Fujitsu Stylistic M532 Review

Introduction:

You can’t deny one thing with Fujitsu, and it is the beautifully designed products – its laptops, for instance, always have a little something to make them stand out, but will that panache be translated now to the free-for-all tablet market?

The Fujitsu Stylistic M532 is the company’s push for a presence into the growing Android tablet universe, and regardless of the claims that there are only so many ways to design a rectangular tablet, it is a looker, and a tough one at that, conforming to military standards of handling.

Fujitsu is positioning it as both a consumer and enterprise device, unlike its Windows slate last year, which was chiefly aimed towards the business market. Has it cracked the code? Read on our review to find out…

In the box:

• Proprietary charging cable
• microUSB cable for data transfer
• Cleaning cloth
• Warranty leaflet and manual

Design:

Subtle red aluminum trim around the edges and around the 8MP rear camera lens, soft-touch plastic on the back that helps with the grip, red background when you power it on – the Stylistic tablet is stylish indeed. Eschewing aluminum for the chassis cuts into the premium feeling that, say, the Asus Transformers relay, but the plastic construction makes the 10” slate very light at 19.75 oz (560 g), and it is also pretty thin at 0.34” (8.6 mm).




The compact size and weight are even more welcome when we take into consideration that Fujitsu’s slate is built to comply with the MIL-STD-810G military standard for gadget toughness. It doesn’t mean the slate is waterproof, but rather that it will withstand a few more drops – both on the ground and of water – or fare better in a harsher in terms of dust, humidity, shocks and vibrations environment than your average Android tablet.

Fujitsu Stylistic M532 indeed feels very solid in the hand, with a tight build that lacks any squeaks or crevices. The power/lock button on the top, and the volume rocker on the right are easy to find and press, with solid tactile feedback.

There is more than enough bezel to go around when holding the tablet, regardless of the orientation, so that you don’t accidentally touch the screen while surfing, and head to another website, as so often happens. The two stereo speakers are also thoughtfully situated on the back’s bottom, so you don’t cover them with your hands when holding the tablet, yet they are edging towards the sides, so you can still hear them when the tablet is lying flat.

As far as ports are concerned, the tablet sports two of those – one proprietary dock connector for charging only, and one microUSB port for data transfer.

The slate also sports a microSD card slot for storage expansion on the right, next to a SIM card slot, both covered with one protective flap, as the slate is rated to be splash-proof. There is no HDMI port for streaming movies, which is a bummer, as you have to get the cradle dock for the tablet, that comes with one.

One last touch is the notification LED light next to the ambient light sensor on the front right, which shows the state of charging as well.



Display:

An ordinary 10.1” 1280x800 pixels display with Gorilla Glass is what we find on the tough Fujitsu tablet, and the panel is of the IPS variety meaning very good viewing angles. A pixel density just shy of 150ppi is low for a phone, but about standard for a slate that is looked at from much further.

We are seeing more and more tablets in this price range with higher resolution displays, though, and that could be an issue when considering the purchase. The display is otherwise sufficiently bright for comfortable operation outside, and has good color representation.

Interface and Functionality:

Fujitsu hasn’t touched the default Android 4.0.3 Ice Cream Sandwich interface much, if at all. Its only additions are the dark red background, matching the aluminum trim color around the sides, and a number of apps that are supposedly making it easier for enterprise customers.



These include licenses for the ES File Explorer, Norton Security, and Think Free Office HD apps, which average consumers benefit from as well, but also such business stalwarts like Citrix, VMware View, Computrace for remote management, TouchDown HD for Tablets with Exchange ActiveSync, and iTap mobile RDP - those should make every corporate Intraweb admin grin with delight. Cirtix and TouchDown have their own widgets, and that’s about the only addition to the stock Android stable the Fujitsu tablet sports.


As far as the work-play balance, Fujitsu has also included a license for CyberLink’s great PowerDVD mobile app, which serves as your media playback hub, but also can stream movies to your DLNA-enabled TV. This comes in handy, as the tablet doesn’t have an HDMI out for hooking up to TVs, as we mentioned.

