Fujitsu LifeBook U9311X review – extremely light but oddly capable

Despite its early adoption of laptop technology, Fujitsu is no longer considered as one of the “big” notebook brands out there. However, they are all in on business devices, and dare we say, they produce some of the most uncompromised designs.

Today, we have one such offering. It is the LifeBook U9311X, and it once again comes at the stupidly low weight of 1.02 kg. And this is accounting for the touchscreen protecting cover, and the more flexible hinge mechanisms.

In addition to that, this laptop offers the latest Tiger Lake processors from Intel. One of the pivotal features in this device’s design, however, is the PalmSecure technology. Instead of a regular fingerprint reader, the company is implementing a sensor that reads the veins in your palms. Actually, the tech is not new and has been used in buildings and other security gates for years. Nevertheless, its biggest perk is that it is hygienic since you don’t need to touch anything.

Let’s not get too carried away with interesting technology, though, and let’s move back to the LifeBook U9311X. As we continue (or start) with the review, one of the more interesting questions we need to be answered is how efficient is the cooling solution going to be, and if the keyboard is going to be a setback, as we saw with the Dell XPS 13 9310 (2-in-1).

You can check the prices and configurations in our Specs System: https://laptopmedia.com/series/fujitsu-lifebook-u9311x/

Contents


Specs Sheet

Fujitsu LifeBook U9311X - Specs

  • Sharp LQ133M1JW48 (SHP1531)
  • Color accuracy  3.2  0.8
  • HDD/SSD
  • up to 2000GB SSD
  • RAM
  • up to 32GB
  • OS
  • Windows 10 Pro, Windows 10 Home
  • Battery
  • 50Wh, 4-cell
  • Body material
  • Magnesium alloy
  • Dimensions
  • 309 x 214.8 x 16.9 mm (12.17" x 8.46" x 0.67")
  • Weight
  • 1.01 kg (2.2 lbs)
  • Ports and connectivity
  • 1x USB Type-A
  • 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbps)
  • 1x USB Type-A
  • 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbps), Power Delivery (PD)
  • 2x USB Type-C
  • Thunderbolt 4, Power Delivery (PD), DisplayPort
  • HDMI
  • 2.0
  • Card reader
  • SD
  • Ethernet LAN
  • 10, 100, 1000 Mbit/s
  • Wi-Fi
  • 802.11ax
  • Bluetooth
  • 5.1
  • Audio jack
  • 3.5mm Combo Jack
  • Features
  • Fingerprint reader
  • optional
  • Web camera
  • Front Facing 2.0 MP + Rear Facing 5.0 MP
  • Backlit keyboard
  • optional
  • Microphone
  • 2x Digital Array Microphones
  • Speakers
  • 2x Stereo Speakers
  • Optical drive
  • Security Lock slot
  • Kensington Lock Slot

What’s in the box?

Fujitsu is continuing their decent packaging job with two cardboard compartments – one for the laptop itself, and one for the accessories. This includes the 65W charger, a rather long cable, some paper manuals, and a stylus.


Design and construction

If we have to be honest, the industrial design of this laptop, paired with its incredibly slim and light chassis results in a formidable package. The actual numbers according to Fujitsu reveal a profile of 16.9mm and a weight of 1.015 kg. How is this possible? Well, the brand says they are using magnesium for the housing – a material that maintains its strength properties even at thin sheets. On the other hand, even though the chassis is somewhat capable of withstanding a big twisting force, the same cannot be said about the lid.

Also, the lid can’t be opened with a single hand. On the bright side, the lid can go all the way up to 360° and stays put without any wobble. This makes it easier to use with a stylus. Additionally, the anti-glare display features thin bezels on its sides and a slightly pronounced chin and forehead. In that respect, the latter houses a Full HD Web camera with IR face recognition.

Interestingly, this laptop features a secondary camera with a 5MP sensor and autofocus capability. Around the same height as the camera, there is a dedicated button that acts as a shortcut to the Sticky Notes app. This is incredibly useful in the business world, and considering the fact that we are talking about a touchscreen unit, it makes it an even bigger deal.

Moving down below, we see the keyboard. To be honest, we weren’t expecting to see such a good device. It has a long key travel, clicky feedback, a backlight, and large keycaps. Indeed, the touchpad below it is on the small side, and its dedicated buttons have weird feedback. Nevertheless, we are happy with the input devices.

