Accessories ordered for the Fujitsu P1620
Right now the Fujitsu P1620 is showing an estimated ship date of tomorrow which I hope is a firm date. I did order (and have received) some accessories for the P1620 and I want to share what those are so you can get an idea for how I will use the Fuji when it finally gets here. I ordered the Fuji with the 6-cell (extended) battery instead of the standard 3-cell and I also ordered a second extended battery. The two extended batteries will get me 10 – 12 hours of combined battery life and will be more than enough for all day. I also ordered a second A/C adapter as I do for all mobile PCs so I have a second one available for traveling. The spare battery and adapter will ship with the P1620 according to Fujitsu. I also ordered the port replicator which should ship at the same time.
I ordered some third party accessories that I know I will use with the Fuji and most of them have already arrived. First up I ordered a Lamy 4-in-1 stylus which is an awesome pen and stylus combination. I had one before but I spilled coffee on it a while back and it ruined the tip selection mechanism. The pen is great so I ordered a new one as I love using the stylus for inking on the Fujitsu. It arrived last week. Second up I ordered a Waterfield Designs SleeveCase since I threw in the one I had with the P1610 I sold. The case is custom fitted for the P1620 with the extended battery and makes for the smallest functional case I will use to carry the Fuji around. I got one with a flap and D-rings for the shoulder strap which I already have. I also ordered a Belkin USB DVD drive that I can use with the P1620 for installing software, ripping music CDs and booting should the need arise. It was only $60 as I ordered it from Fujitsu under a special deal. It should arrive tomorrow.
I did some research and discovered that the SD card reader in the P1620 is fast enough to run ReadyBoost in Vista from the SD card. This was something I wanted to do with the P1610 but that drive was too slow to run ReadyBoost. Since this new drive will run ReadyBoost I got a 2 GB Sandisk SD card from Amazon for $16 and it arrived two days ago. I anticipate ReadyBoost will make the Fuji run Vista even better than without so we will see. It was worth $16 to test this out.
My Verizon v740 modem is an ExpressCard modem so I will use the Novatel XCA-3 adapter I bought last year when I had the P1610. This will let me use the v740 in the PC Card slot of the P1620 so I can have always connected goodness.
That’s the whole kit and I can’t wait to get the Fuji in-house and get going with the small form factor of the P1620. I know this wait for the shipping is excruciating.
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Strange, cause I am running Vista on my P1610 with ReadyBoost (2GB SD in the SD slot). Maybe you were using a slow SD card before.
Yep ReadyBoost has worked for a while with the P1610 and SD been running it since the Vista Beta. Not too much in net gains when using it over 512MB, but I do notice an improvement in some applications to warrent using it, more so with an SSD drive of the IDE I had in it before.
You can also run SD HC cards as well if you install a driver update. (Since they transfer faster than CF cards with a CF to SD adapter it works great with digital SLR cameras)
http://www.fmworld.net/download/E1007029/E1007029.exe
The SD HC update also works with the older P1510′s as well. Currently I am allocating 2 GB to ReadyBoost and 14GB for storage on my Patriot 16GB SD HC.
Note when you do your drive icon will fall under hard drives instead of removable disk due to the speed this runs at. More than fast enough to run ripped video, amazon unbox videos, and programs. :)
Combine it with a 32 GB CF card in the PC Card slot and a 32GB SSD drive and you got yourself 80GB of flash based storage, which makes it pretty snappy. IF you are planning on upgrading a P1610 to a SSD larger than 32GB say a 64GB or 128GB in the future, you will need the P1620 hard drive ZIF cable. Same goes in reverse if you want to run a 32GB SSD in the P1620 you need the ATA adapter of the P1610.
Just FYI…
I hope yours actually ships tomorrow. They have changed my ship date 3 times, once after promising it was a “firm” date.
This is great, James. I ordered the Waterfield Designs SleeveCase too, but I went with the piggyback so I can take just the P1620 and a Sierra bluetooth keyboard if I want to have a compact and complete working solution. I wonder if the spare battery will fit in the piggyback too. We’ll see. 3/1/08 is my ship date.
Quick question about the stylus… I’m looking for one that has a “springy” tip like the one that comes with the p1610/p1620… seems like everyone I see is a hard tip with little or no give… suggestions? By the way with regard to the ReadyBoost… I went thru 10+ SD cards looking for one that would run ReadyBoost on my p1610 and was NEVER able to get one to work… the 16GB SD card I have now works with ReadyBoost in my p1620… I suspect different builds of the p1610 had varying degrees of support for ReadyBoost
TonyP, I already have a PiggyBack case for my sleeve and yes, the extended battery fits well in it. :)
Andrew Beery, the spring tip on the Fujitsu stylus is what ejects it from the silo. I have not seen other styli with the same spring tip. I love the Lamy stylus for inking and will use it happily. One note, Fujitsu offers a 5-pack of replacement styli for less than $30 which is a great deal.
Hi…there are two types of Lamy 4 in 1 pens…one black like the one you once had and stainless steel version with rubber grip…any preference? Is one better than the other?
Also do you use the screen protectors from Fuji? and what small bluetooth mouse would you recommend?
Thanks.