Fujitsu LifeBook A514 Notebook Review

For the original German review, see here.
Fujitsu’s LifeBook A514 is a model revision on a very high level. The successor of the A512, which we reviewed two-and-a-half years ago, got a current Core i3 from the Haswell generation as well as a new chassis including new display and three USB 3.0 ports. Our review configuration also uses a 128 GB SSD from Samsung instead of a conventional hard drive.
The other features are pretty much what you would expect from a current and inexpensive 15.6-inch office notebook. This segment is filled with rivals from almost every well-known manufacturer – like HP with the 350 G1, Acer with the Extensa 2510-34Z4 or Asus with the X555LD-XX283H, so there are more than enough comparison devices.
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Case & Connectivity
It is easy to identify the A514 as an office notebook with its completely matte black and slightly roughened plastic surfaces. Slightly angled edges result in a pretty angular design, which is a visual contrast to the more rounded mainstream design.
Despite the changed appearance, the chassis quality of the A514 is actually similar to the predecessor A512, which includes the same pros and cons. The build quality is very good in general and the base unit convinces with a high torsion resistance. It is the opposite for the display: You don’t need a lot of force to twist the cover and even slight pressure on the back will create picture distortions. The hinges can keep the display in position, but they are still very smooth and it is no problem to open the lid with one hand, even though the base unit only weighs around 2 kilograms.
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4 GB RAM is standard – which cannot be said about a multi-DVD burner nowadays anymore. It is therefore almost a small highlight of the A514. The connections are not very surprising; you get one USB 2.0 port as well as three USB 3.0 ports. One of them can be used to charge external devices when the device is turned off. All USB ports are located pretty far to the front, which could limit the usability in some cases. The multimedia section consists of a VGA and an HDMI port as well as two stereo jacks. The physical connectivity is completed by the SD-card reader at the front as well as a slot for Kensington locks. The Internet can either be accessed via Gigabit-LAN or Wi-Fi according to the 802.11n standard.
You only have to remove one single bottom cover to access the internals of the device. It is secured by six screws and it is therefore no problem to replace the SSD or clean the fans. Even simpler is the access to the two memory slots (one occupied) – the bottom cover has a hatch at the corresponding position, which is only secured by one single screw.
Remarkable is the fact that Fujitsu ships the A514 with Windows 7 Professional besides Windows 8.1 Professional, both in the 64-bit versions. Our review unit was preloaded with Windows 7. The scope of delivery also includes a full version of the picture editing application Corel Draw Essentials X6.
Input Devices
The spill-water resistant keyboard with a dedicated numeric keypad leaves a pretty mixed impression. The main keys (15 x 16 millimeters) and the slightly smaller arrow and function keys seem to be sufficient in practice and the travel is pretty standard as well. Frequent writers, however, will not be very happy with the weak feedback and the hardly perceptible pressure point.
The situation is similar for the touchpad with multi-touch support. It is pretty big at 10.9 x 7.0 centimeters and provides good gliding capabilities for the fingers. The travel of the two buttons is well-defined and the pressure point is firm. Less convenient is the position of the pad on the left side. While right-handers can enjoy an increased area for the palms, the hand has to stay in the air or move around the (at least blunt) edge of the case when you use the left hand.
Display
The anti-reflective display of the A514 measures 15.6-inches with a resolution of 1366x768 pixels. This is not a lot, but it seems that this resolution is still the standard for budget devices – office notebooks with Full HD panels carry a significant premium, which is evident when you look at the similarly equipped Acer TravelMate P256-M-39NG.
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Brightness Distribution: 84 %
Center on Battery: 231 cd/m²
Contrast: 592:1 (Black: 0.39 cd/m²)
ΔE Color 8.08 | 0.55-29.43 Ø5.2
ΔE Greyscale 9.05 | 0.57-98 Ø5.4
45.24% AdobeRGB 1998 (Argyll 2.2.0 3D)
65.1% sRGB (Argyll 2.2.0 3D)
43.77% Display P3 (Argyll 2.2.0 3D)
Gamma: 2.44
The mixed impression continues in the display section. We like the good contrast of 524:1 and the black value of 0.39 cd/m². For comparison: The best budget office notebook, the ProBook 450 G2 from HP, only manages 353:1 and 0.72 cd/m², respectively.
