Fujitsu-Siemens has the best laptop of the show

FUJITSU-SIEMENS WAS full of surprises at CeBit. The outfit had a bunch of interesting machines including one that I will give the coveted first annual (and probably last annual) best laptop of the show award to.

First up is the Lifebook P7320, not the best in the show, but certainly the smallest we have seen with a built-in optical drive. It has a LED backlit 10.6-inch screen with a 1280*768 rez. Powered by an Intel ULV Core Solo running at 1.2GHz and has a built in camera and fingerprint sensor.

For communications, it has the usual nic and wi-fi, but also a UMTS radio for comms everywhere except the US where it may work in small parts of San Francisco. There is also a removable DVD-RW, or you can slide a battery in there if you want. All this weighs 1.2 Kilos.

That brings us to the best laptop of the show bar none. I have an Acer Ferrari that I like a lot, and have only been slightly tempted away by the Asus Lamborghini, but that was fleeting, I like them small and light.

Star of the show in my neverhumble opinion, is the Lifebook Q2010. This is amazingly small and light - under 1 Kilo for a notebook. It has the same 1.2G ULV Core Mefred as the P7320, a backlit 12.1 inch screen, and no optical drive.

Why am I all drooly over this one? Weighing in at under a Kilo it is so light you worry a strong breeze would blow it out of your hand. It is also thin, in the pic you can see that it is dwarfed by my Nokia 6820. That may not sound all that abnormal, but a Samsung Q30 is a phone book next to this. In fact, the NIC and the modem both need a dongle because they are too thick to fit in the chassis.

If I had to buy a notebook tomorrow, this is the one I would most likely choose, barring some massive flaw that I did not see in my time with it. Actually, I would wait for a Core Number Numeral model, it can’t be that far away.

From there we go to the consumer side of things, and cast an eye over the Amilos Xi and Xa. The Xi 1554 is a 17-inch screen based Core Number Numeral CPU, has two HDs with RAID, and a 1920*1200 screen. New on this model is the option for Blu-Ray and the attendant DRM infection, but HD-DVD is available as well, your choice.

The Xa line is based on AMD processors and features a slightly updated chassis. It has an aluminum hand rest instead of plastic, and looks a little nicer. Feature wise, there is not a huge difference between the two. The Xa is about a month away.

Last we have a product that really belongs with the enterprise line, but I think it will make a better media center than a PC for cramped areas - the Fujitsu-Siemens Mini, I mean Esprimo. It is A tiny little box based on Yonah and a 945GM chipset, basically a laptop in drag, but it is cute and compact.

F-S Esprimo

Look for this one to come in at around $750, but that is the European price, US MSRP may be a bit less. In any case, I would hold off until you see a 64-bit model, like the Q2010, it can’t be that far away.