Fujitsu Lifebook UH572 Review: Good Looks, Significant Drawbacks

If industrial design contributed to the score, the Lifebook UH572 would have done better. From its brushed silver magnesium alloy cover to its smooth black interior with blue lighting accents, the UH572 looks like a class act. The case remains cool after several hours of operation, and the units 4.1-pound weight (including charger) is mid-range for the screen size.

The widescreen (1366 by 768 pixels), LED-backlit display is bright and crisp. The laptop supports Intel's Wi-Di technology for beaming a notebook display to a TV that also supports Wi-Di, but you need to plug in a Wi-Di adapter to use this feature.

Fujitsu outfitted the UH572 with two USB 3.0 ports, including one that can charge devices even when the laptop is powered down, and one USB 2.0 port. The laptop also has HDMI-out and security lock ports, and an SD/Memory Stick card reader. But I found puzzling the company's decision to leave out ethernet support, an omission all the more glaringly obvious as a mini-LAN port appears on the UH772. Surely some consumers would like a wired network connection as opposed to 802.11n Wi-Fi on the 2.4GHz band only.

The keyboard is also problematic. The island chiclet-style keys are middling in sizetheres almost an inch of platen on either sidebut although theyre reasonably well-spaced, theyre also a bit slippery, travel is minimal, and the keyboard has no backlight. The layout isn't optimal either: Fujitsu chose to put the Home, Page Up/Down, and End keys in a column on the far right, and as a result both the Backspace and Delete keys are less easily accessible than Id wish.

The Synaptics ClickPad (version 8.0) touchpad has its good points once you get the hang of it. Because the cursor keeps moving after you swipe it, you can get to the right or left edge of the screen in one goor maintain more control by keeping your fingertip firmly on the smooth, button-free surface. The ClickPad also supports multitouch gestures such as pointing and zooming. But I did miss having dedicated buttons for right and left clicking, as opposed to clicking the entire touchpad on one side or the other. In the end, this comes down to personal preference.