Fujitsu debuts widescreen notebook

Fujitsu's first 17-inch wide-aspect screen notebook, the LifeBook N6010, rolls business and fun into one. Its specifications make it a viable desktop replacement, and at the same time, its multimedia offerings could keep gamers and movie-watchers happy.

For business purposes the widescreen allows viewing of several documents at once, while movie buffs can see their favorite films in the original widescreen format.

Other features include a hard drive up to 100G, the largest capacity available on a notebook, and a 3.2GHz Intel Pentium 4 processor with Hyper-Threading Technology, which speeds up multitasking.

The 10.12 pound notebook also comes with 128M of dedicated graphics memory, up to 2G of dual channel DDR memory, an SD Card/Memory Stick slot and 802.11a+b/g wireless networking.

Multimedia features include stereo speakers and a custom subwoofer. A TV tuner option lets users watch TV and DVDs, or listen to music CDs without booting up the notebook; pause and record live TV onto the hard drive or a DVD; and transfer existing VHS tapes to DVDs. It comes with a remote control.

With an optional multi-format DVD writer, the LifeBook can download movies from a digital camcorder and burn them on almost any DVD format.

Prices start at $1,699 for a base configuration with a $50 end-user rebate offered until Dec. 31, 2004. Fujitsu offers a three-year or one-year international limited warranty for U.S. and Canadian customers. The company also has Premium Care service plans, which include on-site service or a screen protection plan.