.. heh. I use UMPC’s to monitor and administer servers on the road so they come in handy since they are small. But the Fujitsu U810 is not a UMPC or Fujitsu does not call it one anyway. It’s a ultra-mobile laptop 🙂 I have a UX280p which works well, but it would be nice to have a slightly larger keyboard at times, plus an honest 4 – 5 hour battery on the road. The U810 comes with the extended battery out of the box which sticks out the back of the unit and looks wierd, but it works, with a hibernation / standby here and there, you are basically good for a whole work day in the field of light use. The U810 is also a mini tablet PC. Like most of the UMPC’s on the market it uses a passive touchscreen that can also be used with your finger. The unit folds back like a tablet PC as well. The U810 is available in 2 flavors, Vista Home version and Vista Business (with win XP downgrade included). Mine came with Vista Home Premium installed and I know many are already complaining, some even say the A110 is just too slow for vista, but in actual use it’s NOT THAT BAD. Vista is a resource hog and the worst OS to be released in recent memory (my own memory.. haha) but despite this the U810 runs it fine. Just never shut it down.. haha. Hibernate instead. I installed Vista on my Sony UX180p and it ran it about the same speed as this U810 runs vista. Needless to say however, I’ll be installing Windows XP Tablet PC edition as soon as possible on the U810. It will make better use of the fixed 1 gig of ram in there. Fortunately, Fujitsu includes a vista AND windows XP recovery discs, but only in the “vista business” package version of the U810 (which retails for $100 more… the regular retail $999 version ONLY includes a Vista system restore disk but not the XP restore disc… BUT thank the lord the regular $999 retail version DOES include a simple one disc solution for installing drivers onto Windows XP Tablet edition (or regular windows XP). SO. If you have a retail copy of Windows XP Tablet edition laying around (which was hard to get to begin with) you are gold. Install it, then run the XP driver installer package from the included disc. Bottom line if you want the easy ability to go back to windows xp tablet edition, purchase the more expensive package with vista business and xp bundled in there. I already had XP tablet edition laying around so purchased the $999 vista home version of the U810 package. The size of the unit is nice, big enough to be a mini laptop, the keys are tiny but usable, some gripes include only one shift key, and many mapped fn keys but this is expected in such a small device. As you can see normally 2 hands can lay on a laptop, the U810 is small that only one hand really lays on there. The keyboard is still very usable. A cool feature are the LED lights that can be turned on / off if you need them in the dark. The unit also includes an SD and CF card slot, perfect for bloggers that use both the SD and pro DSLR size CF cards in the field. Wireless on / off switch and only one USB port. The USB port is a fully powered port, so external 250 gig USB drives, wireless EVDO modems and other things that require power, work. The buttons for screen rotation in tablet mode, mouse stick / led light and other buttons work nice… there is an included “shift” key that doubles all the functions of all those external buttons as well. Finger print reader software is a resource hog so I have it not installed. included web camera looks nice and works for skype and other chat software. The 40 gig hard drive looks like an easy upgrade if you want to in the future (using ultra small size and the right connector), the ram on the other hand is fixed at 1 gig. All in all I’m impressed with it. I did install photoshop / dreamweaver and it runs fine. Not as fast as a full blown laptop but if you need something small in the field the U810 is great, specially considering the price $999 (or slightly less on the street). Specs: # The all-new Fujitsu LifeBook U810 has a 5.6″ WSVGA Crystal View display and weighs only 1.56 lbs. It is one of the world’s smallest convertible TouchScreen notebooks. Perfect to allow you to work, IM, access e-mail, watch video, listen to MP3s, browse the Internet, take pictures, or stay connected with friends and family. Box Contents: LifeBook U810 Notebook PC, 4-Cell Lithium-Ion Battery, 40W AC Adapter, Software Bundle: Windows Vista Home Premium, Microsoft Works, Microsoft Office 2007 Student and Teacher Edition: 60-Day Trial, 1-Year International Limited Warranty # Intel A110 800MHz Processor # 512KB L2 Cache 400MHz Bus speed # 1024MB DDR2 400MHz RAM # 40GB 4200RPM 1.8-inch PATA Hard Drive # 5.6″WSVGA Crystal View Touch screen (1024 x 600) Display # Integrated 0.3MP (640 x 480) webcam # Intuitive touch or pen or using the built-in QWERTY Keyboard inputs # Integrated Intel Graphics with 3D Accelerator Video # 1 Type I/II CF Card slot, 1 SD Card Reader # Fingerprint reader # Built-in 802.11a/b/g Wireless, Bluetooth v2.0 # 1 USB 2.0, 1 Headphone out; 1 Microphone-in, 1 VGA and 1 RJ-45 via adapter connector # Unit Dimensions: 6.73″ (L) X 6″ (D) X 1.26″ (H) # Unit Weight: 1.56lbs