The good: Long battery run time; modular bay for expansion; full-wattage CPU part; security software and hardware; dock included.

The bad: Underpowered integrated graphics; only first year of warranty is international.

The bottom line: A solid performer for the frequent traveller, its battery life should keep you from power point hopping most of the day.

Read full review of the Fujitsu LifeBook S6311-Core 2 Duo »

By Dan Chiappini
Mar 23, 2007

One of the best and worst things about being a product reviewer is the sheer bulk of kit that comes through our Labs across a multitude of categories. Unfortunately it also makes you free-info flypaper for friends and family. That said, whenever someone shopping for a notebook asks for advice, they tend to lean towards Sony, Toshiba or Dell. Despite their quality, Fujitsu doesn't normally get a look in. Their new LifeBook S series may quickly be on the way to changing that with its combination of security, battery life, performance and looks.

Editors' note : This review is based on tests done by our sister site CNET.com. As such, please note that there may be slight differences in the testing procedure and ratings system. For more information on the actual tests conducted on the product, please inquire directly at the site where the article was originally published. References made to some of other products in this review may not be available or applicable in Asia. Please check directly with your local distributor for details.

Design
The ultraportable market is exploding at the moment and Fujitsu's offering in the S6311 is an impressive one. The build quality of the chassis is spot on and, where other notebooks in this size bracket tend to have LCD screens that contort with minimal effort, the Fujitsu holds strong, even taking knocks to the rear of the panel in its stride. Fujitsu is pitching this model at SMB (small to medium businesses), consumers and mobile executives.

Regardless of which segment you fit into, there's something in this model for you, with the hot-swappable bays accommodating either a multiformat optical drive, weight-saver to take the strain off your shoulder, or an additional battery for extended time between power point visits. Fujitsu quotes up to 10.2 hours of continuous battery run time using a second battery in place of the optical drive, enough juice for a full work day without having to plug in and wait around to get mobile again.

Features
For what is a predominantly business-oriented machine the S6311 has the feature side well and truly sewn up at a very reasonable price. The first thing you'll notice is the 13.3-inch SuperFine XGA (1,024 x 768) resolution LCD which is driven by the Intel GMA 950 graphics. Certainly not the bastion of graphics power that Intel claims every refresh, but enough to drive the display and meet the Windows Vista business spec requirements. The notebook ships with Windows XP Professional (the operating system of choice for businesses holding back on a full Vista rollout and those users needing VPN support).

	The LifeBook S6311 is a slim 13.3-inch unit with a hardy chassis. (Click for larger image)

Weighing in around the 1.7kg mark, you won't get this mixed up with some of the desktop replacements posing as notebooks. In comparison, Sony's new business ultraportable the Vaio VGNG118GNB tops the scales at 1.15kg, while their Vaio C series consumer notebooks are a heftier 2.3kg in the same form-factor chassis.

Fujitsu bundles a 100GB, 5,400rpm hard drive spanning two evenly sized partitions. It's unlikely business users will ever fill such a large drive given their propensity for offsite centralized network archiving, but on the off chance that it does happen, there's always the included Super Multi optical drive allowing you to burn DVD-RAM, DVD-+R/RW discs and CDs.

Drive integrity, particularly for a business notebook, is a major concern, and Fujitsu addresses this with the inclusion of a 3D hard drive shock sensor, meaning that in the event of a sudden fall the device is intelligent enough to park the drive's heads to reduce the risk of data loss or drive failure. A software configuration tool allows you to set the gyro's sensitivity depending on your usage and work environment.

Connectivity is certainly no afterthought on the S6311, sporting a triband 802.11a/b/g wireless module, Gigabit Ethernet wired networking and shipping to users with a docking station. The dock makes portability a snap, saving you the time needed to plug keyboards, mice and monitors in every time you move to, or away from, your desk. In addition to giving you easy access to all the features on the chassis of the notebook, it also adds serial, parallel, PS/2 and DVI ports not found on the laptop. Kensington locks are supported and there's space on both the notebook and docking base to plug in, although we weren't able to test whether or not locking the base and then docking the laptop would secure both from theft or just the base.

Given that mobile business people are effectively zooming around with a copy (or in some cases the only copy) of their financial and sensitive company data, securing that information is paramount.

The S6311 features a biometric fingerprint scanner which allows you to securely logon to the machine and, if you wish, encrypt single files or entire folders from prying eyes. This is a particularly handy feature for businesses with limited resources that need to share a notebook across multiple users as each can secure their own files. The ability to register multiple fingers also means you can have several users and shared folders for when people leave the organization. While no security is perfect, we did attempt to authenticate using an ink stamp copy of a registered fingerprint, only to be knocked back as it appeared to require the capacitance found in a living human finger. And no, before you think it, perish the thought of stealing someone's notebook and taking one of their registered fingers as a souvenir to access their files.

The software bundle with this model includes a full year of Norton Antivirus protection as well as Acronis True Image 9, allowing you to make and restore an image of your system quickly if you're traveling and things go pear-shaped.

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