Looking right beneath the Arrow keys, we see the aforementioned PalmSecure system. The way it works is by beaming a “near-infrared LED light towards your palm. Then, your hemoglobin absorbs the light and leaves a dark pattern on the monochrome sensor beneath – simple, yet brilliant. However, in order to use it, you have to be a part of an enterprise. Thus, we weren’t able to test it.

Here, the speakers are placed on either side of the laptop, while the bottom panel is reserved for a teeny tiny ventilation grill. Respectively, the hot air gets exhausted from a slot on the top of the base and is shot towards the display.

Ports

On the left side, you will find the charging plug, two Thunderbolt 4 connectors, an HDMI connector, a USB Type-A 3.2 (Gen. 1) port, an audio jack, and a Smart Card reader. Then, on the right, there is a lock slot, an ingenious RJ-45 pop-up connector, another USB Type-A 3.2 (Gen. 1) port, an SD card reader, and a SIM card tray. Now, that’s what we call an extensive I/O.


Disassembly, upgrade options and maintenance

To take this laptop apart, you need to undo about 5 million screws. After that, you can remove the bottom panel simply by lifting it away.

Here, we see a 50Wh battery pack.

In terms of memory, you can get configurations with up to 32GB of LPDDR4 dual-channel RAM. Unfortunately, it is soldered to the motherboard, so no upgrades are possible. On the bright side, you get one M.2 PCIe x4 slot for storage.

The cooling solution comprises a single heat pipe, a tiny heat sink, and a small fan.


Display quality

Fujitsu LifeBook U9311X is equipped with a Full HD IPS touchscreen panel, Sharp LQ133M1JW48 (SHP1531). Its diagonal is 13.3-inch (33.78 cm), and the resolution – 1920 х 1080p. Additionally, the screen ratio is 16:9, the pixel density – 166 ppi, their pitch – 0.153 х 0.153 mm. The screen can be considered Retina when viewed from at least 53 cm (from this distance, the average human eye can’t see the individual pixels).

Viewing angles are comfortable. We offer images at different angles to evaluate the quality.

Also, a video with locked focus and exposure.

The maximum measured brightness is 309 nits (cd/m2) in the middle of the screen and 308 nits (cd/m2) average across the surface with a maximum deviation of 7%. The Correlated Color Temperature on a white screen and at maximum brightness is 6770K – slightly colder than the 6500K temperature for sRGB.
In the illustration below you can see how the display performs from a uniformity perspective. The illustration below shows how matters are for operational brightness levels (approximately 140 nits) – in this particular case at 58% Brightness (White level = 140 cd/m2, Black level = 0.12 cd/m2).
Values of dE2000 over 4.0 should not occur, and this parameter is one of the first you should check if you intend to use the laptop for color-sensitive work (a maximum tolerance of 2.0 ). The contrast ratio is good – 1140:1.

To make sure we are on the same page, we would like to give you a little introduction to the sRGB color gamut and the Adobe RGB. To start, there’s the CIE 1976 Uniform Chromaticity Diagram that represents the visible specter of colors by the human eye, giving you a better perception of the color gamut coverage and the color accuracy.

Inside the black triangle, you will see the standard color gamut (sRGB) that is being used by millions of people on HDTV and on the web. As for the Adobe RGB, this is used in professional cameras, monitors, etc for printing. Basically, colors inside the black triangle are used by everyone and this is the essential part of the color quality and color accuracy of a mainstream notebook.

Still, we’ve included other color spaces like the famous DCI-P3 standard used by movie studios, as well as the digital UHD Rec.2020 standard. Rec.2020, however, is still a thing of the future and it’s difficult for today’s displays to cover that well. We’ve also included the so-called Michael Pointer gamut, or Pointer’s gamut, which represents the colors that naturally occur around us every day.

The yellow dotted line shows Fujitsu LifeBook U9311X’s color gamut coverage.

Its display covers 97% of the sRGB/ITU-R BT.709 (web/HDTV standard) in CIE1976, providing a punchy and vibrant image.

Our “Design and Gaming” profile delivers optimal color temperature (6500K) at 140 cd/m2 luminance and sRGB gamma mode.

