Fujitsu LifeBook AH550 Review

LifeBook AH530 Notebook

Pros

• High quality metallic black paint
• Decent build quality
• Good performance

Cons

• Just over three hours of battery life

Fujitsu LifeBook AH550 Full Review

 

The LifeBook AH550 is a 15.6-inch desktop replacement notebook from Fujitsu. With a starting price of $749, the AH550 includes an Intel Core i3-330m processor, 4GB of DDR3 RAM and a 500GB hard drive. Higher configurations with NVIDIA dedicated graphics are also offered, with a $200 price premium. In this review we see how well the LifeBook AH550 stacks up against other 15-inch desktop replacement systems and if it's worthy of being your next purchase.

Our Fujitsu LifeBook AH550 Specifications:

• Processor: Intel Core i3-330M (2.13GHz, 3MB cache)
• OS: Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
• Memory: 4GB Dual Channel DDR3 at 1066MHz
• Storage: 500GB 5400rpm HDD
• Graphics: Intel GMA HD integrated graphics
• Display: 15.6-inch (1366x768) LED-backlit display with built-in webcam
• Optical Drive: 8x Dual-Layer CD/DVD burner (DVD/-RW/R)
• Wireless: Wireless Network Card 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth
• Battery: 6-cell Lithium Ion battery (43 WHr)
• Dimensions: 14.65 x 10.25 x 1.49-2.00 inches
• Weight: 6.39 lb (starting)
• Starting price: $749

Build and Design
The Fujitsu LifeBook AH550 has a classy, metallic black finish inside and out with chrome accents. The screen cover features the Fujitsu logo front and center, as well as the company name and a smaller logo located on the top edge. Inside, the palmrest, keyboard trim and screen bezel share the same metallic black finish with chrome accents around the touchpad and along the front edge. If all the stickers were removed from the body of the notebook I think the LifeBook AH550 would be one of the slickest looking notebooks around.

Build quality is about average compared to other current-generation consumer and small business notebooks. Main panels, including the palmrest and screen cover, have some flex but nothing that stands out. On the palmrest, the section over the optical drive bay has some give. Gripping the notebook around that spot flexes it upward from the bottom as well as inside the open optical drive cavity. The paint quality is very good with the finish holding up admirably to scratches and scuffs. Everything from the palmrest down is matte plastic that goes very well with the glossier black finish and also helps to hide any day-to-day abuse. Like most Fujitsu notebooks, this model also offers the removable air filter on the bottom.

Fujitsu gives users easy access to the hard drive and system memory through two panels on the bottom of the notebook. One area that may be a future concern is the fashion in which the battery is mounted, using plastic spring clips instead of latches. If one of the clips ever broke off or lost tension the battery would no longer stay locked inside the system.

Keyboard and Touchpad
The LifeBook AH550 features a very comfortable business-grade keyboard that is easy to type on and gives excellent tactile feedback. Keyboard support is excellent even under the most strenuous typing with individual key mechanisms up to the task. Key wobble was barely present; larger keys had smooth travel despite offset presses which can sometimes cause hang-ups. The keyboard itself is both spill-resistent and full-sized with a numberpad. The layout was easy to get used to and unlike on some models, the numberpad doesn't shrink the keys on the primary section of the keyboard.

For a multimedia notebook we were surprised to see no dedicated multimedia keys or repurposed function keys of any kind. The only auxiliary button on the notebook was a support key located beside the power button.

The touchpad included on the LifeBook AH550 is a mid-sized ALPS model with some multitouch capabilities. Sensitivity was excellent and we only found minimal lag in our extensive testing. During long click and drag movements the touchpad would sometimes unselect the item we were dragging and lock onto another icon and move it. Tweaking the settings seemed to improve this issue, but we've never had this problem with Synaptics touchpads. Supported gestures include pan scrolling, pinch zoom and pivot rotation. Along with standard up and down scroll, it also supports chiral (circular) scrolling action as an added option.

