Fujitsu LifeBook ships

Fujitsu today announced that its LifeBook P7230 MacBook-like laptop is ready for the U.S. Available last month in southeast Asia, the 10.6-inch widescreen system shares the same minimal design philosophy as the MacBook but reduces size and heaviness, with a complete system weighing just 2.6 pounds. The new LifeBook is also one of the few notebooks to ship with an LED backlight that improves battery life as well as image quality alike, according to Fujitsu, with running time estimated at a comparatively long 6 hours. Similar to the Japanese original, the P7230 ships with a 1.2GHz ultra-low voltage Core Solo processor, 1GB of memory, and a fingerprint reader. However, the system builder's American launch adds a pair of lower-cost versions meant for less demanding users.

A base model with a 40GB hard drive, DVD/CD-RW combo drive, and Vista Home Basic ships later this week for $1,699; a mid-range version at $1,899 adds a 60GB disk, a DVD-RW drive, and Vista Business; and a premium $2,179 model introduces a webcam and port replicator as well as increasing disk space to 80GB. Systems begin shipping later this week.

by MacNN Staff