Fujitsu's tiny convertible LifeBook U1010 launches in Asia

So you read our review of Fujitsu's P1610 and you thought "hell no, that's too big for me."  Well I won't cuss you out for being fussy, I'll just point you in the direction of their new LifeBook U1010 convertible tablet, first shown back in May and now released in the Asia-Pacific area.  The size of a mere paperback, it has a low-power Intel Sealy 800MHz CPU which was promised to give the U1010 up to seven hours of battery life.

 

Obviously being only 17 x 13 x 3cm there have been some compromises on the keyboard; you'll be making heavy use of the Fn key, as Tab and the arrow-keys are both second functions of the normal QWERTY keys.  mobile888 reviewed a pre-production model and found that while the U1010 makes an ideal media companion the preconfigured Vista setup – complete with resource-hungry Aero effects – meant no more than a couple of windows could be opened at the same time.  Happily turning off the brazen visuals, particularly window transparency, made a big difference; maybe, like with the P1610, Fujitsu should consider selling both Vista and XP Tablet Edition versions.

As for that battery life, be warned that it's with a larger four-cell pack rather than the dinky two-cell one featured in all the Fujitsu photos.  The former is rated for 5 -7 hours, while mobile888 managed 2 – 2.5hrs out of the latter.

Still, if you want one of the smallest UMPCs with a still-usable keyboard, you might find the U1010 fits the bill.

Fujitsu Press Release [via Tablet PC Talk]