back to article Fujitsu Stylistic Q550 Windows 7 tablet

Fujitsu is pitching its latest Windows 7 tablet directly at the enterprise and business markets. That’s a wise move because Windows in its current form is never going to hold a candle to iOS and Android Honeycomb in terms of consumer usability. It also means Fujitsu can load the Q550 down with tricks and treats and not worry too …

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  1. Charles Calthrop
    FAIL

    £800 or almost ten hp touchpads!!!

    1. N13L5
      FAIL

      for 800, they could get the same 8 hours of battery life with a low voltage i7

      800 bucks for a freakin atom...

      The low voltage i7 or at least an i3 would be more like it...

      ok, so the screen is nice... its still very small. 13.3" would be a lot more workable for windows productivity stuff, and to make enough room for a virtual touch type keyboard

  2. BorkedAgain
    Meh

    Thanks...

    ...but no thanks.

  3. ratfox
    Facepalm

    Good luck

    Indeed, no consumer will go for something thicker, more heavy, AND more expensive than standard alternatives.

  4. graeme leggett Silver badge

    Buttons - the answer is obvious

    the multiplicity of buttons are so it can't be mistaken (by the incompetent or lawyers) as an Apple product.

  5. Arctic fox
    Windows

    Can't make a silk purse from sow's ear..............

    .........though interestingly enough Win7 tabs all the same manage about 5% of the tab market despite the fact that Win7 sucks big time as a touch os. That explains perhaps why Fujitsu are bothering to maintain a presence in this segment. It is clear there is a demand, one that I expect they are hoping to have rather more success with at a later date with a Win8 based tablet. It does rather suggest that Redmond's decision to cover both ARM and x86 architectures is not a stupid move. At the moment what appears to be on the horizon from Intel and/or AMD does not look that promising in the context of *tablet* pcs.

    1. Arctic fox
      Windows

      RE "Can't make a silk purse from sow's ear."

      "Intel promises '20X' power reduction with 'Haswell' chips".

      Just goes to show that one should not speak too soon although not until 2013 is a bit of a wait.

      http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/09/13/haswell_at_adc_2011/

  6. Robert Carnegie Silver badge

    Underpowered for video playback, I hear.

    Too bad about Ubuntu, how about trying SystemRescueCD? But come to think, I haven't got that to run from stick, although apparently others have. And if it does come up, with one USB port and that in use, what are you going to do for a keyboard?

    Knoppix is probably a maybe.

    Limited RAM (2 GB = Atom ceiling) and 32 bit Windows, this isn't a produtct with the future in view.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    If you think consumers are stingy...

    Quote "Fujitsu is pitching [] directly at the enterprise and business markets. That’s a wise move because [] Fujitsu can load the Q550 down with tricks and treats and not worry too much about the impact on the price."

    In my experience, the bigger the company, the tighter it is with its money. And a Windows-based device with a touch interface is fundamentally crippled - you'd only buy something like this if you had really narrow requirements.

  8. Bassey

    We have a couple of desktops running the old Atom at home, albeit with NVidia ION, and they perform perfectly well. I don't run photoshop on them but video editing is fine, it multi-tasks well enough (as it presents four cores to the OS) and the 2GB of RAM seems okay. I would have thought the SSD would make these seem quite spritely. Does the Intel graphics really make this considerably slower than my desktops or am I considerably more patient/realistic than the reviewer?

    1. Gordon 10

      Ion

      Would give the gma graphics in this tab a mighty shoeing.

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    There's tablets -

    - and there's tablet PCs. (Tablet PCs being the articulation of that long-ago Gatesian vision).

    This is the a tablet PC. Consumers are buying tablets, but some corporates still have apps developed for tablet PCs. Those apps will probably migrate to tablets over time, so this is a legacy product for a legacy market.

    Windows 8 will attempt to be both tablet, and tablet PC, which may mean customers get two choices:

    a) Switch into full Windows 8 mode on ARM - underpowered for the job, and with a limited range of ported software

    b) Run Windows 8 tablet mode on Intel - overpowered, heavy, and battery-hungry.

    1. dogged
      Facepalm

      Question

      While you're here and staring infallibly into the future, which lottery numbers should I pick?

  10. Wang N Staines

    Hmmm

    Rounded corners & smooth surface!!!

  11. Fibbles

    Does stylus have pressure sensitivity? If doesn't it's going to be of no use to graphic designers and illustrators.

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    There is a Demand From Sources That do not Need Toys

    We purchased 240 ST4110 and ST4120 tablets from a surplus dealer in December for little more than peanuts.

    These were old Pentium III 900MHz and 800MHz tablets with Windows XP Tablet PC edition.

