Fujitsu LifeBook S7010 (Pentium M 735 1.7 GHz, 512 MB RAM, 80 GB HDD)

Pros: good battery life, sleek as hell, quiet fan, light and reliable

Cons: not as light as the s6000 series from fujitsu, scroll button not as easy to use, expensive compared to light and thins like hp and compaqs, but still a better machine overall and worth the extra money

Summary: I certainly disagree with cnet editor's description of the 7010 as the "toyota corolla" of laptops. The Fujitsu s7010 is a sleek machine, and as someone stated in another forum, fujitsu is known for its stylish yet understated design. i would more likely call the 7010 the lexis of all laptops, as i get headturns and compliments all the time. boring in design would be ibm--they really need a makeover. i bought the 7010 as a replacement for my lifebook 6231 after i got into a car accident and the 6231 was being repaired. i got the 7010 for a really good price when fujitsu was having a clearance sale, about $950 compared to the $1700 i shelled out for the 6231 earlier in the year. i thought i would give the 6231 away to my little sister and keep the 7010. so far the 7010 is pretty good, it isn't as sleek as the 6231 (though my friends could not tell the difference between the two!)--it's bigger with a 14 inch screen compared to the 6231's 13.3 screen, and is about noticeably heavier at 4 pounds something compared to the 6231 which was about 3 pounds without the dvd drive. it still is a beautiful laptop with better battery life it seems than the 6231 and more quiet even when i have the screen set at the brightest. in addition its start up and shut down time is quite fast. after my 6231 was being repaired, i bought the hp dv1000 which i really hated--it was clunky and the screen was too dark (returned it thanks to compusa's semi-generous return policy, and purchased a toshiba m55-3295 (something like that), and hated that too, same problem was clunkiness and a dark screen among other dislikes, and i ended up returning it also. i( also disliked the HP and the toshiba because it was widescreened--and all the font and everything is squished down, a lot smaller than a screen of regular height. neither the 6232 nor the 7010 are widescreens though.) once you own a fujitsu, it's hard to find satisfaction in other notebooks. after this experience i would only consider a sony vaio if fujitsu didn't exist. i'd certainly give fujitsu a whirl as it has been very reliable and i admit, i feel like a bit of an elitist (at my law school, everyone owns a laptop and i am one of the 3 people on campus with a fujitsu).

for those complaining about the "flex" of the keyboard, i don't understand what the problem is. fujitsu has soft keys which i like (the 7010's are more "matted" than the "slippery" feel of the 6231, but both were fine). keyboards from the toshiba and the hp models i tested, were too deep and hard to press, and after being used to the 6231, my fingers were really pink and sore afterwards. so i say, a little flex is better than hard keys.