Firtsly, let me say that before you turn away from this beauty, you have to look at it close up and not in a picture. When I saw it, I had to have it there and then, it is THAT beautiful.
It has a sleek silver finish that is lovely to touch, easy to clean and looks virtually scratch resistant.
The ... Read review
Advantages: Light-weight, Robust, Fast by P3 standards, slim look, soft touch keyboard Disadvantages: External Floppy Drive, Poor Speakers, PS2 port on Docking Bay only
Firtsly, let me say that before you turn away from this beauty, you have to look at it close up and not in a picture. When I saw it, I had to have it there and then, it is THAT beautiful.
It has a sleek silver finish that is lovely to touch, easy to clean and looks virtually scratch resistant.
The keyboard is lovely and is soft-touch, i.e. it takes light tapping of the keys to type. The only disadvantage is that you ... ...use the home, page up/down and end keys, which are integrated with the arrow keys. But I quickly got used to this. The keyboard has a windows key in the right place which most modern laptops lack. This is essential for a person who knows the keyboard shortcuts in windows.
As for the operating system, I have Windows 2000 running and it's a dream. Boot up takes about 15 seconds and shutdown is just 2 seconds which is great because as ... more
Firtsly, let me say that before you turn away from this beauty, you have to look at it close up and not in a picture. When I saw it, I had to have it there and then, it is THAT beautiful.
It has a sleek silver finish that is lovely to touch, easy to clean and looks virtually scratch resistant.
The keyboard is lovely and is soft-touch, i.e. it takes light tapping of the keys to type. The only disadvantage is that you have to press the 'Fn' or second function key to use the home, page up/down and end keys, which are integrated with the arrow keys. But I quickly got used to this. The keyboard has a windows key in the right place which most modern laptops lack. This is essential for a person who knows the keyboard shortcuts in windows.
As for the operating system, I have Windows 2000 running and it's a dream. Boot up takes about 15 seconds and shutdown is just 2 seconds which is great because as I work on the train so I can wait until I am just outside my stop to shutdown. Note that although this machine comes with both Windows 2000 and WIndows NT, you can only choose one option the first time you start it up, and that will remain your only OS option.
The mouse pad is very responsive and easy to use and the drivers are all easily picked up at install time.
It has five function keys which you can basically program to do almost anything you want it to. The beauty is the two poer buttons. That's right! Two Power buttons. But this is really an excellent feature as one button is for booting and shutting down, while the other completely cuts the power and saves your battery. I guess you could say the second button is like the power switch at wall socket for your PC.
The docking bay is very light and even with it connected, this laptop is still smaller and lighter than most full laptops. The docking bay has the floppy connection (which seems to have it's own sort of connector and not the usual USB), serial port, lpt prot, usb port, screen port, lan port and two PS2 ports. The actual machine without the docking bay has 2 USB ports (one on the side for mouse etc, and one on the back for modem, printer etc), sound ports (mic, speakers, line in), 56k modem, lan port, 1 PCMCIA port, screen port and infra red.
The speakers are a let down, but the sound card is excellent so if you use head phones or desktop speakers you won't be disappointed.
The DVD/CD Rom drive is reliable and fast, and to upgrade it is as simple as unplugging it.
The screen is lovely and although it may sound small, is actually the same screen space (if not slightly larger) than the normal 14 inch desktop monitors. I run mine at 1024 x 768 pixels and the graphics are crisp and colourful.
This is a very well thought out and beautifully designed notebook and definately gives the Vaio a run for it's money. It's great value for money and if you are constantly on the move and have to be booting and shutting down constantly then you will appreciate the light weight and fast response that this machine will give you.
My System Specs
PIII - 800Mhz Mobile Processor 256 Mb RAM 20Gb Hard Drive Choice of Windows 2000 or Win NT External Floppy Disk Drive Small lightweight Docking Bay Onboard Sound 13.3" TFT Screen ATI Rage Graphics Card 56k Onboard Modem Onbaord Lan Infra Red 1 PCMCIA Slot DVD/CD ROM Drive Recovery and Driver Disks Modem attachments for different countries 2 USB Ports 2 PS2 Ports Serial, LPT, Screen ports
Microsoft Windows 2000 / NT 4.0, Microsoft Windows 98 / Millennium Edition, Microsoft Windows XP Professional, Microsoft Windows 98 Second Edition / Millennium Edition
Software
Drivers & Utilities, Microsoft Word 2000, WinDVD, Microsoft Works 6.0, Adobe Acrobat Reader 4.0, Phoenix PowerPanel, Phoenix Card Executive, Drivers & Utilities
Manufacturer's product description
The LifeBook S Series offers you a brilliant 13.3" screen in a fully functional ultra-portable you can take on the road without weighing yourself down. It is a sensibly sized machine - small and light enough to be easily stowed and carried, but wide enough to preserve something of the ergonomics of a desktop PC. Coming in a modular design, the S Series makes expansion a 5 second exercise. Add for instance batteries, DVD ROM and CD-R/RW Combo drive or a second hard disk in the modular bay to adapt the LifeBook to your current needs. A sensitive Touchpad, brilliant screen, Quick Touch application buttons and numerous applications provide maximum user-friendliness.
