Fujitsu Stylistic ST4110 (Pentium III-M 800MHz, 256MB RAM)

The Plain Jane?
The plain-Jane tablet of the group, the gray-and-black Stylistic ST4110 has neither the sleek, silver finish of the Compaq T1000 Tablet nor the technological good looks of the Toshiba Portégé 3500. Make no mistake, this is a basic slate pad that has no hidden features, such as a keyboard that pops out of nowhere, but the Stylistic ST4110 doesn't need to resort to trickery. Although it is one of the smallest and lightest tablets, it offers excellent performance and long battery life. It's also the most comfortable to hold because of the ultrasuede surface on the back, but the tablet does get warm when used for a while.

This basic slate design features a 10.4-inch screen. Rather than being recessed, the display is actually slightly higher than the surrounding frame, which makes writing on the screen as close to the paper-and-pen experience as is possible today. The penlike stylus stows securely at the top of the tablet and does a good job of writing on the screen, although we encountered strange ghost remnants of old writing on at least two occasions.

Fujitsu has made a virtue out of smallness with the petite Stylistic ST4110, which measures 30 x 22 x 2 cm. That's nearly 40 percent smaller than the Portégé 3500, a convertible tablet. At 1.4 kg, the Stylistic ST4110 is only a few grams heavier than the Compaq, the lightweight of the group. The power adapter, which is also used on Fujitsu's LifeBook S-series notebooks, and the keyboard bring the Stylistic ST4110's travel weight to 1.9 kg, a few grams less than the Portégé 3500 on its own.

Along the right side of the tablet is a row of six buttons. The top one is the equivalent of the Alt key. Next down is an instant-launch button for Outlook, followed by the screen-rotation key, Escape, Enter, and Function. The only downside is the unit's lack of a four-way navigation pad, which seems to be on all PDAs and phones these days. With it, the user could have easily controlled the cursor without resorting to the pen. Near the bottom are right-left control pads, which are oddly oriented up and down, leading to a visual mismatch.

Around its edge is the tablet-standard assortment of ports, including one each for FireWire, modem, LAN, audio, and external display and a pair for USB. There's a slot for a Type II PC Card but not CompactFlash or Secure Digital. Except for the external-display port, all connections are open to the elements.

When you come back to your desk with a Stylistic ST4110 in hand, lock it into the docking station/monitor stand for the equivalent of a desktop PC. Whether the tablet is rotated right or left, the screen automatically reorients itself. Hinged at the bottom, the screen can also be tilted to a comfortable viewing angle, but don't go too far or it'll fall over flat.

Although we liked the design overall, we had a few minor complaints. First, aside from the VGA port, all other ports are open to the elements, an especially poor choice for a slate-style tablet that is likely to be toted all over. Second, without a charge gauge on the battery, there's no way to see how much power the cells have without starting the system. But the Stylistic ST4110 is hardly alone here. Finger-Friendly
Despite being saddled with the slowest processor of this initial group of tablets, an 800MHz Pentium III-M, the Stylistic ST4110 is an efficient worker and never flagged on a task or kept us waiting. The tablet's other specs include 256MB of memory (expandable to 768MB), a 20GB hard drive (upgradable to 40GB), and a 10.4-inch display.

The slate design comes with a separate, mini keyboard that features 19mm keys and a finger-friendly 2.6mm of travel. A snap to get accustomed to, the keyboard lacks a pointing stick or a touchpad, so you have to use the stylus to move the cursor around. In addition to standard infrared communications, the Stylistic ST4110 has a second IR window that works with only the company's S$269 (US$149) wireless keyboard.

Fujitsu found room on the Stylistic ST4110 for many of the standard ports, including USB, FireWire, modem, LAN, audio, and external display connectors. There's a slot for a Type II PC Card but not CompactFlash or Secure Digital.

The optional docking station S$799 (US$450), which is also a monitor stand, includes a DVD-ROM/CD-RW combo drive (Editor's note: The combo drive is the only option offered in certain Asia-Pacific countries, including Singapore). Lock it in place to get the equivalent of a desktop PC, complete with FireWire, Ethernet, and external monitor ports. On the side of the dock is a trio of USB plugs, one of which can be used with the USB mini keyboard.

The Stylistic ST4110 ships with Windows XP Tablet Edition and a limited version of PowerQuest Drive Image for backing up your entire hard drive. If you order the dock with the DVD/CD-RW combo option, Fujitsu adds the excellent Drag'n Drop and WinDVD.