Fujitsu Lifebook S904:

Business notebook’s touted 24-hour battery life will put road warriors on alert

The 13.3-inch business machine will catch your eyes due to its sleek design and the company has claimed that its battery can run for up to 24 hours giving up the ghost. Inside the model, there is an Intel Core i7-4600U Haswell CPU which is running Windows 8.1 Pro, which is clocked to 2.10GHz (turbo boost to 2.70GHz) and 8GB of RAM. It’s also available with Intel’s Core i5 chip and can be configured with anything between 4GB and 12GB of RAM.

The S904’s internals are wrapped up in an attractive design that’s typical of the company’s Lifebook models. The base and lid are made of a matte black plastic, while the keyboard and palm rest are coated in metallic silver aluminum. A silver Fujitsu logo adorns the centre of its sturdy lid. Like many of Fujitsu’s Lifebook machines, it’s available as one of several modules and can be swapped out for a second hard disk drive. Alternatively, it can be exchanged for another battery, which is where Fujitsu’s all-day battery life claim comes from. The S904 features an attractive and bright IPS display that offers good viewing angles and responds sharply to touch. Fujitsu, sensibly, tends to opt for the 2560 x 1440 (QHD) resolution on its 13-inch notebook displays, and it’s done so once again on the S904. It’s a good fit for the panel’s size and renders text and UI elements easily readable without having to alter Windows 8.1’s magnification settings. The machine is heftier than many 13-inch Ultra books but is fairly slim for a notebook that can be fitted with the rarest of accessories: a CD drive.

While noticing the connectivity, the S904 features a VGA connection, a HDMI, LAN and USB ports on the left-hand side, with the swappable module bay, power connector, Kensington lock slot and optional Smart-Card reader housed along the right-hand edge. It can also be configured with a fingerprint sensor, TPM and ATP, and communication options can be extended via inbuilt 4G/LTE and a extra peripherals can be hooked up via a port replicator. The S904 features typically shallow Fujitsu keyboard that allow for fast typing courtesy of its well-spaced chic let-spaced keys. In case Fujitsu’s touted 24 hours of battery life aren’t enough, or if you want to save yourself carrying around modules, the S904’s back panel can be removed allowing you to insert a spare battery while on the road. The Lifebook S904 is aimed primarily at business users, and comes with an enterprise-class price tag to match. Starting at around £1,075, it spans all the way up to around £1,600 for the top-spec model.

Verdict:

Fujitsu Lifebook S904 is a slightly bulky chassis doesn’t detract from the Lifebook S904’s charms too much. It’s still attractive, and business users won’t be too bothered about a little extra thickness to get hold of full day of battery life. Added in a highly attractive 13.3-inch display with a sensible resolution and great viewing angles, a slew of configurable internals and a multitude of security options, and Fujitsu may have made a notebook that deserves its high-end price tag.