First Look: LifeBook Offers Dazzling Display

I loved the movie Moulin Rouge, with its bright colors and bold musical sequences. But the movie has one glaring weakness: It doesn't look good on my notebook.

Okay, that's not the film's fault, but have you ever noticed just how muted and dull movies can look on a notebook screen? The engineers at Fujitsu noticed, too. So they created the LifeBook N3510--the company's first notebook with a 15.4-inch widescreen--to offer more vibrant colors that they say are comparable to those on a CRT monitor. It sounds like hype, but I tested a preproduction version of the N3510 and found the colors on its screen looked quite beautiful and lifelike.

Colors That Pop

The LifeBook N3510 uses a special color filter that lets its LCD screen render a wider range of color than your average LCD. Engineers also left off the anti-glare coating you'll find on most notebook screens. The end result: DVD movies and still photos offer more vibrant, accurate colors than any notebook display I've tested.

During my tests I saw accurately ruddy fleshtones and dark and subtle hues, all rendered with appropriate brightness and richness. Some darker fleshtones had a very slight pink undertone, but it didn't look odd or inaccurate.

It's hard to say if the color filter is solely responsible for the N3510's accurate color rendering, as the lack of anti-glare coating also clearly improves a screen's color. One downside: with no anti-glare coating, the screen is highly reflective, which can be somewhat distracting in high-light environments. Nevertheless, I found myself entranced by the unit's stunning display.

Like many other notebooks these days, the N3510 also gives you the ability to enjoy movies or music CDs without having to launch Windows. You simply have to press the DVD/CD button atop the keyboard to activate a disc in the optical drive.

A Good PC, Too

Oh, and should you decide to use the N3510 for some work, you'll find it well equipped. The unit I tested had a 1.7-GHz Intel Pentium M 740 processor, 512MB of RAM, a 60GB hard drive, and a multiformat DVD burner. Four user-programmable quick-launch buttons sit on the right of the keyboard, and four USB ports, a FireWire port and a Memory Stick/SD slot ring the sides of the notebook.

If you're willing to spend an extra $400, you can configure the N3510 with a TV tuner. Fujitsu includes its Instant MyMedia software, which allows you to pause live television or record it onto the hard drive or a DVD. (But strangely, the notebook cannot be configured with Windows XP Media Center.)

With its great screen, notable multimedia features, and robust configuration, this LifeBook can help you achieve a nice balance between work and fun. In the meantime, I plan on watching Moulin Rouge once more, this time on the LifeBook, in full, bright color.