We tested the accuracy of the display with 24 commonly used colors like light and dark human skin, blue sky, green grass, orange, etc. You can check out the results at factory condition and also, with the “Design and Gaming” profile.

Below you can compare the scores of Fujitsu LifeBook U9311X with the default settings (left), and with the “Gaming and Web design” profile (right).

The next figure shows how well the display is able to reproduce really dark parts of an image, which is essential when watching movies or playing games in low ambient light.

The left side of the image represents the display with stock settings, while the right one is with the “Gaming and Web Design” profile activated. On the horizontal axis, you will find the grayscale, and on the vertical axis – the luminance of the display. On the two graphs below you can easily check for yourself how your display handles the darkest nuances but keep in mind that this also depends on the settings of your current display, the calibration, the viewing angle, and the surrounding light conditions.

Response time (Gaming capabilities)

We test the reaction time of the pixels with the usual “black-to-white” and “white-to-black” method from 10% to 90% and vice versa.

We recorded Fall Time + Rise Time = 28 ms.

After that, we test the reaction time of the pixels with the usual “Gray-to-Gray” method from 50% White to 80% White and vice versa between 10% and 90% of the amplitude.


Health impact – PWM / Blue Light

PWM (Screen flickering)

Pulse-width modulation (PWM) is an easy way to control monitor brightness. When you lower the brightness, the light intensity of the backlight is not lowered, but instead turned off and on by the electronics with a frequency indistinguishable to the human eye. In these light impulses, the light/no-light time ratio varies, while brightness remains unchanged, which is harmful to your eyes. You can read more about that in our dedicated article on PWM.

Fujitsu LifeBook U9311X’s display uses PWM up until 79 nits. Sadly, the flickering has a frequency of 210Hz, which is rather low and harmful. However, above the 40% threshold, the display is completely safe to use in this aspect.

Blue light emissions

Installing our Health-Guard profile not only eliminates PWM but also reduces the harmful Blue Light emissions while keeping the colors of the screen perceptually accurate. If you’re not familiar with the Blue light, the TL;DR version is – emissions that negatively affect your eyes, skin, and your whole body. You can find more information about that in our dedicated article on Blue Light.

Buy our profiles

Since our profiles are tailored for each individual display model, this article and its respective profile package are meant for Fujitsu LifeBook U9311X configurations with 13.3″ Sharp LQ133M1JW48 (SHP1531) (FHD, 1920 × 1080) IPS panel.

*Should you have problems with downloading the purchased file, try using a different browser to open the link you’ll receive via e-mail. If the download target is a .php file instead of an archive, change the file extension to .zip or contact us at [email protected].

Read more about the profiles HERE.

In addition to receiving efficient and health-friendly profiles, by buying LaptopMedia's products you also support the development of our labs, where we test devices in order to produce the most objective reviews possible.

Office Work

Office Work should be used mostly by users who spend most of the time looking at pieces of text, tables or just surfing. This profile aims to deliver better distinctness and clarity by keeping a flat gamma curve (2.20), native color temperature and perceptually accurate colors.

Design and Gaming

This profile is aimed at designers who work with colors professionally, and for games and movies as well. Design and Gaming takes display panels to their limits, making them as accurate as possible in the sRGB IEC61966-2-1 standard for Web and HDTV, at white point D65.

Health-Guard

Health-Guard eliminates the harmful Pulse-Width Modulation (PWM) and reduces the negative Blue Light which affects our eyes and body. Since it’s custom tailored for every panel, it manages to keep the colors perceptually accurate. Health-Guard simulates paper so the pressure on the eyes is greatly reduced.

Get all 3 profiles with 33% discount


Sound

Fujitsu LifeBook U9311X’s speakers are not the best out there. Also, there are deviations across the entire frequency range.


Drivers

All of the drivers and utilities for this notebook can be found here: https://support.ts.fujitsu.com/IndexDownload.asp?lng=en&OpenTab=

Battery

Now, we conduct the battery tests with Windows Better performance setting turned on, screen brightness adjusted to 120 nits, and all other programs turned off except for the one we are testing the notebook with. This device’s 50Wh battery pack lasts for 14 hours and three minutes of Web browsing, and 11 hours and 17 minutes of video playback.


CPU options

This notebook can be purchased with either the Core i5-1135G7, Core i5-1145G7, or Core i7-1185G7.


