Fujitsu Lifebook U938

Compared with other brands, Fujitsu had been behind the curve in implementing the latest mobile platforms from Intel. But the latest devices do use Intel 8th Gen technologies, and those parts allow for some spectacular machines to be built. 

High performance and super-lightweight are often mutually exclusive features, but in the Fujitsu Lifebook U938, they successfully coexist, for the most part. 

Cramming a punchy processor, memory, storage and a 13.3-inch 1080p display into this svelte chassis must have been a tough engineering challenge. 

Building on previous Lifebook designs, the Fujitsu engineers executed their design brief almost flawlessly. Creating a laptop that is both easy to carry, pleasant to use and lightening quick.   

And, like ‘Iron Man’ aka Tony Stark, those designers finished this masterpiece of compact computer engineering, and told the fabricators to ‘throw a little hot-rod red in there!’ 

Yes, this PC comes in black too, but then that wouldn’t offer the same level of attention-grabbing that this machine truly deserves. 

Price, availability and value 

The UK pricing for the review model covered here is £1,798 exclusive of VAT (£2,157.60 with tax added). The review model is one of four standard specs offered in the UK, and you can customise these with alternative memory and storage choices. 

Globally, the exact spec of these machines differs slightly, as do the upgrade options. For example; all UK machines come with the palm vein sensor. Where in the US you can have a fingerprint reader instead, reducing the cost a little. 

A machine with an identical spec to the review hardware in the USA is about $2,450. 

Design 

If you’ve made this level of expenditure on a laptop, you’d expect it to be a bit special, and the U938 fulfils those expectations in numerous ways. 

The first you’ll notice is how incredibly light it is, being just 920g (2lbs). That’s hardly anything for a machine with a display of this scale, and less than the majority of the Asus and Acer Chromebooks. 

The screen dictated many aspects of the U938 layout, as there is a narrow border to each side and above it. With the tight framing of the screen, the whole machine is less than 31cm wide (12-inches). 

Even with this limited space the designers still managed to fit a reasonably sized keyboard and useable touchpad in the available space. 

As an alternative to using the touchpad, the screen is touch capable, and you can use a mouse on one of the USB ports. 

Being just 15.5 mm (0.6-inches) thin when closed there isn’t much room for external ports anywhere but the sides. The provided selection includes a full-size HDMI out, two normal Type-A USB ports, a single USB Type-C with power delivery, a Smart Card slot, audio jack, Gigabit LAN port and a SIM card slot. 

We should mention that the SIM slot is only available on machines that include the integrated 4G/LTE module, a customer-defined extra. 

One slight disappointment was that Fujitsu went with a proprietary charger and not Type-C, even if the design includes one of these ports with power-sharing on it. 

A possibility exists that it can be powered by a Type-C connection, as that’s the technology that the official docking station uses exclusively. If true, that makes the proprietary PSU an even more head-scratching choice. 

Where this machine excels is in the quality of the keyboard, the touchpad and that lovely screen. If laptop builders get those features right, most owners will be pleased. 

The keyboard, in particular, is excellent. Short key travel makes for a light and yet very positive action, allowing for some blistering input speed once you’ve acclimatised. 

Our U938 also had a palm vein sensor to the left of the touchpad that uses PalmSecure technology for super-secure, contactless biometric authentication. 

But a standout experience is the screen, one that delivers a surprisingly strong gamut where portable systems aren’t renowned for colour representation. It was so good that we couldn’t resist testing it with a colour calibrator, but more of that later.

From the outside, the U938 is generally great, but it’s the inside of these products that traditionally makes or breaks any design. 

The competition 

A machine of this specification was never going to be a budget model, given the engineering expertise needed to shoehorn all the wonderful technology inside such a small case. 

It’s priced to compete with the Apple MacBook, a range that hasn’t yet got Intel 8th Gen silicon. The MacBook Air 13 for example is still using the 2015 era Broadwell Core i5 (5th Gen), disturbingly. 

There are very few machines using the i5-8350U processor so far, most like the Dell XPS 13 9370 are using the slightly slower i5-8250U instead. 

One machine very closely priced is the Dell XPS 15 9575. However, that is a 15-inch screen on a 2-in-1 solution that has the i5-8350G processor on it. The ‘G’ designation of the CPU identifies this machine as one that includes the new Radeon RX Vega M discrete graphics. But, the Dell XPS 15 weighs more than twice that of the U938, so it doesn’t occupy precisely the same Ultrabook niche. 

A more affordable option is the Lenovo ThinkPad X280, which customised with the same processor, RAM and storage is about 80% of the Lifebook cost. 

However, again the X280 weight more and the screen is only 12.5-inch. 

One cost effective alternative is the new HP Spectre 13, a machine that you can get with the Core i7-8550U processor, 1TB of storage and 16GB of RAM for just £1,699 ($1840).   

