Quick Takes: Fujitsu LifeBook P1510D and Tiger Telematics Gizmondo

Fujitsu's Tablet-Style Ultraportable Notebook

The $1649 LifeBook P1510D from Fujitsu is eye-catchingly small and slim. Even more captivating is its 8.9-inch touch-screen display, which you can twist around to turn this Windows XP-based notebook into a slate-style tablet.

It comes with a stylus and tablet-friendly apps such as EverNote and RitePen, so you can easily jot notes and annotate documents, just as you would with a notebook running Microsoft's Windows XP Tablet PC Edition operating system. Unlike models running the Tablet PC OS, which require you to use a specific pen, the P1510D's touch screen conveniently works with any stylus pen, or even your fingers.

At about 2.2 pounds and 9.3 by 6.6 by 1.4 inches, the P1510D is certainly compact; however, you sacrifice some power for portability.

The preproduction model I looked at came equipped with an Intel Pentium M Ultra Low Voltage 753 processor; 512MB of DDR2-400 SDRAM memory; and a 30GB, 4200-rpm hard drive. The unit lacks an optical drive--and one is not included even in the optional $130 port replicator. It does come with 802.11a/g wireless, though, as well as a fingerprint reader and SD Card and CompactFlash slots.

Melissa J. Perenson

Gizmondo's New Slant on Portable Gaming

What do you get when you take a portable game console, shove in bits of a cell phone, and then hammer a GPS receiver into the remaining space? You get Tiger Telematics' Gizmondo, a $399 device that's gunning to be a data-enabled variant of Sony's popular PlayStation Portable.

Small and lightweight (6.7 ounces), with a 2.8-inch screen, the Gizmondo isn't as bulky as Sony's 9.9-ounce PSP (which has a larger, brighter screen). The range of games is limited at the moment, and those that are available lack the graphical wow factor and playability that PSP games have. But the Gizmondo has a built-in camera that takes slightly blurry but adequate VGA-resolution snapshots; it also has Web browsing and messaging features, plus the ability to play back MP3 music and MPEG-4 videos via an SD Card.

The pricing of the Gizmondo will be complex: If you receive three ads a day, it costs $229. If you don't want the ads, it jumps to $399--significantly more than the $250 PSP. You'll also need to pay for data services via cellular phone networks. (A service provider has yet to be designated.) The company expects the new device to be available in the United States in October.

Richard Baguley