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.