5. Fujitsu's Lifebook P1510D And Tablet PC

I have used the Fujitsu Lifebook P1510D in both incarnations, as a stylus-based tablet pc with Windows XP Pro and as a full fledged Windows XP Tablet PC. The P1510D's non-Tablet PC stylus-based functionality was good mostly for the kind of stuff you do with a mouse: opening and closing windows, making simple drawings, navigating around the Windows desktop and accessing the Web. Though it had a graphical keyboard and allowed handwritten input with a limited set of special applications, the P1510D lacked the range of input options available in Tablet PC, most importantly application-independent handwritten and voice input and Windows Journal.

Somewhat surprisingly the move to Tablet PC on the P1510D was pretty much a piece of cake according to Paul Moore, Fujitsu's Director of Mobile Product Marketing. "We didn't have to make one change in the P1510D's hardware to accommodate the Tablet PC OS. Microsoft was quite surprised to see how easily we were able to make the transition from our stylus-based enhancements to Windows XP over to Windows XP Tablet PC Edition."

I used both PC Wizard and CPUz to check out Moore's claim. The only difference I found was in the BIOS. The non-Tablet PC P1510D we tested previously had a BIOS chip electronically labeled "Phoenix v1.03 (7/25/05)." The Tablet PC version has a BIOS labeled "Phoenix v1.09 (02/11/05)."

Fujitsu's P1510D product manager offered this explanation for the change: "The BIOS v1.09 itself is compatible with both platforms. However, there are additional BIOS utilities required to support Tablet PC OS and its functionality for those who select the TPC OS. We had to institute this utility so that XP Pro users cannot upgrade to XP TPC - per Microsoft's licensing policies. It is general knowledge that end-users are not allowed to 'upgrade' to Windows XP Tablet PC Edition 2005."

Some of the BIOS changes surely added basic functionality for both handwritten and voice input. Did these changes make Tablet PC faster or slower than XP Pro? For answers see the benchmark tests later in this article.

No matter how easy the move might have been, Fujitsu's willingness to experiment and innovate when it comes to the laptop market is impressive. The company lets no grass grow under its feet. Sure it makes lots of me-too mobile computers, but I challenge you to find a very small laptop with the ease of use of the P1510D with Tablet PC.