Screen and Speakers
The AH550 includes one resolution screen option for both integrated and dedicated graphics variants. Both systems include an LED-backlit panel with a 1366x768 WXGA resolution. These days I'm surprised when mid-range models don't offer an HD-capable 1600x900 resolution display, especially if they're multimedia-oriented. The panel itself rates average with good color and contrast. The glossy screen surface helped give colors the appearance of greater color saturation and also improved black levels. Screen brightness was fine for viewing in bright office conditions, but with a peak backlight level measured at 190 nits, it wasn't bright enough for outdoor viewing.

The speakers on the AH550 are located above the keyboard and sound below-average compared to other multimedia-oriented notebooks. Bass and midrange were very weak with maximum volume levels inadequate for even small rooms. For listening to streaming music or talking to someone using VOIP software, they'll work just fine; still, they left a lot to be desired. Headphones or digital audio over HDMI would be preferable for listening to music.

Ports and Features
The Fujitsu LifeBook AH550 offered a good selection of ports, including four USB 2.0 ports, VGA and HDMI-out, LAN and analog audio jacks. Expansion slots included an SDHC-compatible card reader and ExpressCard/54 slot. The port layout on the back was crowded with three USB 2.0 slots located right next to each other. This configuration might block other ports if you have a wide device to plug in.

Front: Nothing

Rear: LAN, HDMI-out, three USB 2.0, VGA-out, Kensington lock slot

Left: ExpressCard/54, optical drive

Right: Wireless on/off, SDHC-card reader, audio jacks, one USB 2.0, AC-power


Performance and Benchmarks
System performance with the Intel Core i3-330M processor and Intel GMA HD integrated graphics was excellent. The notebook had no trouble keeping up with decoding 720p or 1080p HD video played locally or playing HD Flash video streamed from sites such as YouTube. If you have no intention of gaming on your notebook, the current generation of integrated graphics is more than capable of handling anything you can throw at it. Users looking to get a bit more punch out of their machine can purchase the performance-oriented AH550 for $949 which includes a faster Intel i5-430M processor and NVIDIA GeForce 310M dedicated graphics with 512MB of video memory. Another perk of the enhanced model is a much larger 8-cell battery.

wPrime processor comparison results (lower scores mean better performance):


PCMark05 measures overall system performance (higher scores mean better performance):


3DMark06 measures video and gaming performance (higher scores mean better performance):


CrystalDiskMark storage drive performance results:

Heat and Noise
The cooling system on the AH550 had no trouble keeping up with the Core i3 processor and GMA HD integrated graphics, but wound up on the loud side when compared to other models. The system fan didn't seem to scale effectively between loads, staying very slow or off at idle and ramping up to full speed when under load. During our benchmark runs the fan would kick into high speed as soon as the benchmark started, and turn off just as quickly once the benchmark stopped. The level of noise was high enough to be heard in a small, quiet office even with normal background noises.

Battery Life
The Fujitsu LifeBook AH550 is offered with either a six- or eight-cell battery depending on which model you purchase. The lower configuration with integrated graphics comes standard with a 43Wh six-cell battery; the higher configuration with dedicated graphics has the larger 75Wh battery. Fujitsu estimates the battery life of the six-cell battery at 3.5 hours and the eight-cell battery at 5.25 hours. In our battery test, with the screen brightness reduced to 70 percent, Wi-Fi active and refreshing a webpage every 60 seconds and Windows 7 set to the Balanced profile, the AH550 stayed on for 3 hours and 15 minutes.

Conclusion
The Fujitsu LifeBook AH550 is a rather basic multimedia notebook with a minimalistic appearance. The piano black shell and interior go a long way to help in the looks department but it doesn't have the media buttons, large speakers or high-resolution screen options offered by other media-oriented notebooks in this market segment. Fujitsu has come a long way with improving the pricing model of their notebook lineup, but for $749 we might expect to see a small bump in features when all other parts are starter-level Intel components. If this notebook had a slightly higher resolution screen-even as an option-and the 8-cell batteries were standard on entry models it would be a very good desktop-replacement system. Overall, the AH550 is worth checking out if you're looking for a stylish, entry-spec notebook priced under $800.

Pros

• High quality metallic black paint
• Decent build quality
• Good performance

Cons

• Just over three hours of battery life

Individual Ratings: *
Software & Support 
Upgrade Capabilities 
Usability 
Design 
Performance 
Features 
Price/Value Rating 

* Ratings averaged to produce final score