Pen-enabled ultra-portable LifeBook
(by Conrad H. Blickenstorfer)

The LifeBook B6220 is a minor technology update of the LifeBook B6210. With the LifeBook B6220, Fujitsu offers a notebook computer that makes great sense and should be the standard of the future: an ultra-portable 3.2 pound notebook with a touchscreen so you can use it with a stylus or your finger and thus take advantage of this additional navigation device as well as the ever more useful digital ink. Note that the B6220 is not a "traditional" Tablet PC convertible; it does not have the pivot screen hinge that would allow you to rotate the screen around and convert the computer into a tablet. It also does not have an active digitizer. This computer simply gives you the option of using a stylus and ink in addition to the touchpad and mouse.

What does it all amount to? A small computer with a footprint of just 10.6 x 9.0 inches that's just 1.3 inches thick and weighs 3.2 pounds. It has a 12.1-inch XGA screen -- just large enough for serious work. It has a power-efficient Ultra Low Voltage Intel Core Solo processor now running at 1.33 GHz instead of the B6210's 1.2GHz, and a big 56 watt-hour battery, so it is designed more for long battery life as opposed to top speed. And, in fact, Fujitsu rates battery life at up to six hours. A model with a 32GB solid state disk has been added. There is no internal optical drive, the keyboard is a bit cramped, and you pay the usual ultra-portable price premium as the starting price is a fairly high US$1,599, with the solid state model running US$2,138.