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Fujitsu Lifebook T901 quietly announced with five-finger multi-touch

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Though hardly an earth-shaker in terms of CES 2011 news, Fujitsu’s announcement of the Lifebook T901 Tablet PC, a refresh of the T900, has some interesting details snuck in with it, including mention of five-finger multi-touch detection.

Got the tip this morning from Giacomo at Il Tablet PC Italico who uncovered the data sheet, which states “Dual Digitizer for pen input plus capacitive 5-finger multitouch screen”. That’s a three-finger bump from the T900’s Wacom dual digitizer, as well as one-up on the N-Trig DuoSense. What’s unclear is whether this upgrade is through new hardware or a long-awaited driver update for the current Wacom dual digitizer. I hope it’s the latter.

In addition to the usual under-the-hood bump, in this case to the newly announced Sandy Bridge chipset, the sheet reveals GPS via the optional 3G/UTMS module, an HDMI port, one USB 3.0 port and one USB 2.0 port with Anytime Charge allowing it to charge USB devices even while the PC is off. It also mentions a Blu-Ray drive option for the modular bay, but I expect that will also work on other Lifebook models.

The official press release (via Slashgear) offers nothing specific about the T901 but mentions the Lifebook line will include a “0-Watt” AC adapter that draws no power while the notebook is off. Hopefully that’s only if the battery is fully charged and there’s nothing drawing power from the Anytime Charge USB port. Pretty much the same as the T900 otherwise, so if you’ve been eyeing that model, it might be worth waiting a few months for the T901.

Update: PCMag.com reports it will feature NVIDIA Optimus technology, but I don’t see that anywhere else. I suspect that was a misquote or error on the part of a company rep.

10 Comments

10 Comments

  1. Anonymous

    01/06/2011 at 9:04 pm

    The bit about NVIDIA Optimus is mentioned right on Fujitsu’s site, actually.

    https://solutions.us.fujitsu.com/www/content/news/newsdetail.php?nf=11705449.nitf

    And, to be frank, it solves the ONE issue I had with the earlier T5010 and T900-no dedicated graphics! I thought it was insane for a 13.3″ convertible costing at least US$1,900 to be stuck with integrated graphics, and I already know too well that a fast CPU gets bottlenecked hard by a weak GPU for the things I do.

    However, another specs list of the T901 from Fujitsu makes no mention of an NVIDIA GPU at all, just the usual Intel GMA HD.

    https://globalsp.ts.fujitsu.com/dmsp/docs/ds-lifebook-t901.pdf

    At this point, who knows? I just hope that it really is packing an NVIDIA GPU, because if it’s even half-decent, I’d be very willing to skip the HP tm2 in favor of the T901. (And it also means that, if they keep the BOE Hydis AFFS+ LCDs as standard, we can finally have dedicated graphics with a good screen!)

    • Sumocat

      01/06/2011 at 9:40 pm

      Yeah, that’s the data sheet I mentioned. No sign of NVIDIA anywhere in it. Guess we’ll see if it was left out by accident or if a copywriter went overboard in the press release.

      • Anonymous

        01/11/2011 at 6:15 pm

        According to Shogmaster over at Tablet PC Review:

        https://forum.tabletpcreview.com/fujitsu/37596-fujitsus-new-t90-most-powerful-tabletpc-bar-none-2.html#post212611

        “BTW, the prototype only has the Intel HD 3000 video. I was told that the nVidia option is coming.”

        It looks like it’ll be optional, like the HP tm2. Still, at least it looks like we’ll get the option, making the T901 possibly the greatest Tablet PC yet.

        (Too bad that I can’t afford what will likely be a $2,000+ machine. I’ll have to make do with an HP tm2 in the meantime, which I’m on the verge of switching over to. Then there’s how my desktop would benefit nicely from a GTX 570. Being a PC enthusiast is so painful on the wallet…)

  2. Steve S

    01/06/2011 at 11:37 pm

    5-Finger touch is an evolutionary N-trig improvement.

  3. Stefan S

    01/21/2011 at 12:34 pm

    I seems as if there are a view configurations ready for order on this (german) page:
    https://www.uni-notebooks.net/Lifebook-T-Serie-Fujitsu-Lifebook-T901-fuer-Studneten-und-guenstiger-Kopie-1.3509.0.html

  4. Anonymous

    03/10/2011 at 7:37 am

    I wonder how good the integrated GPU in those mobile Sandy Bridge chips is… if it’s anything like the desktop versions, then that’s actually pretty good, probably comparable to the dedicated GPU in my early tm2.
    But an option for a great dedicated GPU would still be needed, else I’d much prefer a smaller form factor and lighter weight – how about a Sandy Bridge version of the T580?

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