On its own, the Fujitsu LifeBook S7211 is an adequate budget laptop for small-business users. Its compact design doesn't take up too much room in a laptop bag, and its glossy, 14.1-inch display looks great whether you're crunching numbers or watching a movie on the plane. Its relatively low price--our review unit cost $1,099--means that we might be willing to overlook the laptop's somewhat basic feature set and mediocre performance. The LifeBook S7211 suffers in comparison to other low-cost laptops, however, especially the Lenovo 300 N200. For $999, the Lenovo 300 N200 offers many of the same features as the LifeBook S7211, plus a few more ports, Bluetooth, a fingerprint reader, and a more recent (and faster) Core 2 Duo processor. The LifeBook S7211 has only two advantages over the Lenovo: its slightly more compact design and its lengthy battery life. But if you're not likely to use your laptop on the road, these characteristics are not worth the trade-off in features and price.
Fujitsu LifeBook S7211
The Good
The Bad
The Bottom Line
| Price as configured / Starting price | $1,099 / $899 |
| Processor | 1.5GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T52500 |
| Memory | 1GB of 667MHz |
| Hard drive | 120GB at 5,400rpm |
| Graphics | Intel GMA X3100 (integrated) |
| Chipset | Intel GM965 |
| Operating system | Windows Vista Business |
| Dimensions (wide x deep x thick) | 13.2 x 9.5 x 1.4 inches |
| Screen size (diagonal) | 14.1 inches |
| System weight / Weight with AC adapter | 5.3 / 6.3 pounds |
| Category | mainstream |
Though the LifeBook S7211's price starts at an appealing $899, that amount includes a pokey Pentium dual-core processor and merely a CD burner. Our review unit cost $200 more but ups the configuration to a more acceptable (though still low-end) Core 2 Duo processor and a DVD burner. Each of the four LifeBook S7211 models is a fixed configuration with only 1GB of RAM. Though the laptop can accommodate up to 4GB in two slots, unfortunately, an upgrade isn't available directly from Fujitsu; if you want more RAM, you'll have to install it yourself. If you don't plan to add more memory yourself, we recommend one of the Windows XP Pro models, which requires less muscle to run than Vista Business.
| Â | Fujitsu LifeBook S7211 | Average for mainstream category |
| Video | VGA-out, Webcam | VGA-out, S-Video |
| Audio | Mono speaker, headphone jack | Stereo speakers, headphone/microphone jacks |
| Data | Three USB 2.0, multiformat memory card reader | USB 2.0, mini-FireWire, multiformat memory card reader |
| Expansion | ExpressCard | PC Card |
| Networking | Modem, Gigabit Ethernet, 802.11 a/b/g/n Wi-Fi, | Modem, Ethernet, 802.11 a/b/g Wi-Fi, optional Bluetooth |
| Optical drive | DVD burner | DVD burner |
The otherwise basic feature set on the Fujitsu LifeBook S7211 benefits from the inclusion of a built-in Webcam and ExpressCard slot, neither of which is standard for a low-cost system. Also worth noting is the laptop's color scheme, which should blend in with even more expensive business systems: aside from a light-gray keyboard and deck, the case is entirely black.
The LifeBook S7211's performance on CNET Labs' benchmarks proved slightly better than that of similarly configured systems, such as the Toshiba Satellite M205 and Fujitsu's own LifeBook A6110. However, the LifeBook S7211 suffers in comparison with several other laptops that cost less than $1,000, such as the Lenovo 3000 N200 and the Gateway M-1618. While the LifeBook S7211 proved adequate for basic media playback, Web surfing, and productivity, it did occasionally bog down when attempting all three simultaneously, and its paltry allotment of RAM held it back on our Photoshop test. We strongly recommend doubling the laptop's RAM (if you're comfortable installing it yourself).
Though its performance wasn't best-in-class, the LifeBook S7211's battery life has much to recommend it. The laptop lasted 2 hours and 41 minutes on our taxing DVD battery drain test. That's well beyond what we'd expect from a budget system and easily outlasted both the similarly priced and the similarly configured competition.
Befitting a wholly average laptop, the LifeBook S7211 ships with an industry-standard, one-year warranty. Warranty extensions and upgrades are reasonably priced, and Fujitsu offers a no-questions-asked Screen Damage Protection Plan for an additional cost.
Multimedia multitasking test
(Shorter bars indicate better performance)
Lenovo 3000 N200
1,132
1,368
Fujitsu LifeBook S7211
1,385
1,544
1,633
Adobe Photoshop CS3 image-processing test
(Shorter bars indicate better performance)
356
Fujitsu LifeBook S7211
492
542
665
Apple iTunes encoding test
(Shorter bars indicate better performance)
236
273
281
Fujitsu LifeBook S7211
287
DVD battery drain test
(Longer bars indicate better performance)
Fujitsu LifeBook S7211
161
124
115
115
101
Find out more about how we test laptops.
System configurations:
Fujitsu LifeBook S7211
Windows Vista Business Edition; 1.5GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T5250; 1024MB DDR2 SDRAM 667MHz; 128MB Intel Mobile 965GM Express; 120GB Fujitsu 5,400rpm
Gateway M-1618
Windows Vista Home Premium Edition; 1.9GHz AMD Turion 64x2 TL-58; 2,048MB DDR2 SDRAM 667MHz; 256MB ATI Radeon x1270; 250GB Western Digital 5,400rpm
Gateway T-6815
Windows Vista Home Premium Edition; 1.5GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T5250; 1024MB DDR2 SDRAM 667MHz; 256MB Mobile Intel 965GM Express; 160GB Hitachi 5,400rpm
Lenovo 3000 N200
Windows Vista Home Premium Edition; 1.8GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7100; 2048MB DDR2 SDRAM 667MHz; 256MB Mobile Intel 965GM; 80GB Seagate Momentus 5,400rpm
Toshiba Satellite M205-S7452
Windows Vista Home Premium Edition; 1.5GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T5250; 1024MB DDR2 SDRAM 667MHz; 128MB Intel Mobile 965GM Express; 160GB Hitachi 5,400rpm