back to article Fujitsu intros 5.6in bonsai laptop... with Vista

Fujitsu's Japanese customers will soon be able to get their mitts on one of the most stylish - and tiniest - Atom-based mini-laptops we've seen: the LifeBook FMV Biblo U/B50. Fujitsu FMV Biblio U/B50 Fujitsu FMV Biblio U/B50: Atom powered The compact machine sports a 5.6in display that's nonetheless capable of a 1280 x 800 …

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  1. Jamie
    Thumb Down

    Where is the Japanese bird on a beach?

    Except for the lack of attention to detail it does sound like quite a nice little box to tote around.

    But I have to give it thumbs down for the lack of any pictures of females using it, I think that is a bit sexist by todays standards.

  2. dervheid
    Thumb Up

    Vista aside,..

    looks good, decent spec.

    One Question;

    PRICE?

  3. Greg

    That's...actually quite impressive

    I'd be interested to see what it could do with a proper OS installed. Any idea on price?

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Input Devices?

    Keyboard Only? no touchpad or is it touchscreen??? drool if it is...

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Boffin

    Ok....

    All this new small cheap computer stuff is very exciting, but I'm still on my Sharp Zaurus SL-C3000, running Angstrom Linux, and have yet to be impressed enuf by anything else to go and shell out.

    My Zau is touch screen, it fits in my pocket, it runs everything I need (even ScummVM if I fancy a quick retro Monkey Island 2), and has enugh connectivity to handle anything I might wanna do. CF card wifi, iR to my phone, SD card, USB link.

    I can't see the current fascination with the SCC when I've had the Zau for ages. Maybe Sharp just needed a bird on a beach to sell it properly?

  6. Kyle
    Thumb Down

    How frigging small would your hands want to be?!

    That's pointlessly small - at that form factor a standard QWERTY layout's going to be no use. I get the appeal of small laptops, but this is reminiscent of the "small mobile phone" thing where you got tiny devices which couldn't be used by anyone with hands bigger than an 8 year old. Not to mention that they've rammed in enough hardware to run Vista. Exactly what Vista functions are so indispensable that you need them in a netbook, I ask?

  7. Jared Vanderbilt

    Wow, slow and illegible

    It should work well for the myopics. Viewing text from beyond 12 inches will require a magnifier.

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Down

    Fugly

    That is one ugly bastard of a umpc.

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    SCC?

    Is this really going to meet the criteria for the second "C" of "SCC"?

    I can't see that being cheap.

    One other thing, how the devil do you move the pointer? There's no trackpad and I see no nipples? (just like Jamie, above)

  10. Steve

    Ohh!

    The first UMPC I actually want!

    Decent spec, decent OS and decent connectivity. I'll take 3 please!

  11. Daniel Silver badge
    Dead Vulture

    Amazing tech but ...

    Incredible that they can pack all that tech into such a small chassis, but damn that thing's fugly.

    You'd have to be a serious early adopter (or really really need it) to buy one at this stage, but once Sony get their act going and make a VAIO version I'll have it.

    Vomiting vulture 'cuz I'd probably hurl chunks too after opening the box and seeing it 'in the flesh', so to speak.

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Joke

    Std complaints

    ... does it have a BluRay drive? Is it less than £200? Etcetera...

  13. Peter
    Unhappy

    Roll back 10 years...

    ... and this is what the Psion 5 replacement should have looked like. What a shame Psion are no longer making their devices. I still use my 3a on a daily basis.

  14. Colin
    Thumb Down

    Too small...

    I can't see many people wanting to strain their eyes looking at a 1280x800 res. Especially when trying to correct the typos produced on the keyboard that is frankly only for use with thumbs...

  15. Kev K
    Thumb Up

    Ohhh (2)

    Im with Steve - That would be a toy I would buy, especialy if I can add more ram and its touch screen

  16. Uwe Dippel
    Paris Hilton

    Bird on Beach

    ... had the tiny little thing on her mat, but then a breeze took it away into the waves. So they did away with the photo. Currently they are experimenting with a rock on top of the bookie, but then it isn't visible, and neither was the bird happy.

