Fujitsu STYLISTIC Q550 Pro Reviews

The Stylistic Q550 packs such business-friendly features as a fingerprint reader and a removable battery, but its Atom processor lacks oomph.

The Fujitsu Stylistic Q550 looks fine, but it's a bit heavy - and we'd have liked to see some sort of housing in the chassis for its stylus. Infinity Lounge has potential, though, and we'd like to see it expanded. The storage quota definitely needs a boost too.

There’s no denying that the Q550 comes with all the bells and whistles and the digitising kit will appeal to some but the fundamental gutlessness of the underpinnings makes it hard for me to give it an unqualified recommendation. I’m not even sure that business users won’t get a bit impatient with the essential turgidity of the thing, though at least they won’t have to cough up £800 for the privilege.

We commend Fujitsu on the design and build quality of the Stylistic Q550; it really is a slick and sturdy tablet – until you actually start using it. And we applaud the inclusion of its touch utilities, which do improve the user experience to a degree. We must fault Fujitsu on its outfitting the Stylistic Q550 with an underpowered, single-core Intel Atom processor. Wrestling with Windows 7 on a touch screen is difficult enough without being left wondering if a click was on target as you wait for a command to be recognized. Unless your business has software built to run on a Windows 7 tablet, you are better off waiting a few months for Windows 8. If you simply must have a Stylistic Q550 tablet, do note Fujitsu sells two Q550 models. The other model costs a bit less at $729 and features a smaller hard drive (30GB), a smaller battery (2-cell), and no TPM chip.

We found the Fujitsu Stylistic Q550 woefully under-qualified in terms of speed and specification. While we appreciate that it tablet is aimed mostly at business users, but we would expect a more fluid, impressive and smooth user experience than it delivered, whether we were using it for work or leisure.

The Q550 makes a lot of compromises and they may not be the right ones for you. You get business security features and full-size ports in compact but sturdy package - but not the full power to go with them.

With its security features, sturdy design, and swappable battery, the Fujitsu Stylistic Q550 puts business functionality into a Windows tablet you can actually use, and its combination of touch input and physical controls sidestep many common problems.

The Fujitsu Q550 is a genuinely interesting tablet, and one that will appeal to buyers other than the business crowd Fujitsu's gunning for. As a graphics tablet to use out in the field, it's an excellent device thanks to its matt screen and digitizer. However, it's also not particularly powerful given its price. It demands some patience, but for arty types it arguably has more to offer than an iPad 2.

The Stylistic Q550 is an Intel 'Oak Trail' based tablet that runs Windows 7. It's designed for enterprise users and has lots of security features to prove it. It's not awfully fast and it can sometimes feel downright sluggish, but as Fujitsu told us: it should only be used to run one task at a time. We agree with that.

Overall, it is a portable work device that, in our opinion, will likely only appeal to a few consumers. Such a bundle could get interesting with the recently presented Windows 8 operating system, since the present touch interface is very coarse in its current state. We can't ignore the fairly steep starting price of 699 euros (RRP) despite the good warranty period of 24 months. However, the value added tax of 19% will be a secondary concern for businesses. They will also be the main clients of the Q550, since it is one of the few tablets that support Windows and thus can easily be integrated into an existing infrastructure.

Despite finicky gesture support, the Q550 performs well and packs business-ready features and security. It's a good buy for mobile business users.