Ultraportables are strange collective beasts. For those who subscribe to the "less is more" theory, they're the shining example of the laptop manifesto: a tiny compliment for a bulky, powerful desktop.
The problem that all of them face is finding the sweet spot between usability and portability.
Sony's miniscule hybrid is the best example of the worst ultraportable interface, due entirely to its keyboard. Using it feels as though you're typing on corn kernels arranged into a QWERTY layout.
Fujitsu have been in the game for some time now, and their experience shows. Its new P-series ultraportables pack a DVD drive and PC Card (PCMCIA) slot into a 10 inch widescreen package. It's by no means a performance machine, as the 1.2 GHz Core Solo processor will attest to. But its layout is just superb.
The keys may be diminutive, but thanks to the widescreen aspect ratio and the keyboard being spread to the corners of the chassis, the keys are still large enough to be perfectly usable. It feels a little strange at first, but within minutes you start to control your keystrokes. Thoughtfully, the function key transposes the arrows keys to provide page up, down, home and end keys.
A chassis mounted power mode button disables the modem, FireWire, Gigabit networking, DVD drive, card reader and PC Card in software to conserve battery life. You can enable components you may need on a case by case basis through the control panel.
There's also an excellent and exhaustive diagnostic tool included. It rolls through tests of every aspect of the system, including the Bluetooth 2.0 adapter, the two USB ports and SigmaTel HD audio system.
Move the laptop around while a disc is being read and the drive emits a worrying scraping noise. Almost all ultra-portables share this trait, as do some laptops, so as long as you use the optical drive on a flat surface you won't gouge the surface of your discs.
There is only a single RAM slot available; our unit shipped with a 1GB DDR2 stick running at 667MHz at CAS 5. There is the provision for a second battery that takes the place of the DVD drive.
The competitors in the business ultraportable range are the IBM X series, HP NC2400 and Dell D420. Next to these 12” models, Fujitsu’s (admittedly well managed) sacrifices in ergonomics, usability and possibly battery performance may not be worth its smaller size. We are currently running battery life tests, which (along with the $3499 price tag) will form our conclusion and be published in an upcoming issue of PC Authority.