    I guess, SONY marketing will have to come up with something different. Maybe a scantily clad lab girl observing the bonsai under a microscope?

    Paris, because she doesn't like tiny little things ...

  17. Tony Smith, Editor, Reg Hardware (Written by Reg staff)

    @All

    By your command...

    Story updated with prices. Make sure you're sitting down.

  18. amanfromMars Silver badge
    Alien

    For the XXXXPerienced Light Traveller Communicating with Base. ET PhoneHome

    "designed for what Intel calls "mobile internet devices"."

    And a Pocket Rocket of a Mobile Internet Device for Global Operating Devices into Spying for ITs Future, Tony. Stripped down to the Bare Maximum for Naked Imperial Plays without Aggression.

    Bravo, Fujitsu, and who is your Champion in its Component Use/Product Placement/Nikkei Market Drive to Capture Toxic SQuillions for Nipponese RobotICQs.

    And yes that is CodeXXXX for AIR&dDers, Tony, CyberIntelAIgently Designed to KickStart the Markets in Lands and for Houses of the Rising Sun....... for the Powerful Control of the Love of Money .....and the Route/Root of All Evil........ which will be one of SuperDuper Higher Definition Greater Games/ARGs/MMORPG2s for RoMoSapiens.... Time Zone Spaced Out Travellers. :-) with such a Ridiculous Premise being Quite AI Stealthy Cover.

    Memo to Self ... I really gotta get out more? :-)

  19. Whitter
    Coat

    Out of Order

    At that price I demand beach shots!

  20. Graham McDermott

    Only in Japan

    The FMV/LOOX range are only available in Japan and service/support is only available there. Shame.

    Price is 129,800 YEN (about £635).

    http://www.fujitsu-webmart.com/pc/ui016?WEB_STYLE=FMVLUB50&SERIES_CODE=776&ONLY=0

  21. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    that's pretty hot

    but a: where is the hot girl

    and b:

    why does it have vista on it?

    1.6ghz processer and 1 gig of ram makes vista a slowpig.

    To quote a cat

    "Do not WAAAAAAAAAAANT"

  22. calagan

    1GB not enough for Vista

    Beside being too pricy (for $2500, I'd rather go for a MacBook Air with SSD), marketing this machine to use with Vista is not a good idea, since you need more than 1GB to run it comfortably.

  23. Anonymous Coward
    Alert

    Resistive touch screen ahoy

    Yes, anyone with eyes in their head can see the display bezel sporting the end of what appears to be a stylii, and, the hinge of the LCD clearly sports a swivel hinge so you can fold the display shut, open. So, no touchpad or clit-stick as input devices.

    Shame they didn't opt for the iPhone (and others) route of capacitive touch screen - aka touch screen utopia! Shame it costs a packet too - I'm very much in the market for an SCC, the EeePC 1000H looks to be my winner at the mojo...

  24. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    It's an update of an older model

    These machines have been available in Japan for a couple of years, this is basically just a CPU bump.

    Bit clunky to look at but not a bad machine - I nearly brought it several times.

    There are a few other competitors in this space in the Japanese market - none of them are very cheap though.

  25. James Pickett
    Happy

    Pity

    "the thing runs Windows Vista"

    That's an interpretation of the word 'run' I haven't met before...

    Apart from that (as they said to Mrs Lincoln) it looks desirable. Only those with 20/20 vision will be able to make use of that 1280x800 screen, though!

