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New Fujitsu Lifebook Is Smaller, Lighter, and Cheaper Than MacBook Air

by Tim Stevens on February 1, 2008 at 01:27 PM

Updated Fujitsu Tablet is Smaller, Lighter, and Cheaper than Air

By "Air" we mean MacBook Air, of course, and we're always a fan of a little Mac vs. PC competition here. The Fujitsu P1620 Lifebook has just been announced, an update to its earlier P1610 ultra-portable. The new Lifebook P1620 offers the same processor as its predecessor, a 1.2 gigaherz dual-core processor, two-gigabytes of memory, and 100-gigabytes of disk space. All in a package just a little over 9-inches wide, making it a reasonable alternative to Apple's latest.

It stacks up reasonably well against the Air, though it's at a disadvantage at the start compared to the Air's 1.6-gigaherz processor. The Lifebook's 2.2-pound-heft makes it almost one-third lighter than the Air and it's dimensions are smaller overall, though at 1.4-inches, it's nearly twice as thick as Apple's wunder-portable.

The screen is considerably smaller too, 8.9-inches vs. 13.3 on the Air, but the Lifebook's screen swivels around, turning the device into a tablet PC.

Then there's the battery, which is both user-replaceable (unlike the Air's) and comes in two flavors. The standard three-cell pack will deliver an estimated 3.5 hours of life while an optional six-cell pack ($45 extra) will give twice that, quite a bit more than the five hours promised by Apple for the Air. Finally the price: $1,599 to start, compared to $1,799 for the Air.

So, an Air alternative? Possibly -- but only if you don't have a preference of Apple vs. Microsoft. Clearly Mac fans will still choose the Air, but for PC fans who are on the go and looking for something similarly lithe and (arguably) more functional, the updated P1620 looks to be a good option.

From Engadget

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Tags: 1620, Fujitsu Lifebook, FujitsuLifebook, Laptop News, LaptopNews, MacBook Air, MacbookAir, New Products, NewProducts

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