Critique this laptop grad present for me

[Bill in SD, CA]

Please critique this laptop for me.

This is the laptop I got for my son's graduation from High School present for college. I've got 15 days to return if necessary.

Fujitsu LifeBook N3010, 512MB, 2.66GHz, 60GB, combo drive, wireless LAN

• Intel® Pentium® 4 Processor 2.66GHz
• 15" MVA SXGA+ TFT display
• 512MB DDR266 SDRAM memory (256MB x 2)
• 60GB hard drive¹
• Modular DVD-RW/CD-RW combo drive
• Built-in floppy disk drive
• Built-in wireless LAN (802.11b/54g), multinational² 56K³ V.90 modem and 10/100 Base-Tx Ethernet
• Four USB 2.0, IEEE 1394, S-video
• Windows® XP Home
• One-year International Limited Warranty

$1800.00

System Specs

Thanks,
Bill

[RobRich]

Looks decent enough to me, as it offers every major connectivity options, plus should deliver great performance for most college projects. Only specs I do not see listed is the chipset and graphics accelerator. Probably integrated graphics, but should be more than acceptable for 2D and light CAD work.

XP Home is not a personal favorite (Win2k here), but it should do fine for a college notebook.

Certianly trashes my Compaq P3 notebook, and I use it for everday professional work.

[thegladiatorgy]

Impressive especially with the DVD-RW option. Could upgrade to Win XP Pro though.

[VHockey86]

I think its quite impressive for the cost. How big is it? Sometimes those 8lb juggernauts aren't the most convenient thing to tote around to classes.

[RayH]

It seems to be a great laptop, especially for the no space dorm rooms. Get him one of these: http://www.hauppauge.com/html/usb_data.htm Then he won't have to lug a tv or radio to college either!

As a computer, it's more than sufficient. If he needs anything more powerful (such as being an engineering student), he'll probably use the engineering lab computers. In his junior-senior year, he'll need a main frame or some such! But the school will provide that!

[Deltron]

Wow, I wish I had someone buy one of those for me when I graduated a year ago, he is a lucky kid .

[ILC]

Bill, does he want to take it to class with him daily? If so, put serious consideration into the size and weight. When I bought my laptop, I thought it would be cool to get the most powerful one I could afford and not worry about the size/weight…BIG mistake. Although my laptop is wonderful and I love it, it is a lead weight and I truly wish I would have gotten something less powerful and much more mobile.

ILC

[davidamarkley]

Wow... That will be a nice present for your son! I'm sure he'll love it.

Only thing I had to say was be sure to get a Pentium 4-M processor. It will be better for both battery life and heat issues, and the laptop will be lighter because there won't need to be as big of a heatsink for it. I'm not sure whether this laptop has the P-4M or not, but on their website it says:

"¹ The CPU speed goes to half speed in battery mode to optimize battery life."

So I'm assuming that it is the mobile version of the P4. But I could be wrong.

Other than that, it looks like a pretty sweet laptop!

David

[The Terk]

Pretty sweet, wish my parents could fork over the money to get me anything for college.

[rebirth]

omg expensive, oh no, wait... thats dollars.

<--- Deleted

anyways it looks good, im jealous.


Regardless that you are using that word to describe yourself, it is still inappropriate here at the TechIMO forums.

surreal
Moderator