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4.0 stars
"I Can't Think of Anything that I Don't Like"
Pros: Beautiful Display, Good Packaging
Cons: TurboMemory is Unimpressive
Summary: I got a Lifebook S6510 in mid-December, and I absolutely love it. I have previously owned at least four or five Lifebook laptops, most recently an S2110. The S6510 is by far the best I've ever had.
Most reviews of the S6510 rave about the 14" display, which is indeed very nice. But in my opinion the best feature is the decision to move all of the plugs, slots and switches from the back of the laptop to the sides and front. I didn't realize until now how nice it is not to have to fumble around the back trying to plug / unplug / switch something. The second-best feature is the Intel Wireless-N adapter.
I got mine preloaded with Vista Business, but it also came with an XP Professional recovery DVD. Good thing, too. I had trouble with Vista from the very first day, and when it finally got to the point that Vista would not boot and was not able to repair itself, I gave up and reloaded with XP Professional. I was quite surprised to find that it was faster and more reliable with XP than it had been with Vista. Now that Vista SP1 is available, I have reloaded from the Vista recovery DVD, and immediately installed SP1. That now seems to be just as fast and stable as XP Pro.
I got the optional Intel TurboMemory, and I am completely unimpressed with it. If it is doing anything at all, it isn't much - that is obvious from the fact that the laptop is just as fast when running XP Pro as Vista.
I subject this laptop to a lot of hard use. I bought two port replicators with it, one for home and one for the office. I carry it back and forth every day. I use it with an external display, keyboard and trackball in both places; in the office I have Gigabit wired ethernet, at home I have 130Mb Wireless-N. I also use it on the bus/train during my commute, with a Sierra Wireless cellular data card. I seldom shut down and reboot, I simply suspend/resume as necessary when I am on the move.
My only significant complaint about Fujitsu is that, like most laptop manufacturers, they put far too little effort into third-party driver updates. Even though the S6510 comes with a "Fujitsu Driver Update" utility, it has yet to find a single update since I got it. Basically, if the original drivers do not turn out to have some fatal bug or compatibility problem (with Vista SP1, for example), they will probably never be updated. According to the Fujitsu Support web page, there have been only two updates from the original Vista drivers, and only one for XP; meanwhile, Windows Vista Update has updated several drivers, and I have downloaded and installed myself numerous updates for the Intel Graphic Chipset, Intel Wireless Network Adapter, Intel TurboMemory, Realtek Audio, Synaptics Touchpad and Marvell Ethernet. Some of these added nice new features and functionality, while others fixed more obscure bugs.
The bottom line is, I absolutely love this Lifebook S6510, it is far and away the best laptop I have ever owned - and I've had a lot of laptops over the past 15 years. I would not give it up or trade it for any other, and I would recommend it without reservation, despite the somewhat high price.
- 1 reply to this review
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I am in the market for an ultraportable, but with my deteriorating eyesight I need something with a decent-sized screen. I've looked at this one in the showroom and the screen size is great, it is very lightwight and it seems to pack a lot of power.
Once question, though--I noticed that unless you are viewing the screen straight-on it gets blurry with only a slight change in angle compared to other laptops. Have you noticed this, and does it bother you at all?
Thanks for your help.
