I have been asked many times what the best laptop is.  My answer is actually not a laptop at all, rather, a TabletPC.  Being a huge fan of Apple Computer, this surprises many, but Apple has no product that can begin to compare to the Fujitsu 4020 TabNote.

What is it I like about the 4020 so much?  Why would an Apple zealot choose a PC over a PowerBook (or MacBook Pro)?  Allow me to break down a few of the key things I love about this unit.

• First and foremost, I can write directly on the display.  By simply swiveling the screen around, my laptop becomes a pad of paper that can be searched, archived and managed easily via OneNote.  I much prefer write my notes down over typing, and the 4020 allows me to work with my TabNote as if it were a pad of paper.
• I can use this unit as either a standard laptop or as a TabletPC.  This gives me the flexibility to do whatever work I may need done.  Sometimes I simply need a keyboard, sometimes I need a pad of paper.  This unit does both.
• 6 hours of real-life battery usage with the secondary battery installed.  I am in some very long meetings, and dragging my power supply from place to place can get annoying.  It?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s nice to be able to sit in a meeting for 6 hours without needing to worry about my battery.  If I take my screen brightness down a bit, I can get even more time out of it.  On the standard battery I can get 2.5 hours, even when watching DVDs.  Now I just need to get those meetings to be a bit shorter since my brain only has a 4 hour battery.
• I/O options.  I have a universal card reader (SD/MMC/Memory Stick) that allows me to take the card directly from my Treo to my TabNote, or from my digital camera to my TabNote without the need of any cables or external readers.
• The screen is very bright and crystal clear.  I went with the indoor/outdoor display as the high-res screen was soft and hard to read.  I can read the display great indoors, and fairly well outdoors.  I can?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢t read a PowerBook at all outside (or any other laptop that I have seen for that matter).
  At 2Ghz, this system is very fast for a TabNote.  While new dual-core systems will be out soon, for now this is one of the fastest Laptop/Tablet I have seen.
• The keyboard is very sturdy and does not flex while I type.  I have found very few systems that have a keyboard as good as this TabNote.
• The fingerprint sensor is just cool.
• The controls on the screen give me quick access to tools I may need while either in laptop mode or tablet mode.
• Unlike other TabNotes the 4020 is a very solid system which does not flex when carrying it.  Most laptops or TabNote systems will bend or flex a bit when carrying them, or the keyboard will bounce when you type?¢‚Ǩ¬¶ The 4020 is solid and does none of this.

As with any technology there are a few drawbacks.  The fingerprint sensor is only available in laptop mode.  If you move to TabletPC mode the sensor is covered by the screen.  This is silly since the sensor is more useful in tablet mode than it is in laptop mode.  The screen resolution also bugs me a bit.  The best looking screen they have is 1024x768.  While a high-res version is available, it just looks soft and crummy.  What I would love to see is a high-res screen that?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s as clear as their 1024x768 version.  The port replicator (dock) is also a bit?¢‚Ǩ¬¶ lacking.  I use Skype a lot and would love to have audio input and output on the dock.  This would allow me to keep my headset plugged in at work without having to plug it directly into the TabNote itself.  Alas, the dock only has audio output, no input.  My biggest complaint has to be the speakers.  If you need to use a lot of audio on your laptop/TabNote, then this is not the unit for you.  The speakers are horrid.  Whenever I edit video or listen to music, I use headphones, the speakers are useless.

The real testament to the 4020 is how I use it.  When going to a business lunch I often find I am the only person with a laptop (or TabNote).  The best part about this is that it?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s small enough where I can eat my lunch and have the TabNote out while not taking up so much room that we need another seat just for technology.  I can be taking notes, surfing sites, and calling up info that other users simply can?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢t do because their technology was too big or too heavy.  I am the *only* person in meetings without a pad of paper.  I am able to use my technology to take notes, or even draw out pictures of designs and save them for later.  I even sign documents right on my screen and e-mail, not fax them back to their originator.

This TabNote has changed the way I work for the better, and I would highly suggest anyone looking at portable computing take a good, hard look at the Fujitsu 4020.