Who is Fujitsu, and how did they build the world’s lightest laptop?
Fujitsu, as the name suggests, is a Japanese company that works under FCCL (Fujitsu Client Computing Limited) and is known for its computer equipment and IT services. The Japanese roots can be felt in the Fujitsu UH-X laptop, as it feels very slim and robust at the same time. How did they achieve that? The entire device has a unibody design with a one-piece structure that allows more space for components to be embedded in the chassis. Well, we won’t dwell on the engineering, because Fujitsu has already figured that out for us, so we can enjoy the laptop instead!
How light is the Fujitsu UH-X and does the lightweight compromise on its build quality?
The Fujitsu UH -X weighs only 878 grams and is thus a very light device. Impressive is the fact that the notebook feels very robust despite the low weight and has no weak points. The keyboard does not flex when typing and the frame itself does not wobble when typing hard. Despite the many ports on the sides, the Fujitsu UH-X is respectable in terms of build quality. We even tried to apply some force to the device and no squeaking noises came out of the frame. So there is really nothing to criticize about the build quality of this lightweight device. The case is made of a magnesium-lithium alloy, which makes this notebook so light. The exterior has a matte finish and the keyboard has a unique grainy texture. You can feel it when you place your palms on either side of the trackpad while typing, and this texture also adds to the look of the laptop. There are four rubber bumpers on the bottom, one on each corner, which prevent the device from slipping on smooth surfaces and provide a good grip. For someone who has a “butter finger” because of dropping their devices, the pads are a real help.
What about the hinge on the Fujitsu UH-X? Is it any different from the convertible model?
The hinge of the Fujitsu UH-X is stable and smooth at the same time. It opens easily with a single finger and locks into place in any position you leave on the screen. When you use the notebook on your lap or even on the desk, the screen does not wobble when you type. The hinge can be opened up to 180 degrees, and the notebook has an apartment profile in this position that does not go beyond this angle. Unlike the convertible model where you can rotate the screen 360 degrees, this is not possible on the regular model. The hinge itself is really good and adds to the better build quality of the notebook.
How good is the IGZO panel on the Fujitsu UH-X? What makes it different than other display panels?
IGZO displays are an interesting technology that tries to offer the best of both worlds: better picture quality with good colors at very efficient power consumption. The 13.3-inch display of the Fujitsu UH-X has a Full HD resolution and we really liked it! The viewing angles of this panel are absolutely great, and you won’t notice any color shifts even at steep angles. Text looks crystal clear with no pixels and makes for a great reading experience. Color reproduction is rather neutral, with the panel striking a good balance between saturation and contrast by default. You can tweak the colors in the settings, but the default settings were good for us and we kept them. On the technical side, the panel covers 72% of the NTSC gamut with a maximum brightness of 400 nits.
You just mentioned about 400 nits of peak brightness, is it enough? What if we use the Fujitsu UH-X outdoors?
Technical terms aside, we used the Fujitsu UH-X notebook outdoors and the visibility was good enough to read the text on the screen. For pictures, the colors look a bit pale outdoors, but we are talking about using it in bright daylight, around 5 pm. So visibility is great, and the Fujitsu UH-X also has an automatic brightness sensor. Although sometimes the auto-brightness kicks in in scenarios when it’s not needed, making the screen a little brighter than necessary. But it works and does not disappoint you as an end-user.
How is the media consumption experience on the Fujitsu UH-X?
Let us talk about the screen first, the colors on this panel are great and look vibrant. Not too saturated, not too overdone, but just the right temperatures as needed. Second, the thinner edges make for an immersive experience when watching a video. The notebook is equipped with stereo speakers that are really loud enough to throw a party in the room. At 100% volume, the sound can sometimes sound a bit muffled and there is slight distortion. So, it is better to set the volume to a maximum of 90% to have the best experience. You will definitely enjoy your favorite series on this device.
Among the numerous ports that this notebook comes with, there’s also a combined 3.5 mm headphone jack that you can connect your favorite headphones to. Audiophiles don’t have to search for USB-C to 3.5 mm adapters. Not in the mood for cable clutter? The Fujitsu UH-X is equipped with Bluetooth 5.1, which gives you the option to connect your wireless headphones! Audio output via the 3.5mm headphone jack was great, and the wireless audio experience was similar. We tested the 3.5mm jack with our Audio Technica M20x headphones, and the laptop was able to drive them really well.
