With Intel launching its new Centrino 2 vPro mobile platform, a.k.a. Montevina, Fujitsu Computer Systems is among the first vendors to line up with new laptop offerings.

The company today is announcing six new notebooks, some of them convertible tablets, in an array of price and performance ranges. The convertibles can be used as a standard notebook, or the screen can rotate 180 degrees and close, with the screen facing out, and be used as a tablet or pen-based PC.

Centrino 2 vPro features new and improved features, ranging from the lower-power Penryn processor to new chipsets supporting improved graphics and networking performance, as well as faster wireless and remote administration.

Each new notebook and convertible has its own design, something Fujitsu prefers over standard form factors for all models. It also prides itself on the light weight of its notebooks. The S6520 is the thinnest and lightest notebook with a 14-inch screen on the market at just 3.7 pounds instead of the usual five pounds, said Paul Moore, senior director of mobile product management.

Despite that light weight, Moore said it's not a flimsy design thanks to the use of magnesium compounds in the case. "It's all in how you mount the display and rigidness of the structure of the display," he told InternetNews.com. "There's two high failure mechanisms on a notebook, the hard drive and the display. We use a celerometer to protect the hard drive and a magnesium lid on the display keeps it from cracking."

The high end of the line is the LifeBook A8420 notebook, a desktop replacement notebook which features a 15.4-inch LCD display, wireless USB, a faster E-SATA hard drive port, support for 802.11n networking, and a new, gesture-enabled touchpad that lets users control many functions though simple finger movements.

At the bottom of the line is a more general purpose notebook for consumers who are more price conscious. The new LifeBook T1010 convertible tablet PC has a 13.3-inch display and weighs 4.5 pounds, all for a suggested price of $1,299. But by and large, Fujitsu notebooks are not cheap. "If you want productivity, you're going to pay for that. We tend not to play in the low end of the market," said Moore.

The other tablet is the LifeBook T5010, which replaces the older T4220. It has all of the standard features, like Centrino 2 vPro, wireless networking and Bluetooth and up to a 250GB drive. It also has software control for the laptop's ports, so no can plug in a USB thumb drive and copy off data, a common cause of data loss. Its suggested price is $1,769.

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All of the new Fujitsu notebooks will be available through Fujitsu resellers.