E8020: for speed freaks in needs of portable power

E8020: for speed freaks in needs of portable power

Zatni Arbi, Contributor, zatni@cbn.net.id

You may have often heard the name "Sonoma" mentioned by computer
devotees lately, especially by those who always tote a notebook
wherever they go.

Actually, it is a code name that Intel Corp. has chosen for
its next generation mobile computing specification, the successor
of the Centrino that we are all familiar with.

So what should a new Sonoma notebook have? A faster processor,
certainly. Intel now has 0.09 micron Pentium Mobile processors
with clock speeds of up to 2.13 GHz. The performance is raised
further by using 2 MB of Level-2 cache memory, as opposed to only
1 MB used in the previous Pentium Mobile Processor generation.

Secondly, a Sonoma notebook should have a Mobile Intel 915
Express chipset, which provides Intel High Definition Audio as
well. Thirdly, it should also use a 533 MHz Front-side Bus (FSB)
with Double Data Rate 2.0 (DDR2) memory.

And, for the hard disk, a Sonoma should use the Serial ATA
interface. The notebook manufacturer should also throw in Intel's
PRO/Wireless 2915ABG or 2200BG wireless LAN chips.

The result is a very fast notebook. The code name "Sonoma",
which is actually the name of a wine-producing county in
California, has been officially replaced with "The Next
Generation Centrino."

Courtesy of NEXcom, Fujitsu Japan's Authorized Business
Partner for Indonesia, I was able to play around with a Sonoma-
class notebook from this vendor. As you may have noticed, Fujitsu
has succeeded in building a strong reputation for making quality
notebooks. The company's Lifebooks have also become a very
popular choice among Indonesians who use a notebook for work.

The model I was given to review was the Lifebook E8020; "E"
standing for "Excellence", so they said. Price tag was around US$
2,450.00.

I can swear I could feel the speed the moment I turned it on.
The unit ran on a Pentium Mobile Processor 770. Unfortunately, I
was given a fresh demo unit -- I was the first to use it -- and I
did not have the heart to install any additional software to test
actual performance. But, this computer burns rubber.

Performance was not the only thing that impressed me. Lifebook
E8020 has almost all of the features that a computer user might
ever need. Mind you, not many notebook models still give you
parallel and serial ports, but this one does.

It has a FireWire IEEE 1394 port, four USB 2.0 ports, an RJ-45
port for Ethernet connections, an RJ-11 port for the phone line,
a PS/2 port for a keyboard or mouse, SPDIF, an S-Video out port,
a hot-swappable DVD/CD-RW combo drive, two audio ports (audio
in/out), a Secure Digital (SD) and MultiMediaCard (MMC) reader, a
new standard ExpressCard slot in addition to the regular PC-Card
slots, and a pointing stick-touchpad combination.

There is also a port replicator interface, if you ever needed
one.

What Fujitsu has put inside is no less impressive. Besides the
top-of-the-line Intel Mobile Processor, my Lifebook came with an
80 GB Serial ATA (SATA) hard disk that supported S.M.A.R.T., a
technology that continuously monitors the health of the hard disk
and will alert you if it begins to show signs of trouble. For the
graphics subsystem, it uses ATI Mobility Radeon X600 PCI Express
Graphics x16. The model I reviewed had 512 MB of 533 MHz FSB
DDR2, while the graphics subsystem had 64MB of dedicated memory.

On top of all this there was a bright 15-inch XGA+ TFT screen,
Bluetooth and infrared. For security, you can lock the BIOS, the
hard disk, the entire notebook or use a Smart Card. The keyboard
cannot be compared to the one on an IBM ThinkPad, of course, but
it is still fairly comfortable to use. The generous palmrest
doesn't overheat, which is a good comfort factor. Fujitsu claims
that the battery for the model that I tested will last 3.7 hours.
What else would you need from a notebook?

Built sturdy and strong, this notebook is not really a head-
turner, perhaps befitting of a performance-oriented notebook.

I was told that most Fujitsu Lifebooks were noted for their
long-lasting hinges. In the ten days I played around with it, I
came to appreciate Fujitsu's workmanship. Still, there are a
couple of things that I think could have been done to improve its
ergonomics.

First of all, the DVD-RW drive should have been placed on the
right instead of on the left side, as most of us are right-
handed. I also think that the audio jacks for the headphone and
the microphone should also be moved from the front to the side to
minimize risk of damage.

The placement of the buttons below the touchpad makes it
impossible for us to use the pointing stick on the keyboard and
click with the left button with one hand. We would need to use
both hands.

These buttons should have been placed on top of the touchpad.
Fortunately, we can tap on the stick's head to simulate the
click. Nonetheless, I like the scroll button very much. It is
very intuitive and very easy to use.

Being so accustomed to my ThinkPad T40 travel companion, the
2.9 kg Lifebook E8020 felt much heavier at first. The weight is
completely understandable for a notebook such as this, however.
My final verdict: If you need a plain-looking but truly powerful
and high-quality notebook that you can still take with you on the
road without actually causing too much muscle strain, Lifebook
E8020 is definitely the one.