What about performance on the Fujitsu UH-X? Which processor does it run on?
Our model of the Fujitsu UH-X is equipped with the 11th generation Intel i5-1135G7 processor and the Intel Iris Xe Integrated graphics card. There is also a higher-end model with a Core i7 processor as an option for consumers. We tested the Core i5 variant of the Fujitsu UH-X and the performance was exemplary. With a base clock of 2.4 GHz, the processor is capable enough to run Windows 10 and your normal tasks with ease.
With web-based applications like Google Docs, Slides, and others, the notebook performed really well without any jerkiness. Then we started to increase the performance a bit. First, we tried Adobe Photoshop, which also ran smoothly, and image processing during Content-Aware tasks was really fast! Next on the agenda was video editing and what better way than Adobe Premiere Pro. So we tested Premiere as well. Scrolling the timeline in Premiere was smooth, but the lack of a dedicated GPU meant that you had to set the preview window to half or perhaps lower resolution for optimal performance.
The Fujitsu UH-X has enough power in its guns to handle normal office work and occasionally demanding tasks. With its 8 GB RAM, 400 MB of which are allotted to the integrated GPU, it can easily manage 15-20 active Chrome tabs. App switching remains smooth even with multiple tabs open, and in terms of performance, the Fujitsu UH-X can tick off most points.
But, can it run Crysis?
We saw this coming, so we tested the laptop with games like Valorant and Fortnite, and the games were “playable”. The Fujitsu UH-X is by no means designed to run AAA titles, but you can try some games for fun if you are not a hardcore gamer. Valorant ran at around 30-40fps on medium settings and Fortnite, which has HD textures removed and some graphical elements toned down, was playable at around 40fps. These numbers do not sound appealing to gamers and we only did the tests for the team, for the dream, and for the stream. Anyway, so gaming is not something you should aim for with the Fujitsu UH -X, but if that’s what you have in mind, you can expect it here. Can it run Crysis? Yes. Can it playback Crysis? Hmm, probably not.
The laptop is so thin, what about the thermal performance on the Fujitsu UH-X then?
Well, this is an area that also interested us the most when we got our hands on the Fujitsu UH-X. Our first impressions of the laptop were, “Man, this thing is so light, does it even have fans?” And the laptop itself answered us – YES, and too loudly. The Fujitsu UH-X’s fan can sometimes get a bit loud when you run the laptop for a longer period of time. Heat is quickly dissipated through the case, especially in the keyboard’s upper area. The palm rest stays relatively cool, so the heat does not hinder typing. So yes, it has a fan, it gets loud, and the heat dissipates quickly. But does the heat affect performance in any way? We had to test that too, so we sent the Fujitsu UH-X on a benchmarking tour until the battery was down to 0%. No cool-down time, we just ran the multi-core test in Cinebench over and over while the fan spun. And these are the results. As the graphs show, performance remains constant throughout the test. Note that we ran these tests with the battery setting set to “Best Performance,” and results may vary as you fiddle with them. On average, the system used about 10-12% of the battery on each test cycle and the notebook delivered similar results. Neither the heat generation nor the lower battery affects the performance when you choose this profile. Great!
What about Windows and Microsoft Office with the Fujitsu UH-X?
The Fujitsu UH-X runs Windows 10 Home Edition, which includes a Microsoft Office trial. It also supports Windows Hello, where you can set up your face to unlock the device, and there is also a fingerprint scanner integrated into the power button. Windows Hello works flawlessly and the webcam has a physical shutter button to cover the camera, as well as a webcam indicator. The Windows 10 experience on the Fujitsu UH-X is very similar to any other system. Software-wise, the notebook is very functional, and to support the operating system and installed applications, the notebook is equipped with a 512 GB SSD. This makes normal tasks faster, improves trunk times, speeds up installation, and speeds up file access, along with all the other benefits of an SSD. Trunk time on the Fujitsu UH-X is only 15 seconds when our normal software is installed. That’s impressive!
Does the keyboard on the Fujitsu UH-X provide tactile feedback, and what about the trackpad?
