Not long ago I put my hands on a Fujitsu-Siemens Amilo Pi 2540. It’s a laptop with a 15.4″ screen and a weight of 3.0 kg (around 6.6 pounds). I could test it for 3 h only, so I can’t give you a complete opinion, but it’s a pretty common laptop in some stores (at least here in Catalonia) and I think it’s interesting to test it. As I was on a hurry, some of the pictures are not very good.
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Specifications
- Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo T5450
- RAM: 2 GB
- Hard disk: 250 GB (5400 rpm)
- Graphics card: ATI Mobility Radeon HD 2400 (256 MB DDR2)
- Monitor: 15.4″, glossy, 1280×800
- Optical drive: DVD-RW
- Integrated webcam and microphone
- OS: Windows Vista Home Premium
- Purchase price: 649,00 € at Miró (Spain)
Complete specs at Fujitsu-Siemens website
Description
Looks are quite standard, combining black and a greyish blue. Its surface is mainly matte, excepting some glossy decorative elements.
It looks like cheap plastic, but it seems solid, without much cracking or bending.
Monitor is glossy; the place where I used it was not brightly illuminated, and reflections were visible, but not annoying. Image quality was not impressive, but correct. I couldn’t get any good pictures showing the quality of the monitor.
Keyboard was comfortable, and Ctrl key was located at the left bottom corner. It lacks any multimedia buttons. The touchpad was not very sensitive, but I didn’t experience any problems using it; the surface is textured, and I think that can be inconvenient if used for long periods.
Concerning connectivity and ports, I have to stress that it lacks TV-out (it only sports VGA and DVI) and Firewire, and has 3 USB ports, 2 at the back and 1 at the right side.
Front view: IR port, switch for WiFi a/b/g.
Back view: heat vent, DVI-D, VGA, power, modem, Ethernet 10/100, USB (x2).
Left view: audio input (mic + line-in), audio output (phones + S/PDIF), ExpressCard (54/34), DVD burner.
Right view: card reader (SD/MS/MMC/MMCPRO), USB port.
Performance
I used the laptop for basic tasks only: installing software and browsing the net; I did that with the laptop unplugged and using the energy saving profile of Windows Vista. While in this conditions the laptop was working at reduced performance, I didn’t experience noticeable slowdowns, and usage was quite smooth. Windows Vista took about 2 minutes to boot up. The battery lasted for 2 h and 9 m. A nice surprise is that it does come with little trialware installed: only Microsoft Office and Norton antivirus.
I used it on the lap during the whole testing to know if it became too hot. In fact it felt hot, but without being uncomfortable. Keeping in mind that the usage was little demanding, it’s likely that it heats much more under heavy load.
Speakers are of bad quality: while volume and basses are average, sound was metallic and unpleasant, even at medium volume.
Conclusions
Pros: cheap; dedicated graphics; webcam and integrated microphone; little trialware.
Cons: heavier than other 15.4″ laptops; low quality speakers. I don’t have references about the brand, but I have seen negative opinions in some forums.
Recommended: for basic tasks. Dedicated graphics can offer some extra muscle for playing HD movies and gaming, but also increases heat production and power consumption. More info on ATI Mobility Radeon HD 2400 performance at Notebookcheck.
Not recommended: for uses requiring a powerful CPU or GPU. I wouldn’t recommend it to users requiring mobility, because its battery life is not good and it’s heavy for the size. Lack of Firewire port is a problem to connect it to a digital camera, so I wouldn’t recommend it to people planning to do home video editing (professional editing is already discarded because of its low powered components).