GPU options

Respectively the graphics options are limited to the integrated Iris Xe Graphics G7 with 80 or 96EUs.


Gaming tests

cs-go-benchmarks

CS:GOHD 1080p, Low (Check settings)HD 1080p, Medium (Check settings)HD 1080p, MAX (Check settings)
Average FPS158 fps116 fps69 fps

DOTA 2HD 1080p, Low (Check settings)HD 1080p, Normal (Check settings)HD 1080p, High (Check settings)
Average FPS109 fps69 fps53 fps

Temperatures and comfort

Max CPU load

In this test we use 100% on the CPU cores, monitoring their frequencies and chip temperature. The first column shows a computer’s reaction to a short load (2-10 seconds), the second column simulates a serious task (between 15 and 30 seconds), and the third column is a good indicator of how good the laptop is for long loads such as video rendering.

Average core frequency (base frequency + X); CPU temp.

Intel Core i7-1185G7(15W TDP)0:02 – 0:10 sec0:15 – 0:30 sec10:00 – 15:00 min
Fujitsu LifeBook U9311X3.08 GHz @ 98°C @ 35W2.75 GHz @ 97°C @ 27W2.26 GHz @ 82°C @ 18W
MSI Summit E15 (A11x)3.32 GHz @ 94°C @ 38W3.19 GHz @ 95°C @ 36W3.05 GHz @ 95°C @ 33W
Dell Latitude 14 74203.66 GHz @ 98°C @ 47W3.04 GHz @ 97°C @ 30W2.17 GHz @ 76°C @ 16W
MSI Prestige 14 (A11Sx)3.80 GHz @ 94°C @ 53W3.48 GHz @ 95°C @ 42W3.22 GHz @ 91°C @ 35W
Lenovo Yoga 9i (14)3.08 GHz @ 92°C @ 42W3.14 GHz @ 96°C @ 34W2.28 GHz @ 76°C @ 19W

The tiny cooling setup inside of this laptop manages pretty decent frequencies if we have to be honest. We were not expecting to see a sustained clock speed of above 2.00 GHz.

Comfort during full load

During this test, the laptop was pretty quiet. Even though the keyboard warmed up a bit, it was never too hot.


Verdict

Interestingly, using this convertible as a normal laptop is a piece of cake. Its fast SSD and capable processors provide a nearly instantaneous response time. The keyboard is out of this world, and comparable to that of most of the ThinkPads out there.

Unfortunately, we were not able to test the PalmSecure software due to the enterprise limits. Also, the memory is soldered to the motherboard, which is another unfixable drawback.

Fujitsu LifeBook U9311X has a touchscreen IPS panel with a Full HD resolution, good contrast ratio, and comfortable viewing angles. Not only does it cover 97% of the sRGB color gamut, but it also manages to achieve very good color accuracy with our Gaming and Web design profile. Unfortunately, the panel uses aggressive PWM for brightness adjustment up to 79 nits. Here is where another of our profiles (the Health-Guard) comes to use, as it completely eliminates the PWM issue.

It is clearly seen by the benchmark results that Fujitsu preferred graphics performance over pure computational power. However, we have another favorite feature in the face of the I/O width. It is absolutely packed with ports to the point that you will hardly ever need a dongle. This includes a full-sized SD card slot and RJ-45 connector (thanks to clever engineering), as well as two Thunderbolt 4 connectors.

At the end of the day, it is not too often that a manufacturer supplies a stylus inside the package of their device. And one that has its house inside of the laptop itself. Furthermore, the magnesium structure results in one of the lightest devices on the planet right now. Indeed, this notebook is not cheap, but if you own a company, your employees will be happy with the LifeBook U9311X.

You can check the prices and configurations in our Specs System: https://laptopmedia.com/series/fujitsu-lifebook-u9311x/

Pros

  • Ultralight magnesium chassis
  • Covers 97% of sRGB colors
  • Very high color accuracy when Gaming and Web design profile is installed
  • Good battery life
  • A dedicated pen that hides inside the laptop
  • PalmSecure and optional IR face recognition systems
  • Rich I/O with two Thunderbolt 4 ports, an SD card reader and an optional LTE support


Cons

  • Uses aggressive PWM up to 79 nits (our Health-Guard profile deals with the issue)
  • Speakers are really quiet
  • Memory is soldered to the motherboard

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