5. Using The Fujitsu Lifebook P1510D

The Lifebook P1510D is housed in a sturdy plastic case. Neither half of the case can be easily flexed laterally or compressed. Display distortion is thus not a problem, and it's highly unlikely that the device's innards will be damaged in normal use. Though, as usual, we caution against dropping the computer from more than a couple of feet if you want to keep its case intact.

The mechanism in the middle of the photo immediately below acts as the hinge for opening and closing the clamshell. It also swivels the display so you can set the screen in the traditional orientation as in the photo immediately below or in tablet orientation by turning the display 180 degrees and then folding the display over the keyboard as in the next photo.

The Fujitsu P1510D's combination hinge/swivel mechanism.

The Fujitsu P1510D in tablet orientation.

I've mentioned this before, but it never hurts to say it again. I am most happy to see that this laptop has a lockless clamshell. When you open the computer for use you don't have to slide a locking switch. The P1510D is held closed by a tensioned hinge. To open it you just separate the two parts of the clamshell. It's a little thing, but it eliminates an annoying step in the process of getting started with a portable computer.

The P1510D has a display of somewhat unusual proportions. As you can see in the pictures of the computer, the screen is of the wide persuasion. The resolution is 1024 x 600, not 1024 x 768. I had little difficulty adjusting to the somewhat diminished height. Resolution up to 1600 x 1200 is possible with external monitors and virtually using the laptop's own display. "Virtually" means you see a 1024 x 600 piece of the full 1600 x 1200 screen at any time. As you move the mouse pointer toward the end of the 1024 x 600 piece of the screen another portion of the full screen is displayed. This results in much larger on-screen icons and windows. I adapted very quickly to this set up, though my eyes are good enough that I used the P1510D in its native 1024 x 600 resolution most of the time.

Though the keys on the P1510D keyboard are smaller than normal, with a little practice I was able to use my touch typing skills to input text with reasonable accuracy. Key travel and feel are fine.

There is no mouse touchpad for controlling the position of the mouse on the screen. Instead the P1510D has a joystick pointing device situated just below the G and H keys. Initially I found the device very difficult to use. I wasn't able to control the movement of the joystick very well with my finger tip. So the on-screen mouse arrow tended to drift beyond the object I wanted to highlight and activate. So I spent a lot of time moving the joystick back and forth and up and down in an effort to get the pointer on target. With a few Control Panel adjustments and a period of using the joystick I was better able to control the mouse arrow, but never as well as with a touchpad.

Although there is no touchpad, the P1510D does have standard left and right mouse buttons where the touchpad would be. Between the mouse buttons is a button that can be used to scroll in a Window. As if all of that isn't enough, you can push down on the joystick to accomplish various things. The default is a left mouse click. I had various levels of success with this capability. For example, I sometimes pushed down ever so slightly on the joystick as I was passing over the close button on a window, which I then closed by accident. Again, after a few Control Panel adjustments, I was able to get the press-the-pointer functionality to work better for me.