Has anyone else in Europe spotted a massive price drop on the Fujitsu P1610? For about two weeks the prices have been at the 800 Euro mark. which is about a 50% discount over previous prices.
The P1610 is a well-respected ultra mobile workhorse. Good build quality, hi-res screen, fingerprint reader, heavy-touch screen for reduced vectoring, PCMCIA slot and extended battery capability. It runs XP TE and Vista Business (dual-boot as I understand it) on a Core Solo processor at 1.2Ghz and weighs 1.2KG which is the same as an MSI Wind or Eee PC 901. At its previous price of over 1600 Euros it was out of reach for most people but at 800 Euros, its a different matter. [Article continues…]
I’ve been using the Medion Akoya (MSI Wind) for the last week and have been extremely satisfied with its form factor. As a conference machine where lapping, reliability and efficient keyboard are very important, it beats a ultra mobile PC which, lets be honest, is not really design for such usage scenarios. But there were a couple of things missing from the Wind. 1) Processing power. The 1.6Ghz Atom processor is surprisingly strong (i’m using it to encode a video in the background while I write this) but the ability to dial in some 20-30% more raw CPU power for full-screen flash video playback, high quality Skype video and faster video processing would save a lot of minutes and enable a few more scenarios. 2) Bluetooth. I tether a lot and having to carry a USB cable is a pain. Bluetooth tethering without having to remove my phone from the pocket or sending images from the phone would be a big advantage. 3) Security. I am a high-risk to myself! Having a fingerprint reader could save my bacon. 4) Touchscreen. I miss, badly, having a touchscreen. Even in desktop mode. 5) Tablet mode. I’ve become a fan of sitting in a comfortable chair and browsing websites in portrait 600×1024 mode on the Kohjinsha SC3. Having a 768-wide screen is going to make it even more interesting.
Those 5 points above are worth 400 Euro to me without a question. I’ll be losing the LED backlit screen which means that battery life will suffer in bright areas (although it has a special non-glare screen which should help,) the keyboard will be harder to use and I’ll be stuck at 1GB of RAM (upgrades are expensive on the P1610) but considering that I’m not interested in Vista right now, I think 1GB is going to be fine. At 800 with auto-rotate, GB-LAN, fall-protected hard drive a good accessory range and 3-year guarantee, I consider this to be the best ultra mobile bargain in Germany right now.
So if anyone wants to buy my Medion Akoya or Kohjinsha SC3, please let me know. I’m looking to trade-in for the P1610 as my workhorse remote-working machine. I think that by adding a Gigabyte M528 and combining with my N82, I’ll have something close to my ideal three-device setup. Until the 1.8Ghz Viliv S7 becomes available at least!
Check out the P1610 info page and some of the linked reviews for more info.
Latest Germany pricing: Geizhals
Wow, if it was not a German keyboard I would grab straight away rather than waiting for the Gigabyte 912
no such drop here in norway, but then it seems there is no webshop that still has it in store so most of the prices are just leftovers in the databases from what i can tell…
not surprising really as i think F-S have come out with a P1620 now thats supposed to replace the P1610. so what we are seeing is a end-of-life like what expansys had on the nokia 770 (did i ever buy a lemon there).
Haha. 770 was indeed, a poor internet tablet!
the biggest problem was not the software, but that faulty display controller.
you have a small chance on reboot that it would get itself into some mode that made it useless.
and guess what i managed to get it into about 2 months after i got it?
before that i would say that while somewhat underpowered, it did a acceptable job for my use.
I thought the Wind/Akoya DID have Bluetooth
Am I wrong?
most netbooks do not have bluetooth, for some reason or other…
the first EEE’s to get bluetooth for example are the 901 and 1000.
then there are those that have bluetooth on the windows models but not on the linux ones (as if bluetooth should be a premium thing these days).
as for the wind, some models have, some dont…
checking the msi wind at expansys, the winxp ones have BT, the linux ones do not…
also, the black one seems to have a very apple like bump vs the white or pink one. i do hope this will not become some kind of trend…
The Akoya version (Medion) doesnt have BT.
Although, in my recent check, I see that it has draft-n support on the Wifi!
Steve
Hi Steve,
I might be interested in buying your SC3. I will contact you later since I am @work and not logged in right now.
Take care,
Florian
Hi steve,
i might be interested in the SC3, too.
how much do U want for it?
greetz..
kurt
The P1610 sounds quite nice – is there a shop in Germany that sells the 6cell in combination with the (optional) UMTS/HSDPA-Module? Where to get those 2 folks seperately?
best regards
Not sure that the UMTS version is being discounted. Have a chat with TheTabletStore. You ll find them on a google search. They probably have the info direct from the distributor.
thx, contacted them and now awaiting the answer.
the p1610 looks good as a m912m alternative.
For those interested in the SC3, i’ll sell it at 550 Euro in Europe. Vista home premium is installed. 1GB of RAM.
Contact me if you’re interested.
http://www.umpcportal.com/contact
The Medion Akoya is being sold to my Wife so that one has already gone!
Steve.
Hi Chippy,
Many thanks to your information. I have just order on P1610 from ComputerUniverse.net They have good deal.
Shame they haven’t reduced the price of the P1620. Until they do, the Evernote Note and SC3 remain the objects of my desire :-)
Chippy – I noticed that you allude to the fact that the Everun Note will not be out until next year somewhere. I had thought we were looking at a September 08 release – can you confirm any info or wispers re release dates that you are hearing?
Thanks.
Does anyone know what language options this German 1610 has? It looks tempting to me, if it has an English option, and computeruniverse deliver to my home in NL. I’ve also never seen a German keyboard layout. Is it weird like the French ones? :-)
Hi Chippy,
it’s a promotion as you can see on the FSC website:
http://www.fujitsu-siemens.de/aktionsmodelle/notebooks/lifebook_p_n1.html .
Flyer: http://cpp-plus.fujitsu-siemens.de/db/P1610MXAA1DE.pdf
I miss the UMTS (3G) modem in this “Aktionsmodell August 2008”. A plus is the 6 cell battery.
Jörg
Hi folks,
I called the FSC-Sales-Hotline today in Germany and they told me:
1. It’s not possible to use a UMTS-Sim-Card inside this (Promotion-)Lifebook 1610 (VFY:P1610MXAA1DE).
2. 1 GB RAM is definitely the maximum to use with the Lifebook 1610.
3. TwinLoad meens either Vista or XP installed, not dual-boot. So you have to delete the installed OS to install the other.
Jörg
The ram information is wrong. http://www.leog.net/fujp_forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=12244&whichpage=1
Thanks xam, interesting and good to know! :)
Does the P1610 or P1620 admit more RAM, and I dont find a clear quote about handling HSDPA GPRS,GPS,… web camera and cellular functions?