Hands-on with Fujitsu's teeny tiny laptop

Fujitsu's new ultra tiny laptop is LifeBook U810.

The U810 is a hybrid between an ultraportable convertible tablet and a UMPC (that's ultramobile PC). We've always liked UMPCs in theory, but these pocket-sized systems, including the OQO model 02 and Sony VAIO UX390, were more like suped-up smart phones than actual computers. There's only so productive you can be on a BlackBerry-style thumb keyboard.

The new LifeBook U810 takes a different approach, mimicking a traditional laptop's form factor, shrunk down to a 5.6-inch swiveling touchscreen, along with a fairly full-featured keyboard, fingerprint reader, Bluetooth, and Wi-Fi (but no EVDO yet). It runs Intel's A110 CPU and had 1GB of RAM and Vista Premium.

The street date for this $999 mini-laptop is Sept. 18, so look for a full review then, but be forewarned: We're holding the black-and-white European version in this photo. The U.S. version is only going to be available with an all-black design. Apparently some focus group types decided that white gadgets aren't hot anymore in the American market (come to think of it, even the iPhone and new iPod Touch are black--maybe there's something to this).