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Fujitsu-Siemens Lifebook E8010

Intel's 'Dothan' hits the UK

Review With the recent launch of Intel's new 'Dothan' Pentium M processor, every laptop manufacturer is rushing out new models and the Lifebook E8010 is Fujitsu-Siemens' attempt to show off the new CPU. We managed to secure the first pre-production sample in the UK, writes Lars-Gîran Nilsson.

Apart from the 1.8GHz Pentium M 745 processor and the Intel 855GME chipset, Fujitsu-Siemens has equipped the Lifebook E8010 with an Intel wireless network card to make it a full Centrino-branded machine. The wireless network card can access both 802.11b and 802.11g networks, making it a flexible feature that can be used pretty much anywhere in the world. As more wireless networks switch to the higher bandwidth 802.11g standard, it's important for any new notebook to support it.

There's also Bluetooth 1.2 support, the latest revision of the wireless standard. In order to configure Bluetooth you get a handy, easy-to-use application for connecting various devices. The only company I've come across that offers something similar is Sony. In general, most other Bluetooth utilities are very basic, so it can be awkward to get them work as they should. However, I had no problem connecting up to two different mobile phones as well as a Bluetooth-enabled printer to the Lifebook.

Fujitsu-Siemens Lifebook E8010

The Lifebook comes with a DVD writer that can burn at 4x speed to both +/-R media. It can also write at 2.4x speed and 2x speed to DVD+RW and DVD-RW media respectively, making this one of the faster laptop DVD writers. The drive will also write CD-R discs at 16x speed and CD-RW media at 10x speed. Finally, this drive will also read DVD-RAM media, which could come in handy if you use DVD-RAM discs in your desktop system.

The 15in TFT display offers a 1400 x 1050 resolution backed by ATI's Mobility Radeon 9700 graphics chip with 64MB of memory. This gives an overall boost to 3D graphics performance which is very noticeable when playing games and running 3D applications. The MR 9700 is currently the best mobile graphics chipset available, which helps to show that Fujitsu-Siemens has pulled out all the stops to create a top of the range laptop.

To add to the mobile power-station feel, a whopping 1GB of PC2700 DDR memory has been fitted. But what makes the memory configuration really special is that it comes in a single 1GB module, leaving a free memory slot for future upgrades. This does, however, add to the price of the Lifebook E8010 as a single 1GB SODIMM is far more expensive than two 512MB modules.

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