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Fujitsu ST6012 Tablet PC Arrives, First Impressions

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st6012 tablet pcUpon returning from a trip down south, I was pleased to find a box from Fujitsu waiting patiently for me. As any geek worth his salt would do, I immediately opened it up and was pleased to find an ST6012 Tablet PC!

I’ve only had the ST6012 for a couple of days, but my initial impression is very positive. I’ve found the ST6012 to be extremely light and have just about every option I could possibly want: SD card slot, a dedicated PC card slot, smart card reader, lots of configurable buttons on both the right and left side of the screen, and a very nice 1280 x 800 indoor / outdoor display. In addition, the standard 6-cell battery is giving me between 4 and 5 hours of battery life. An optional 9 cell high capacity battery is also available. An optional web camera (not on this eval unit) is also available.

The only negative I’ve found is that the 1.4 ghz Core 2 Duo Ultra Low Voltage tablet pc runs a bit sluggish. This evaluation unit only has 1 gb of RAM and it has an 80gb HDD, so that doesn’t help much either. In addition, the ST6012 is running 88 processes out of the box on this Vista Business factory installation. Upgrading the RAM and going with an SSD certainly would help things. I might install Windows 7 on this Tablet PC just to try the performance and inking, but will mostly concentrate on the Vista installation for purposes of my review since Windows 7 isn’t out yet.

It certainly is light weight and quiet though, and is a joy to hold in my hands. Inking is also quite smooth. The felt cloths in the back are a welcome change from other tablet pcs.

Stay tuned for more on the ST6012, including some pictures, more impressions, and an InkShow. Post any questions you have and I’ll try to address them in future articles.

The ST6012 is available for $1999.

11 Comments

11 Comments

  1. Frank

    06/13/2009 at 12:12 pm

    The most interesting question is: how does it perform compared to the Motion Computing J3400. Not regarding speed, that’s unimportant because both use the same CPU and chipset, the Fujitsu just uses a faster 2.5″ HDD. Interesting would be outdoor usability, port locations, weight, buttons, screen, just the usability stuff.

  2. Rob Bushway

    06/13/2009 at 12:15 pm

    interesting that you should bring that up – I’m supposed to be getting another j3400 to review. If it comes in on time, I’m planning on doing a head to head comparison between the two.

  3. Jim

    06/13/2009 at 12:28 pm

    Please throw in any comparisons to TKi440D too!! ‘

  4. Rob Bushway

    06/13/2009 at 12:39 pm

    Jim – I don’t have a TKi440D eval, but if TabletKiosk will send me one and I have it before I have to send the ST6012 back, I’d be happy to do it. The timing of these things never quite work out, though.

  5. Fra

    06/13/2009 at 4:41 pm

    I would like to see a screenshot of the Windows Vista Scores for this tablet in order to compare the values to those of HP EliteBook 2730p. Thank you.

  6. Jim

    06/13/2009 at 7:58 pm

    Since you can’t do a direct comparison, any comments from what you remember of the feel of the i440D with the other two—how did it feel to hold it, write on it etc in comparison. And then any of your wisdom on quick look over of specs. So whatever comments on all of the “big three” slates would be appreciated.

  7. MarceloR

    06/15/2009 at 12:10 pm

    I heard about this unit last year around the time the X200 tablet came out. I was ready for an upgrade then but since I fall in the 4:3 LCD camp, I chose the X61 tablet with a high resolution screen before they were no more. I am beginning to be more receptive to wide-screen on a tablet. I’ve owned only smaller slates before (Motion LS800, Samsung Q1) but last week I bought a Fujitsu 5020D (4:3 LCD) for $200 which I am very impressed with. It is very nice to hold and has a good weight distribution, feels comfortable. I am now looking to upgrade to the 6012 so I’d like to hear your comments on the wide-screen on this slate.

  8. thomas

    06/15/2009 at 9:38 pm

    Is the screen flush with bezel? and is the case plastic or rubbery?

    maybe throw on win7 and see how it goes.

  9. Scott

    06/15/2009 at 11:01 pm

    I’ll watch with interest…I’ve had my trusty st5022 for quite a while now and I’m thinking of upgrading (my daughter is encouraging these thoughts as she eyes my current machine).

    I’m with MarceloR: I want to know how the wide screen looks

  10. Edward Del Grosso

    06/17/2009 at 8:36 am

    I just got mine, partly on the basis of your original impression. I ordered it with the cheap hard drive thinking
    I could easily upgrade it. I really think Fujitsu doesn’t
    want me in the case. Does anyone here know how to do it?
    Thanks,
    ED

  11. Rob Bushway

    06/17/2009 at 8:38 am

    that is great news, Ed. I’m still liking the ST6012. I’ll be putting up some pics tomorrow and then a video next week.

    You might try checking in our fujitsu forums for help with upgrading any of the hardware.

    Since I just have the eval version, I won’t be taking it apart.

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