    We started selling them in mid February for between $115 and $155 each. We were surprised that we were able to move the entire lot at that price before the end of March. Yes we peddled them on eBay.

    I suspect that traditional users of Tablets do not have much use for the iPAD and Android Tablets. Yes they offer better touch interface but not much else for the traditional tablet market.

    There is still a significant demand for Windows and non Androis and apple tablets by traditional tablet users who need more than what is offered by the passing FAD Tablets.

    Fujitsu may not never ship millions of units of this tablet but in their traditional tablet market there will still be a significant demand and the margins should be better then they would earn from Toy Slabs so it should still be good business.

    1. BorkedAgain
      Meh

      I think...

      ...it's probably possible to sell pretty much anything with a screen on eBay for about $115-155. Not sure what that says about selling a fatter, heavier, uglier iPad which doesn't run Angry Birds and has no fart apps or GarageBand or any of the other must-have doodads for $800, though...

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        What is says is that there continue to be a demand from sources that do not need a piece of toy to run angry bird and fart apps. That's the point I am trying to make.

        As another poster noted. There is something called a Tablet PC that has been around for a while. It has enterprise uses and do more than run angry birds, fart apps and ebook readers

  13. Al Taylor
    Alert

    from the author

    @ Fibbles

    Yes, with 256 levels of pressure sensitivity.

    1. Fibbles

      Considering most professional graphics tablets have between 1024 and 2048 levels of sensitivity this tablet doesn't really seem like it'll be fit for that purpose. There's also the issue of what the screen feels like to draw on. The article says it has a matt finish which is of course good but I wonder how it'll compare to Wacom's faux paper finish that they apply to their Intuos tablets and Cintiq monitors.

      If this were a sub £200 tablet it might be worth considering for designers. For all it's limitations though (low stylus sensitivity, non-changeable nibs, unnatural screen finish and it's lack of power that will likely make photoshop / illustrator / painter run at a snails pace) I can't really see anyone being willing to pay the better part of a grand to use it as a graphics tablet.

  14. studiousgeek
    Unhappy

    Pressure sensitivity

    ...is advertised as 256 levels. In reality there are about 6 due to the (poor) design of the mechanical pressure sensor in the N-trig Digital Pencil.

  15. Levente Szileszky
    FAIL

    Windows 7 on Atom? Thanks but...

    ...no thanks.

    1. Gordon Fecyk
      Go

      Win7 on Atom seems fine to me

      Granted I'm using a Gateway netbook that I bought a SSD and 2 GB RAM upgrade for, but it does the job. Fujitsu's offering is identical performance-wise and a logical extension, but holy cow expensive.

    2. asdf
      FAIL

      actually

      Atoms are fine if you are ok with your computer needing a fan and a big battery. For couch tablets not so much. Its ok though Intel will eventually offer a sub 1 watt SoC with decent performance but that is if you want to wait until 2014 or so.

  16. Mikel
    FAIL

    How clever. Another Windows tablet

    With a stylus again even. What with a glut of product in that category on sale unwanted, it's not a task I would put engineers to. But what do I know? Congratulations Fujitsu on your Vision and daring to take tablets down the same old road we don't ever want to see again. Good luck with that.

  17. Stfn

    Linux support

    To bad about the Ubuntu startup stick – I was planning to use Ubuntu on this machine. Can you tell me which version of Ubuntu you tried? And were you able to tell what caused the Ubuntu boot to fail?

    Thank you!

  18. lotus49
    FAIL

    Doooomed

    There is no way on earth that this is going to sell at GBP800.

    Most tablets are bought for execs and they all want an iPad. No techie worth his/her salt will want Windows and consumers won't pay that much.

    When (and not if) this totally fails to sell and they slash the price, it still won't sell. Acer must have a screw loose if they think anyone will pay way over the price of an iPad for a fat, slow tablet running Windows.

  19. Stfn

    Linux support

    Too bad about the Ubuntu startup stick – I was planning to run Ubuntu on this tablet. Can you tell me which version of Ubuntu you tried? And were you able to tell what caused the Ubuntu boot to fail?

    Thank you!

  20. Al Taylor
    Alert

    Linux - from the author

    Stfn - it was 11.04. The system booted off the memory stick A OK - the touch screen worked fine with the BIOS - but as soon as I attempted to launch Ubuntu it got a screen full of error messages. I'm no Linux expert so this was more of a quick'n'dirty test but it didn't look a problem with an easy fix to me.

  21. Stfn

    Error messages

    Thank you for the additional information. Do you remember what the error messages were complaining about?

  22. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    hmmmm

    looks crap

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