  26. b
    Thumb Up

    omg, dwarf laptops lol!

    ok, so i coined a phrase "baby laptops" and started a thread on my forum about it (mostly populated with fine register articles, duly acredited of course!)

    http://www.eupeople.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=487

    bbbut, what do we have here, yet ANOTHER class?!

    do we now have a "midget laptops"? market space?!

    must say the high res is a winner, well done fujitsu!

    cheers,

    bill

  27. Torben Mogensen

    Small expensive computers

    Both Fujitsu and Toshiba have been making tiny computers for ages, so there is not much new in this one. I bought a Toshiba Libretto 50 CT (http://resource.toshiba-europe.com/europe/computers/flyers/libretto/libretto_50_e.pdf) in 1999, and it was about he same size as this one (but, obviuosly, much lower specced). But all of these tiny tots have cost much more than similarly specced full-size laptops. Where Eee and followers have broken ground is in price.

  28. stu
    Paris Hilton

    UX range

    Nofink new.

    My UX280p has a nice fast core solo 1.2. 512gb ram, I've upgraded it to a 60 gig HD. it has 2 webcam, finger print gubbins, touch screen, etc

    wifi, bluetooth, gprs, memory stick.

    I run XP, but it can run vista fine.

    I take it on hols and can edit my video with sony vegas and piccies in photoshop sitting at the beach with a beer.

    And it looks a damn site better than that thing.

    'Course sony don't make em anymore....

    Paris because clearly when she sees me at the beech editing photos on my UX, she gets hot and wants me.

  29. Norfolk Enchants Paris
    Coat

    Used one, hated it

    Used one of these (the older model) and trialled them for UMPCs for globetrotting execs.

    As most of our exces (except my good self) all elderly and have poor eyesight, the gorgeous hi-res screen was illegible to them.

    The ones we trialled were XP, and not too shabby on performance. The keyboard was tiny.

    HOWEVER... when docked and plugged into my 24-inch monitor, with a real keyboard it was very cool.

    On the down side, yes it is ugly and it comes with a wee 'Man Bag' to carry it in made in an attractive spongy material. 'Twas black but should have been pink.

    Mine's the one with the Aston keys, and no UMPC

  30. MikeG
    Dead Vulture

    Only 1 Gig?

    Vista with only 1 Gig of memory? Oh, that'll be fun, I don't think.

  31. Uwe Dippel

    Updated with price

    €1697

    Hope you sit well, and have a glass in your hand, when you see this price.

    It is a SONY, okay, but still, at that price I want to catch two birds with a stone.

    Paris, because she doesn't think it is cheap

  32. Mark W
    Flame

    I have only one word

    Libretto.

    This was done to death years ago and even back then everyone realised they were shite :)

  33. James Pickett
    Alert

    Screen

    If a 5.6" (diagonal) screen is less than 128mm across (it is), then the dot/pixel pitch is less than 0.1mm. Wow.

  34. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Down

    Stylish? Really?

    Does this mean that my time-travel experiments have finally borne fruit and we really are in 1986? Break out the red braces!

  35. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Down

    Nice.

    No, wait a minute.

    So it costs 150 notes more than a MacBook Air and yet is considerably less powerful and infinitely less useable.

    I doubt that Jonathan Ive is losing sleep over this.

  36. Daniel Silver badge

    Mouse

    Maybe it has a resistive touchscreen (I dunno, couldn't be bothered to check) but it definitely has a wee mouse - check bottom right of the screen. My guess is it's one of those pad things like on the Libretto with two weeny little mouse buttons above it.

    Physically possible - check

    Can be made micro-size - check

    Usable by human hands - we'll get back to you

  37. Jon Green
    Alert

    Ho Li Kao

    ...but that's a pretty price for an ugly lump! Still, 600g or so (with a decent battery) makes even the Toshiba R500 series look heavy.

    Amen to the comments about Vista in 1GB. "Runs" might be a bit of an optimistic term, I suspect.

    I wonder how it performs, running Linux?

  38. Fred
    Linux

    Battery life ?

    So no word on battery life either ? Seems like an important point for those pocket devices.

    And why do they still bother offering Vista on these things ? Did it sell in Japan for some reason ?

    (I'll stick with my 12" running Linux for now)

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