Taking on the 17-inch widescreen Fujitsu Siemens Amilo M4438, Jørgen Sundgot finds a visually appealing notebook packing plenty of power and a razor-sharp display.
Review summary of the Fujitsu Siemens Amilo M4438:
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Full review of the Fujitsu Siemens Amilo M4438:
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Once considered 'trophy laptops' for the obscenely rich and wealthy, the market for 17-inch widescreen laptops is getting more crowded by the month - which fortunately benefits the not-so-obscenely rich among us. Fujitsu Siemens' new Amilo M4438 is a perfect example; under its hood, we find a rich compliment of features with a couple of minor faults at a relatively reasonable price tag. It's time to get our feet wet and see what this baby can do.
How you doin'?
Although we've seen our fair share of good-looking notebooks, it has to be said that the M4438 is one of the more visually appealing plastic-clad specimens we've come across. Dressed up in an understated silver-and-black colour scheme, its 408 x 289 x 38 mm measurements combine with a weight of 4.1 KG to render it one of the lighter 17-inch models on the market; whether the word 'lighter' should appear in this context is another matter entirely.
Naturally, the Amilo M4438 revolves around its 17-inch CrystalView display which, with its 16:10 aspect ratio and razor-sharp WUXGA resolution of 1920 x 1200 pixels, is a member of an exclusive elite which can take HDTV 1080 content and display it in all its glory. Furthermore, a Nvidia GeForce Go 6800 graphics chipset backed by 256 MB of VRAM delivers enough raw, unadulterated power to render the M4438 a highly interesting option for gamers - unless we're talking first person shooters, in which case the 25 ms response time will counter the otherwise-excellent performance.
Running a choice of Intel Pentium M processors ranging in speed from 1.6 to 2.13 GHz atop a Intel 915PM chipset, the M4438 clocks in on par with most competing offerings. With regard to memory, the notebook is similarly well-equipped through the inclusion of dual S0-DIMM slots which allow for a maximum configuration of 2 GB of DDR2 533 MHz RAM. All in all, the M4438 delivers enough muscle to run the vast majority of business applications and current games, as well as any conceivable media task, with aplomb - rendering it a very good all-rounder.
Connectivity is another department in which the M4438 does well, with its absolutely superb signal reception for Wi-Fi 802.11b/g as one of its distinct highlights. Oddly, the M4438 is disappointingly bereft of Bluetooth, which we'd expect in a high-end laptop like this, but at least there's nothing missed in the wired department.
A myriad of options include 10/100/1000 Ethernet and a 56K V.92 modem, four USB 2.0 ports, FireWire, an ExpressCard slot and a memory card reader supporting Memory Stick, Memory Stick PRO and SD/MMC cards; PCMCIA is amiss, unfortunately. As for video, the M4438 includes S-Video and DVI-I out ports, with audio well cared for through the inclusion of 7.1 channel SPDIF.
What do you mean, 240 GB on a laptop?
One of the particular highlights of the Amilo M4438 is its immense storage capacity. Its dual 2.5-inch SATA slots offer a maximum of 240 GB of storage, and - get this - RAID 0 and 1 configurations are available. Similarly comprehensive is the optical drive, which handles most every format known to man all the way up to Dual Layer DVDs - and there are also several other nuggets to be find, albeit none of as major importance.
For instance, audio quality as produced by the M4438 is quite impressive, courtesy of its dual stereo speakers and the inclusion of a bottom-mounted subwoofer. A handy dial mounted on the left side provides immediate and very welcome access to adjusting volume levels, whereas a dedicated Wi-Fi switch on the front is similarly worthy of praise.
Other highlights include a comfortable touch pad with dedicated vertical scroll strip matching the aspect ratio of the display, adjacent to which a hard enable/disable button with a built-in LED is placed - yet another nice touch that demonstrates Fujitsu Siemens' attention to detail. The keyboard, itself a crucial component, is highly comfortable but sees its impression hampered by the omission of colour-coded Fn function marks, causing unnecessary confusion. A dedicated numerical keypad is not included, a choice we're in favour of as such solutions tend to place an inequal amount of strain on ones wrists when not using a notebook at a desk.
Naturally, with all of what the M4438 has going on under the hood, one would expect the M4438 to get hot and bothered from time to time - which it also does. It runs surprisingly quiet, though, but the inclusion of a dedicated Silent Mode button which lowers performance and display brightness is still welcome for meetings and plane trips. As for battery life, we managed to squeeze in excess of two and a half hours out of the 3-cell, 4,000 mAh Lithium Ion battery, which is quite on par with close competitors and also what we'd expect from a behemoth such as the M4438.
The squidgy bits
The Amilo M4438 doesn't come with the broadest selection in software, but what little is bundled is of high quality. Ahead's Nero Burning ROM 6, Norman Internet Control 5.7 and CyberLink PowerDVD 6 are all present, as is LiquidView, a handy tool which carries out on-the-fly DPI adjustment to improve screen legibility. As a special bonus we also find CyberLink's InstantOn software which enables the M4438 to boot directly into a media mode enabling the playback of CDs, DVDs, media stored on the hard drive.
Navigated by means of a tiny yet long-ranging infrared remote control which fits into the M4438's ExpressCard slot, the InstantOn suite handles traditional media with aplomb, including DVDs, audio CDs and pictures. With regard to media files, MP3 and WMA are supported for audio, along with MPEG1, MPEG2, DivX 4/5, XviD, and WMV 7/8 for video. In the case of music in particular, the lack of support for DRM is disappointing, and although video format support is comprehensive the omission of WMV 9 is decidedly an odd one.
Despite its colourful, pretty and snappy user interface, however, we do have a few gripes with the cold-boot media capabilities of the M4438. One regards XviD frame rates, which proved to be sub-par, whilst another regards what we consider to be an interface snafu: users remain locked into the Documents and Settings folder at all times, negating playback of media stored outside ones My Documents folder - even though accessing optical media and USB devices is possible. Marringly, however, InstantOn does not come pre-installed and can only be located and installed through an obscure listing at the bottom of the list of drivers on Fujitsu Siemens' bundled CD; highly unimpressive.
Availability
The Fujitsu Siemens Amilo M4438 is at the time of press shipping throughout Europe, starting at €1,775 EUR for a basic configuration and ranging up to €3,175 EUR for a maximum configuration.
Price and availability
The Fujitsu Siemens Amilo M4438 will start selling for TBA () in December 1969.
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