Its Silver and Impresses the Ladies
Written: Feb 14 '01 (Updated Feb 14 '01)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Beautiful Aesthetics / Reliable / Reasonably Priced
Cons: Non Standard Form Factor / Some Components are Probably Not of the Highest Quality
The Bottom Line: A buy. Read the darn review for details.
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| da_anarchist's Full Review: Fujitsu LIFEBOOK C6557 (FPC040393) PC Notebook |
Introduction
I never expected to buy a brand name computer in my life, before I needed to by a laptop for college. My general view is that building one's own computer is cheaper and entails less hassles, unfortunately, a laptop is a whole different beast from a regular old PC, so I went down to the local Fry's (for those of you who haven’t been to SoCal, Fry's is a store roughly the size of Rhode Island where they pack in all the electronics ever invented, even old Betamax players, and entrust the sale of these products to clerks high on speed eager to get their 15% from you). It was from there that I became the owner of Fujitsu's cheapest laptop at the time, the C-4235.
Good Things About the C-Series
Aesthetics - Fujitsu does make so damn good looking laptops for sure. It made all of my roommates green with envy to see my sleek silver laptop, and prompted some members of the opposite sex to make up excuses to just to fiddle around with the thing. A bonus goes to Fujitsu for making the laptop seem more expensive than it is. People can't believe that I spent only 1100$ on this thing.
Good Basic Configuration - I was sorely disappointed to not have enough money to buy a laptop with DVD, but I really don’t miss it. It has a processor good enough for most applications, the 64 MB of memory holds up well enough, the 6.4 GB HD is roomy enough for hundreds of MP3's, and the 12.1 active matrix screen is easy on the eyes.
Impressive Looking Special Buttons and Status Display - On the outside of the C-Series laptops, Fujitsu places 4 extra buttons to access the internet and to check email. There is a light that illuminates when new mail is received, but the light only works if you use Fujitsu's software to check your mail, so it’s not very useful. Two buttons are also programmable to launch any application of your choice. The status display is located on the outside portion of the newer Fujitsu laptops and on the inside on older laptops like mine. It is a nicely designed display that keeps track of all the basics: battery life, caps/num/scroll lock status, HD access, etc.
Reliability - I have had no major problems with my laptop so far, even after upgrading it to Windows 2000.
BAD Things about the C-Series
Laptop Size - While it may look really good, the laptop is about two inches larger than a standard laptop. This makes fitting it into laptop covers and cases almost impossible.
Battery Life - With the screen contrast turned all the way down and hard drive access minimized, my laptop lasts about two and a half hours on battery power. With music blaring from the speakers, a movie playing, and the screen turned all the way up, the battery life can be as short as an hour. When I flew to Japan, I tried to use the laptop as a MP3 player, and with laptop closed with only Winamp supplying music to my headphones, the laptop lasted an amazing five hours. I still believe that Fujitsu could have done better in this department.
Gimmicky Features - The outside buttons are impressive looking, but don't really serve much useful purpose. I really wish that you could program them to control MP3 playback, but this is not possible. Also, you can use the CD-ROM drive as a CD player with the laptop itself turned off, but it is much less of an hassle to use a regular portable CD player.
The End Bit
Well, I can't say that I regret buying the Fujitsu laptop. It has provided excellent value for money, and I heartily recommend it as a cheaper alternative to Gateway and Dell.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 1100
Operating System: Windows
Processor: AMD K-2
Processor speed: 401-500
Screen Size: 12
RAM: 64
Internal Storage: CD-ROM
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Epinions.com ID:
da_anarchist
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Member: Michael Tang
Location: CA
Reviews written: 8
Trusted by: 1 member
About Me:
Busy college student who tries to write good reviews, whenever I get the time...
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