Fujitsu M2010

Fujitsu may have originally been hesitant to enter the netbook market, but it could no longer ignore the exploding landscape. Its entry, the M2010, joins the dozens of netbooks on shelves that are outfitted with the same Intel Atom processor, 1GB of RAM and Microsoft Windows XP Home. Though Fujitsu’s compact $449 system provides peppy performance and an attractive—if somewhat polarizing—design, the company failed to deliver the ingredients that make a netbook compelling: a well-designed keyboard, long battery life, and low cost.

Design

Fujitsu’s M2010 feels solidly built, and we like the ruby red color (although that’s the only option). The system’s lid is adorned with a large gray Fujitsu Infinity logo, which adds a bit of flair but may be too in-your-face for some. The red stretches  underneath the hood to its palm rest and touchpad and is offset by a black glossy bezel that is prone to picking up fingerprints.

The size and weight of the Fujitsu M2010 is standard fare for a 10-inch netbook. At 10.2 x 7.4 x 1.3 inches and 2.4 pounds, it weighs the same as the HP Mini 1000. While not as compact as the Mini 1000, it is shorter than both the MSI Wind and Samsung NC10. With a travel weight of 3.2 pounds with its AC adapter, the system felt almost nonexistent when we tossed it into a shoulder bag.

Cramped Keyboard, Comfortable Touchpad

While the keyboard on the M2010 is more spacious and comfortable than those on 8.9-inch netbooks such as the Dell Inspiron Mini 9, it is noticeably smaller than what you’ll find on such 10-inch systems as the HP Mini 1000, MSI Wind, and Samsung N110. The keys on the left edge, including the Caps Lock and Tab, are especially tiny. Given the extra space on both sides of the keyboard, we are puzzled as to why Fujitsu didn’t extend the layout all the way to the edges. The keys themselves provided sufficient bounce when typing, but the panel has a bit of flex.

While most of the keys are positioned correctly, the right Shift key is shrunken and placed to the right of the Up arrow, rather than in its usual location next to the question mark key. Though this used to be a recurring flaw in the first generation of netbooks, both Dell and ASUS addressed this issue with their current models.

The touchpad is a decent size and offered a nice, textured feel as we navigated the desktop. We appreciate the dedicated right and left mouse buttons, which are easy to press, though slightly loud.

Ports

Like many other netbooks, the Fujitsu M2010 has three USB ports, VGA, Ethernet, headphone, and a microphone jack. Additionally, a 4-in-1 card reader is on the right side.

Screen, Webcam, Audio

The Fujitsu M2010 has a 10.1-inch LCD with 1024 x 576-pixel resolution. We were impressed by the brightness of the display, and the glossy coating didn’t result in too much glare; both vertical and horizontal viewing angles were good.

With a slightly lower resolution than most 1024 x 600-pixel, 10-inch netbooks, the 16:9 aspect ratio played a DVD (using an external optical drive) without the black bars along the top and bottom of the screen. Still, the subtraction of 24 vertical pixels limits the amount of space you have vertically on the screen. In a side-by-side comparison with 1024 x 600-pixel resolution netbooks, the M2010 showed one to two less lines of text on Web pages, resulting in more scrolling.

Above the display is a 1.3-megapixel webcam, which provided jerky images in a video chat over Skype. Waving resulted in a lot of motion blur, and colors were dark.

The stereo speakers, which are hidden below the front edge of the system, emitted steady sound in our Skype call with the volume at a medium level. When we listened to Blue October’s “Hate Me,” the volume was impressive compared with other netbooks; the music was audible from more than 75 feet away.