Fujitsu Stylistic Q704 Review

Convertibles are here to stay. They aren’t the most popular products available in the market, though many laptop manufacturing companies are placing their bets on this segment trying to make it more popular. Fujitsu with its latest iteration of Stylistic tablet cum laptop range is betting high on this segment. While most of the laptop convertibles are basically entertainment devices, Fujitsu has tried to make it more comfortable for business use. Let’s see what this new convertible has to offer.

Design, Look and Feel

This tablet cum laptop isn’t the sleekest and lightest of them all. As the new Q704 is meant for the business users, this comes close to a full blown windows tablet than any entertainment device. Therefore the look and feel isn’t given the most importance while designing this.

The Q704 is 7 millimeters thinner than its predecessor Q702 and is slightly longer and wider. It’s about 1kg in weight, but with the power adapter and the optional keyboard dock, the entire device weighs at around 2 kgs. The predecessor came with a sturdy looking metal chassis. The Q704 is a blend of plain plastic and metal. The design itself is a clue that Fujitsu hasn’t really concentrated on the appearance and rather the features of the tablet.

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Overall build quality is very good and feels pretty much sturdy in hand. Torsion resistance is great and even the non- waterproof version seems very durable. Though the tablet hinge on top of the keyboard dock is a disappointment as the tablet doesn’t sit firmly on top if it and it wobbles if the entire unit is on one’s lap.

Connectivity

The tablet ships with bare minimum number of ports. This may be because of the focus on mobility than it being a desktop and also the existence of port replicators sold separately by Fujitsu. These ports must be enough for most of the usage with the laptop normally. Power connector is present at the left side of the device, or on top if the tablet sits on the keyboard dock. Next to the power connector are the fan vents, standby button, a volume rocker, and a button for switching between the desktop and the tablet modes. On the right hand side of the device, there’s a SIM card slot along with a micro SD card slot as well as a micro USB2.0 port and a normal USB3.0 port. All these ports are protected by plastic flaps. Next to these ports is the 3.5 mm audio jack along with a digitizer pen. Only thing missing is an HDMI out port which was present in the Q702, though we can use a port replicator for that which is available for sale online.

Communication

The Q704 ships with a Dual Band Wireless N7260 Wi-Fi module which is pretty good in performance and features like data transfer rates upto 200 Mbit and support for Bluetooth 4.0. The tablet can be connected to the internet not only via a 3G but also a 4G LTE giving a DSL like speeds. But NFC connectivity option is lacking in the device

Security

For making the device business standard, it must house a security aspect as well. Therefore Fujitsu has placed a fingerprint sensor on the rear middle right hand side of the device. All the variants of the Q704 come with a TPM chip which allows encryption and decryption of all files.

With respect to software, Advanced Theft Protection allows remote access, remote wiping of all data, localization allowing extra security.

Accessories

The digitizer pen provides a useful additional feature for professional users. More precise notes and sketches can be done or written, better than what is achievable using fingers or a stylus. The pen houses directly inside the chassis of the tablet so keeping it elsewhere safe wouldn’t be an issue. Fujitsu offers two different keyboard docks for the tablet. One has just the keys whereas other includes two additional USB ports, a VGA port and a battery pack which would extend the runtime of the tablet by about 8 hours.

Display

It has a 12.5 inch display offering a full HD resolution of 1920 x 1080 with an aspect ratio of 16:9 and a decent pixel density of 176 ppi. The display isn’t a matte finish or any sort of oleo phobic coating, thus would attract loads of fingerprint and would be as reflective as a 12.5 inch mirror outside. It has a very good maximum brightness of 365 cd/m2. Though the brightness isn’t uniform across the device and so the homogeneity isn’t good.

Black levels, contrast ratio and maximum brightness are all pretty decent. Color accuracy is good and correct colors are displayed even without much of calibration. IPS panel offers good viewing angles and yield a sharper display with a good color reproduction.

Performance

As the tablet is focused on business users, the specs must be in accordance to what’s found on regular laptops. Fujitsu has used an Intel Core i5 4300 CPU (2 x 1.9-2.9 GHz), a 4GB of RAM and a 128 GB SSD which is more than suitable for a regular usage scenario. Photoshop should run with ease, though lack of a dedicated GPU may be a problem if the application required 3D rendering. 2D applications can run effortlessly on the Intel HD 4400 GPU.

The Intel processor isn’t too much power hungry and provides a good performance with less battery consumption. Eventhough the processor is having clock speed of 1.9 GHz and 2.9 GHZ on turbo-boost, the performance isn’t on par with the other laptops having the same processor. The power is toned down for in terms of performance keeping in view that it’s basically a tablet and not a laptop. Therefore sometimes, the system tends to be laggy and slow when handling multiple tasks. This mustn’t happen with a convertible of this price range as other convertibles such as the Surface Pro 3 by Microsoft beating the Q704 by a long way in terms of performance.

PC Benchmark Test Results:

creative PC benchmark Home PC benchmark Work PC Benchmark

 

Battery Life

This convertible has a 46 Wh, Li-polymer 3 cell battery with a capacity of 4250 mAh. It delivers a battery life of 7 hours of continuous use with Wi-Fi on and other tasks done at regular intervals which is pretty decent for a business tablet. This is pretty much comparable to other devices present in this price range.