Processor and Memory:

The 1.4GHz quad-core Tegra 3 with octocore mobile GeForce GPU is a standard fare in most contemporary Android tablets, and it is powerful enough to chew through everything the Play Store has to offer with aplomb. Moreover, you have the added benefit of Tegra Zone, which is full of games written exclusively for this system chip.

1GB of RAM ensures smooth sailing with a lot of loaded apps in the background, and we have the generous 32GB of internal memory on the Fujitsu Stylistic M532 (26.5GB user-available), aided by a microSD slot for storage expansion.

	Quadrant Standard	AnTuTu	NenaMark 2
Fujitsu Stylistic M532	4485	11616	54,3
Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1	2341	5167	20,6
Asus Transformer Pad 300	3872	9551	47,1

Internet and Connectivity:

The Android ICS browser on the Fujitsu slate is as smooth as it gets with this processor, meaning you won’t have any issues with hiccups and stuttering while scrolling, panning or zooming, and you get full Adobe Flash support as well.



Most tablets skip on a SIM card slot, as the Wi-Fi-only versions are their bestsellers, due to cost, but the Fujitsu Stylistic M532 is trying to wink at the corporate market as well, so a baseband radio is present here for HSPA data speeds. Other than that, we get the standard fare – Wi-Fi, BT 3.0 and A-GPS radios.

Camera:

There is an 8MP rear camera with LED flash on the back, and 2MP one at the front for video chat. The camera interface is as stock as they come, with a settings dialer around the shutter button, and all the goodies brought on by ICS, like continuous shooting, time lapse, and the Silly Faces laughing mirror video effects.



The pictures turned out fine, with good contrast, accurate color representation, and the amount of detail we’d expect from an 8MP shooter. Noise is quite visible, though, as even on a bright sunny day it creeps up into the frame.


The camera is capable of Full HD video with 1080 definition, which turned out pretty good, with accurate colors, no excessive artifacts, and smooth 30fps capture.

Fujitsu Stylistic M532 Sample Video:



Fujitsu Stylistic M532 Indoor Sample Video:



Multimedia:

The tablet uses a basic pop-up control to play your tunes, since the default music app is strangely missing, so you’d better download it, or another full-fledged one, from the Play Store. The stereo speakers are of about the average quality, neither very strong, nor too clear, as on most tablets.

For video playback you’d better use the preinstalled CyberLink Mobile PowerDVD app, as the default player doesn’t run DivX/Xvid files, just MPEG-4 ones.

Battery:

We were a bit hesitant about the 3170mAh battery capacity at first, but it is a Li-Polymer unit, and Fujitsu quotes it good for 8 hours and 40 minutes of video playback, which is about the norm for 10-inch Android slates. While writing this review, the battery indeed looked as if it can get you through the typical day of heavy tablet-ing, and even through the weekend, if used conservatively for browsing and such at half brightness.

Conclusion:

The Fujitsu Stylistic M532 MSRP is about $550, which is roughly the initial going rate for a 10” tablet with 32GB of internal memory and SIM card slot for data. It, however, adds a military standard toughness to the mix, so you can be comfortable with more abuse and neglect than your average Android slate. The Asus Transformer Pad TF300 and Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 (10.1), offer similar specs in this price range, but are not as rugged, and Fujitsu’s design is on top of that thinner, lighter and more appealing than both. The Asus slate allows you to hook up USB peripherals to the tablet, though, whereas the microUSB port with the Stylistic is only for data transfer.

However, there is a big elephant in the room, called the new iPad, which comes more expensive with the cellular connectivity, but will offer that “Resolutionary” display no other tablet is even close to matching, plus a cool aluminum chassis. If you are fine with standard display resolution, you can get the 32GB iPad 2 in 3G flavor for about the same money as the Fujitsu Stylistic M532, and have an abundance of slicker tablet-tailored apps at your disposal.

The things that make the Fujitsu Android tablet stand out are its comparative ruggedness in a slim, light and comfortable to hold red-accent design, plus the useful set of licensed enterprise-friendly apps. The market will decide whether these are enough to battle the rest of the Android crowd in this day and age of $200 7-inchers, and $350 10” tablets.

Software version of the reviewed unit: Android 4.0.3, Build 5.N08700.0505JPN-enFR.120703.0

Fujitsu Stylistic M532 Video Review: