While our review unit costs $2,009, Fujitsu is currently offering a fixed configuration for $1,699 that we think is a better deal. You lose 40GB of hard drive space and 1GB of RAM while moving from Vista Business… to XP Pro, but you save more than $400 in the process. An ultraportable is never going to be a powerhouse, and while we believe adding more memory is almost always money well spent, 1GB is enough to power a small XP machine. At $1,699, it’s one of the more affordable ultraportables, which always carry a price premium in comparison to larger laptops. It’s not easy cramming all the components into such a tight space, and the LifeBook P8010 boasts a useful feature set. While some ultraportables such as the MacBook Air drop the optical drive in an effort to save weight and space, the P8010 finds room for a DVD burner. You get a nice mix of ports, too, plus Bluetooth, a PC Card slot, and an SD card reader. (The otherwise excellent ThinkPad X300 lacks the latter two features.)

One feature notably absent, however, is an integrated WWAN antenna or even the option to add a broadband cellular modem card on Fujitsu’s online configurator. If you need more wireless connectivity than Wi-Fi provides, you’ll need to buy a PC Card from a third-party vendor.

While Fujitsu won’t be making any claims along the lines of “the world’s thinnest laptop” for the LifeBook P8010, it does make for an attractive little machine. It tapers from 1.6 inches at its thickest to 1.4 inches along the front edge, putting it on the thick side of the ultraportable scale. Given its relative bulkiness, it feels lighter than you would expect when you pick it up. The inside is outfitted in business gray with black keys, and the lid features a glossy black coating. While the keyboard is spill resistant and the hard drive offers shocks protection, unfortunately the plastic used for both the lid and the wrist rests feels particularly thin and flexes to an almost worrisome degree. In comparison, the ThinkPad X300 feels much tougher, but that extra sturdiness does add another half-pound to the weight.

Like any 12-inch (or smaller) laptop, the ‘s keyboard feels a bit cramped. But Fujitsu did all it could here; the keyboard extends side to side. After a day of use, I grew accustomed to its dimensions, and my typos were greatly reduced. The touch pad has a nice feel to it and is generously proportioned. Between the two mouse buttons sits a fingerprint reader, which doubles as a scroll wheel. Above the keyboard sit four shortcut keys for calling up Fujitsu support, switching screen modes (normal or power saving), adjusting display settings, and opening Internet Explorer. All four buttons are programmable. To the left are icons for battery level and charging status.

Like the keyboard, the screen is as large as it can be, given the dimensions of the laptop. It extends nearly to the edge of each side; unlike the P7230, there’s no wasted bezel space here. The thick bezel above the screen features a Webcam. Like the P7230, the P8010 features an LED-backlit LCD, which results in a bright image and helps with battery life. The display features the typical 1,280×800 native resolution found on other 12-inch ultraportables. It features a smooth finish, but it uses Fujitsu’s Crystal View technology, which does an admirable job keeping glare and reflections to a minimum. Do note that as Fujitsu has moved from a 10.6-inch screen to one measuring 12.1 inches with its ultraportables, Apple and Lenovo just recently came out with 13-inch models whose weight puts them in the ultraportable class.