Compared with what 8th Gen designs have so far appeared, the U938 seems on the pricey side, but given the limited choice of Ultrabooks with this class of hardware, the cost is what the market will stand. 

Specifications 

Simply put, the specifications of the U938 are stellar. And, for those that want even more power, Fujitsu offers a Core i7 version in this range. 

Even with the Core i5, there is plenty of computer power in such a super-lightweight magnesium shell, though the Lifebook manages to remain almost silent irrespective of the tasks demanded of it. 

While 256GB of drive storage might seem modest, it is at least the very best NVMe technology that kicks a SATA SSD to the kerb. Those wanting to reduce the price can go with SATA, with sizes ranging from 128GB to 512GB, and 512GB. 

But sadly, which every technology you choose the maximum drive size is 512GB. 

The 8GB of 2133MHz DDR4 is more than adequate for average tasks, and this can be increased to 20GB at the point of purchase. 

For those wondering if the memory and storage could be user enhanced, the manual states quite clearly that ‘Unauthorised opening or incorrect repair may greatly endanger the user (electric shock, fire risk) and will invalidate your warranty.’

Another optional item installed in the factory is the palm vein sensor, which can be swapped out for a fingerprint sensor in some regions. 

Something of a curiosity we should mention is the fold-out Ethernet port. 

For those that have not yet to encounter one of these; it’s an odd solution that allows a laptop too thin to mount a proper RJ45 receptacle to fudge this issue.

Once prised out with a fingernail the flattened frame hinges to allow an Ethernet cable to dock to a structure that was previously too narrow. 

To our eyes, it looks like the very first part that will break on the U938, even if it is a remarkably clever design. 

We’d recommend that anyone who wants gigabit Ethernet connection in the office buy the USB Type-C connected docking station, and connect an Ethernet cable to that instead. 

For those on the move, the optional LTE module could be critical, assuming the local LTE services are those you can access. 

Performance 

Unsurprisingly the U938 in the review trim is an excellent performer. 

The inclusion of an NVMe drive on the review model made a huge difference to the drive related scores. Demonstrating that when connected to mains power this machine will easily outperform most desktop PCs. 

The SSD on the review machine was the Enterprise OEM Samsung P961, a V-NAND MLC design that numerous system builders have embraced. It’s very strong on reading performance, and less wonderful at writing. But, it still manages to be double the speed of the best SATA SSD drives. 

As a computing platform, the U938 feels a little geared down from its full potential, possibly to extend battery life. 

We’ve seen faster machines built around the slightly slower Intel Core i5-8250U CPU, where the configuration is being less careful about battery life and cooling. 

But as mobile platforms go, this is still a very powerful one that can breeze through most office related duties with ease. 

Unless you intend to make fluid dynamics calculations or some other super-intensive task the U938 will be more than adequate to the task. 

However, if there is a blot on the beautifully maintained Fujitsu landscape, it’s the battery life that you can reasonably expect with such a high specification machine. 

In its brochure, Fujitsu describes the U938 as having ‘All-day battery runtime’, which from our testing seems mildly optimistic.

Using the PCMark08 Work test the machine had a projected battery life of 4 hours and 6 minutes. In a real-world scenario, we’d expect it to last longer, but probably not twice as long. 

This minor weakness is the flip-side of making this machine both light and powerful, and to expect otherwise is unrealistic. 

Also, if you use it every day, the battery is rated to 500 recharge cycles, suggesting that you’ll need a replacement battery before two years is up. 

In addition to our normal testing, we also ran a screen analysis that determined a gamut of 97% of sRGB. For a laptop that’s a terrific result, although as it only represents 75% of AdobeRGB, it isn’t one that we’d recommend for colour corrected photos.  

Final verdict 

The combination of power and performance in the Fujitsu Lifebook U938 is a little intoxicating, if not taken in moderation. 

When you factor in the portability of the machine, this becomes the sort of equipment that makers are forced to wrestle back from reviewers, possibly using a ladder or some other tag-team equipment to subdue them. 

Parts of it could have been more robustly made, we’re sure, but this is a pure thoroughbred, not a cart horse. 

One issue with the Lifebook that we’d hoped to see less of these days is the number of irritating applications the maker decided to pre-install. 

Some of them proved so annoying; we’re looking at you McAfee Livesafe, that we were forced to remove those merely to complete our benchmarks without being repeatedly interrupted by seemingly endless panic-inspiring alerts. 

In a business environment all this junk will almost certainly be removed before the user ever sees it, so why bother installing it in the first place? 

But whatever the reason, we wish Fujitsu and others would stop, as it simply irritates reviewers, IT personnel and customers alike. 

But niggles aside, there are so many great things about this machine, especially if you want something easy to carry and bristling with useful features. Something this well-engineered, designed and built was never going to be cheap, but it is probably worth every penny. 

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