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Fujitsu P1610 Up For Sale On Ebay

// May 8th, 2009 // No Comments » // toys

As excited as I was to get the Fujitsu P1610, the Dell Mini 9 has completely replaced it, so I’ve finally gotten around to putting the Fujitsu P1610 up on Ebay. Yes, I realize Ebay is a horrid, horrid place to sell things, but it’s also a bit easier to deal with than Craigslist. In fact, the P1610 has been on Craigslist twice now, with no success.

You can check out the listing here. I splurged a bit on the ‘extras’, but hopefully that will help push things along, as well. I’m taking quite a hit on the sale price, but I need to get rid of it. Also, please ignore the username – as you can see, I’ve had that account since 2000, a time when I was less concerned about my username and what people would think of it.

The P1610 is a fantastic little machine, don’t get me wrong. I wish the Dell Mini 9 had the P1610′s keyboard and display, but I just can’t handle that stupid nubbin – I need me a touchpad, even if it’s as tiny as the one on the Dell is.

If you’d like to trade an EeePC 1008HE straight up for my P1610, email me, I’m definitely game.

Holy Battery Life Batman!

// January 23rd, 2009 // 2 Comments » // cool, Mobile, technology

I’ve never really thought too much about my laptop’s battery life. The XPS gets better length than my old Gateway MX6956, but it’s still limited to the ~3hour time frame, which isn’t anything impressive. When I got the Fujitsu P1610, I thought for sure I could go a bit longer without a charge, but the full HDD and touchscreen display decided otherwise. I can maybe squeeze some extra time if I dial the display brightness down, but what’s the point in that?

Imagine my surprise last night, when I pulled the Dell Mini 9 into the livingroom to assist while I tinkered with other laptops (more on that later). I didn’t bother to bring the plug, and had the display cranked up to full brightness. 4 hours later, when Mrs. Guru finally got home from work, I glanced over at the Dell, whose battery indicator showed that it was only 3/4 of the way drained. Seriously? Holy crap!

I’m now obsessed with this no-cord thing. It’s truly impressive, and as far as I can tell, it’s mainly due to the SSD inside the Mini 9 (and the fact that it’s not a touchscreen). It’s very cool to be able to just use the thing, and not have to fret over whether there’s a plug nearby.

Today, I”m ordering the internal Bluetooth module, and probably a skin from Decal Girl or 3ACP. Hopefully, in camo.

Dell Mini 9 Netbook Lands At Casa Guru

// January 22nd, 2009 // No Comments » // cool, technology

My friends like to make fun of me, asking frequently, ‘How many computers do you need? I thought you were a cell phone guy?’ It’s true, I am a cell phone guy, but at the moment, there are 6 computers in Casa Guru, 5 of which are laptops. The media center doesn’t really count, it’s just an old eMachines tower with a new 500GB hard drive that sits in the livingroom, storing all of our video and photos. Nothing to see there.

Three of the remaining 4 laptops are Dells, which wasn’t really planned. Mrs. Guru has an old Inspiron something-or-other that I’ve been trying to let her let me replace, but no avail. My work machine is a Dell XPS M1330, and I have an old Gateway MX6956 that’s still rocking. The 2 netbooks are the Fujitsu P1610 and the new arrival – a Dell Mini 9.

As you can see, the Dell and the Fujitsu are roughly the same size, both having an 8.9″ display. However, they’re vastly different machines. The P1610 is a tablet-pc, with a swiveling touchscreen display, PC Card slot, and a few other niceties. It’s also rather ugly, and very industrial-looking. The Dell, on the other hand, is very….cute, with consumer-friendly design cues, but in a regular laptop form factor and a minimum level of extras.

Within a few minutes, both machines will be running Windows 7, though the Dell is slated to get hackintosh’d this weekend, hopefully. My initial reaction is that the Dell’s keyboard is going to take *alot* of getting used to. As you can see in the photos, the P1610′s keyboard stretches from edge-to-edge, with no room on either side, and includes a 6th row of F-keys, which are actually incredibly necessary on a computer with such a small display. You’ll also notice that while the Dell’s main keys are full sized, the flanking keys on either side of the keyboard have been shrunk, and some of them even rearranged. This is going to irritate the junk out of me, for sure.

Dell Mini 9 Keyboard

P1610 Keyboard

However, I like that the Dell has a regular touchpad, vs. the ‘nub’ on the P1610. A major downpoint, for me, on the Dell is the 16GB SSD inside, vs the 60GB HDD on the P1610. Sure, SSD means far better battery life, quieter operation, and all that, but hey, space is space. I’m considering upgrading to a 64GB aftermarket SSD, but haven’t decided yet.

The other main draw of the Dell Mini 9 is the vibrant community of folks who like to tinker. MyDellMini.com has a great and active Forum, with separate subforums on Windows 7 (which is 98% installed, as I’m typing this), OSX (which will hopefully be this weekend), and even hardware modifications, if that’s your bag. I like having support.

Below are more comparison pics of the Fujitsu P1610 beside the Dell Mini 9. I’ll definitely be posting more thoughts on it, including documenting the hackintosh procedure for you.

Traveling With 2 Laptops

// December 14th, 2008 // 6 Comments » // Mobile

After my experience of trying to cover an event with only the Fujitsu P1610 2 weeks ago, I’m off on another trip, this one only to Florida, and am actually bringing both the P1610 and my Dell XPS M1330. The Dell is fully powered, able to edit video, run Photoshop, and a host of other things that I need to do. The P1610, however, will be excellent in the sessions, allowing me to write directly on the screen. I’m anxious to see how the combination works out.

Other tools that I’m bringing along include the Nokia N800 Internet Tablet, the 5800 XpressMusic, my trusty N95-3, and the N85-1, as well as the E71-2, though honestly I don’t anticipate using that one much. I’m attending my first developer’s camp, sponsored by Orange, so this will certainly be a learning experience, from every angle.

Fujitsu P1610 – Great For Travel, But Not For Work

// December 7th, 2008 // 1 Comment » // Mobile

I just got back from Nokia World 2008, which was held in Barcelona, Spain. As you know, I also recently got my Fujitsu P1610, and was keen on seeing how well the P1610 would hold up to an event such as Nokia World, as my only machine. The smaller size, I figured, would be a boon, helping me cover things much easier, and to that end, it was.

Having taken a 15.4, 13.3, and now an 8.9″ laptop through security in an airport, I can say, without a doubt, that I would *much* prefer to travel with the latter. It’s a cinch to get in and out of a laptop bag, and I rather enjoyed the interested looks that it got from the TSA guys. Also, using such a small laptop in the waiting area and onboard the plane was a much better experience than with the larger laptops.

Unfortunately, that’s where the honeymoon ended. Monday night, I was handed a USB key with tons of press photos and pdfs and whatnot, and also had a few videos that I needed to upload pronto, for the next morning. Unfortunately, the photos and videos were huge files, and with the slightly underpowered P1610, I was unable to usably run Photoshop or any video editing software. I’ve noticed that if I have IM and Firefox open, with more than 4 tabs, the P1610 slows down considerably, making multitasking a daunting experience.

This proved true thoughout the rest of the trip, as I generated more and more video content, and was unable to edit any of it until I came home to my Dell XPS M1330. I also ran into an annoying issue with Civilization3 on the P1610, where it jacks with the display.

Don’t get me wrong, I still love the little guy, and will continue to explore different use-case scenarios. Unfortunately, this trip was made rather difficult by the underpowered processor.