The keyboard of the Fujitsu UH-X has standard keys and a multifunctional key row. The key sizes are appropriate and you can get used to this layout within a few minutes. The power button is separate and placed far above the keyboard, so you will not accidentally press the power button and see the system shut down when you are in the middle of a workflow. The keys have clicky feedback that feels comfortable, and there were no instances of ghost typing or keys sticking. The keyboard also has backlighting, which makes typing in dark rooms or at night much more pleasant. The trackpad is not the largest we have seen, measuring 10 cm x 5 cm, but it is a moderate size. Following the design of the Fujitsu UH-X, the trackpad also has a matte surface and has left and right-click buttons underneath. Scrolling accuracy is good and the keys have similar feedback to the keyboard. The matte surface looks and feels good, both on the keys and the trackpad, but it can also get oil stains from your fingers with extended use. So clean it regularly to maintain the look!
How many I/O ports does the Fujitsu UH-X feature?
Nine of them, and that’s a huge number by today’s standards. In fact, allow us to sum it up for you. Left Side
Kensington Lock 2x USB Type-C ports with Power Delivery and DisplayPort functionality HDMI out USB-A 3.0 3.5mm combined headphone jack
Right Side
SD card slot USB-A 3.0 port Ethernet.
Let us put this in context. You are watching video from an SD card inserted into your laptop, plugging your favorite headphones into the 3.5mm headphone jack while uploading your project files to the cloud via the Ethernet port. At this moment, your sibling comes into your room and wants to watch the same video with you, so you connect your laptop to a TV via the HDMI port. Now you realize that your battery is almost dead, so you connect your charger to the laptop. Finally, you get into your comfort zone and decide to connect your mouse and keyboard via the laptop’s two USB-A ports, so suddenly your device looks like a network hub. All that, and you still have a free USB-C port to which you can plug in an additional accessory.
Eventually, we ran out of peripherals to fill all the ports on the Fujitsu UH-X at once, because that’s how many ports it offers. These come in handy when you want to convert your device into a desktop setup for a presentation, and it’s totally worth it. And even with this many ports and openings in the frame of the laptop, it still feels very stable without wobbling!
How much battery does the Fujitsu UH-X pack in at this compact form factor? Does the lightweight theme attack battery life directly?
The Fujitsu UH-X is powered by a 50 Wh battery, and the battery life is somewhat subjective. It is around 5-6 hours with normal usage like browsing, typing documents, or consuming media with a balanced battery profile. You can get a few more minutes out of it if you use the device continuously in battery-saving mode, but that comes at the expense of performance. Our tests were mostly performed with the balanced profile, with the benchmarks running in the mode with the best performance. For very demanding tasks like rendering, where the usage of CPU increases to 100% and the fans have to unleash their true potential, you can expect about 70-80 minutes of brainstorming when you push the Fujitsu UH -X to its full performance.
The charger that comes with the laptop is a 65 W adapter that connects to the device via a USB Type-C port. A 0-100% charge takes about 70 minutes when not using the laptop and a 0-50% charge in just 30 minutes. The charging speed may slow down a bit if you charge the device while using the laptop for heavy tasks. When watching videos or performing simple tasks like typing, charging speeds are similar to idle mode. The Fujitsu UH-X is really fast when it comes to charging its batteries.
Should you buy the Fujitsu UH-X laptop?
The Fujitsu UH-X is a laptop that focuses on lightweight without sacrificing important features. It has a sharp and vibrant display with great viewing angles, plenty of I/O ports (probably more than you need), a very good keyboard, offers stable performance, and all this in a chassis that feels sturdy and light at the same time. The battery may not be the best, but it’s not bad either. With a price of ₹80,990 for the i5 variant of the non-convertible Fujitsu UH-X, it is a good choice for users looking for a very light notebook that offers everything in terms of features. For both business users and regular consumers, the Fujitsu UH-X is a great option with its sleek and material design, super light features, and ability to meet all the criteria a laptop should. The attention to detail in certain aspects of this laptop reflects its origins in Japanese culture, and the Fujitsu UH-X is a good buy with what it has to offer. Looking at the competition from other manufacturers in the ultra-thin race, most are missing a feature or two when it comes to ports, and Fujitsu covers that, for a slightly higher price. Buy Fujitsu UH-X
