The good: Generous number of USB ports; includes both ExpressCard and Type II PC Card formats; pleasing design; fingerprint and harddisk sensors; spill-resistant keyboard.

The bad: Heavy and large.

The bottom line: If you love Fujitsu's build quality but are unable to afford the more expensive models, the LifeBook A6120 is one of the most tricked-out affordable laptops we've seen in a long while.

Read full review of the Fujitsu LifeBook A6120 »

By Darius Chang, CNET Asia
May 30, 2008

The Fujitsu LifeBook A series marks a departure from the Japanese maker's pricing strategy. While it still produces quality products at a premium for the fashionable business user, it realizes that the low-cost market is a large segment which can't be ignored. Though the S$1,988 (US$1,435.59) LifeBook A6020 is still not exactly the cheapest portables in the market for the consumer audience, it is one of the more affordable LifeBooks around. We were also impressed the Fujitsu's only compromise is in its size and heft rather than feature set. In fact, this LifeBook has one of the most complete array of ports and functionality we've seen even compared with more expensive midsize machines.

Design

Fujisu LifeBooks are well-known for offering one of the slimmest and lighest offerings in each category. However, the engineering required to create such designs often require significant investment. To lower the cost, the LifeBook A6020 had to contend with a rather thick and heavy 2.9kg body. With a footprint of 360 x 265 x 40.8mm, it is much larger than the MacBook Pro and borders on becoming a desktop replacement.

But despite its rather overweight body, the all-white plastic chassis is aesthetically pleasing and easy to clean. There is also a black edition which looks just as nice. Bucking the trend of easy-access ports at the sides, the LifeBook A6020 evenly spreads its connectors and slots all over the body, with display outputs and most of the USB ports hidden at the rear. If you use this laptop in a single location as a primary computing deviceoften , this setup allows for a cleaner desktop without stray wires running amok.

There is little wasted space on this laptop, with a nice array of shortcut buttons to make application startup easier. There are keys for system support, email, Internet, volume control as well as two programmable buttons. A dedicated wireless switch toggles the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth radio off in order to save battery power. The keyboard deserves special mention, as Fujitsu incorporated spill-proofing for the input device. This really helps save the machine in the event of spillage.

Features

The LifeBook A6020 has one of the most gorgeous screens we've seen. While most offer only 200nits brightness, the A6020's 15.4-inch widescreen goes up to 300nits with a 350:1 contrast ratio. This translates to an exceptionally bright LCD capable of 1280 x 800-pixel resolution. The graphics engine is powered by an integrated Intel GMA X3100 chip, which takes video RAM from the system memory for rendering images. Above the screen is a 1.3-megapixel Webcam which provides an avenue for video conferencing.

We were a little surprised to find a fingerprint sensor and harddisk accelerometer on this LifeBook, as these features are more common to business machines. However, since a TPM security chip is not in the mix we suggest using the fingerprint sensor as an easy login method rather than to protect your data. We were also glad to find that the Wi-Fi standard includes Draft-N along with the usual 802.11a/b/g and allows the machine to hook up with the fastest wireless signal available. A Bluetooth V2.0 radio is also available for short-range communication. A Gigabit Ethernet port and modem allow for traditional wired networks.

The A6020 has one of the most impressive array of ports we've seen. We counted a total of five USB 2.0 slots along with a mini-FireWire. Instead of choosing between the common Type II PC Card or Epresscard/54 formats, this LifeBook includes both standards. A five-in-one card reader takes in SD/MMC, Memory Stick, Memory Stick Pro and xD-PictureCards. External display can be hooked up to the VGA or S-video outputs. A DVD Super Multi drive is located under the hood which handles almost any flavor of DVDs and CD in the market.

Performance And Battery Life

For S$1,988 (US$1,435.59), you get a Core 2 Duo T8100 processor clocked at 2.1GHz, 1GB of RAM and 250GB of storage space. The platform sits on Windows Vista Home Premium, which we feel is a little too much for the 1GB memory to handle. We suggest bumping up the RAM to at least 2GB (the system can take up to 4GB) for better performance. The Windows Experience Index reported a score of 3.0, with the processor recieving 5.1 and graphics a lowly 3.0. This LifeBook is good enough for productivity and movie viewing, but hits its limits for gaming and intensive graphics work.

Battery life was reasonable, considering its large and vibrant screen. We clocked around 2 hours running a DVD movie at half screen brightness. It must be mentioned that even at this setting the LCD is brighter than most screens on other laptops. Unplugged you can use this LifeBook for a full-length movie or a couple of episodes of your favorite soap.

Service And Support

Fujitsu LifeBook has a one-year international warranty with second-year and third-year local warranty. At Fujitsu's support Web site, LifeBook owners can register their warranty online as well as download the latest drivers. For simple problems, the company offers a helpline and email address for troubleshooting. Should the unit require further diagnosis or repair, the customer will have to send the unit to any service center worldwide during the first year. Subsequently, Fujitsu will only honor the notebook's warranty for the subsequent two years at the original country of purchase. For users who use their laptops for time-critical work with no margin for downtime, it must be noted that most Fujitsu service centers in Asia Pacific operate only during office hours. There is no option to upgrade the warranty terms.

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