However, the average display brightness is pretty disappointing. We can only measure 216.4 cd/m², which not only clearly falls behind all the rivals but also the direct successor A512 that still managed 246.1 cd/m². At least the brightness distribution remains on the same (mediocre) level. The average DeltaE-2000 deviation of 8.08 is positive amongst the budget competition; a value under 3 is recommended, but the immediate rivals have deviations of 10 or higher. The display also suffers from a clear blue cast ex-works, which could be reduced by calibration.
Performance
A look at the specifications already suggests that the tested LifeBook wants to be more than "just" another slow office device. Thanks to the combination of a current i3 CPU and SDD, it is more of a versatile all-rounder, which can also be used for HD video playback besides working. Still, it is not enough for a multimedia notebook because of the missing dedicated GPU. The otherwise similarly equipped Asus X555LD-XX283H with its GeForce 820M has a clear advantage in this respect.
Processor
The i3-4005U with a clock of 1.7 GHz inside the A514 is pretty fast for an office notebook – inexpensive devices usually only use Pentium or Celeron chips. Contrary to those chips, the Haswell i3 supports Hyper-Threading, so the two native processor cores can execute up to four threads simultaneously.
This has a big effect on the benchmark results, which are on the expected level for this CPU but clearly ahead of all comparable systems.
Cinebench R11.5 | |
CPU Single 64Bit (sort by value) | |
Fujitsu Lifebook A514 | |
HP 350 G1 F7Z01EA | |
Acer Extensa 2510-34Z4 | |
Asus X555LD-XX283H | |
CPU Multi 64Bit (sort by value) | |
Fujitsu Lifebook A514 | |
HP 350 G1 F7Z01EA | |
Acer Extensa 2510-34Z4 | |
Asus X555LD-XX283H |
Cinebench R15 | |
CPU Single 64Bit (sort by value) | |
Fujitsu Lifebook A514 | |
HP 350 G1 F7Z01EA | |
Acer Extensa 2510-34Z4 | |
Asus X555LD-XX283H | |
CPU Multi 64Bit (sort by value) | |
Fujitsu Lifebook A514 | |
HP 350 G1 F7Z01EA | |
Acer Extensa 2510-34Z4 | |
Asus X555LD-XX283H |
System Performance
Our system benchmarks show that the hardware of the A514 is well-balanced. The LifeBook can beat many of its direct competitors: The Asus X555LD-XX283H falls behind by one-third, despite the dedicated GPU. But even devices that also have a faster CPU besides an SSD fall behind the A514 in the PCMarks. The ThinkPad X1 Carbon Touch 20A8-003UGE from Lenovo, for example, is 10% slower despite the Core i7 (Haswell).
PCMark 7 | |
Score (sort by value) | |
Fujitsu Lifebook A514 | |
Asus X555LD-XX283H | |
HP 350 G1 F7Z01EA | |
Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Touch 20A8-003UGE | |
Medion Akoya S4217T MD98599 | |
Productivity (sort by value) | |
Fujitsu Lifebook A514 | |
Asus X555LD-XX283H | |
HP 350 G1 F7Z01EA | |
Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Touch 20A8-003UGE | |
Medion Akoya S4217T MD98599 | |
Entertainment (sort by value) | |
Fujitsu Lifebook A514 | |
Asus X555LD-XX283H | |
HP 350 G1 F7Z01EA | |
Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Touch 20A8-003UGE | |
Medion Akoya S4217T MD98599 | |
Creativity (sort by value) | |
Fujitsu Lifebook A514 | |
Asus X555LD-XX283H | |
HP 350 G1 F7Z01EA | |
Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Touch 20A8-003UGE | |
Medion Akoya S4217T MD98599 |
PCMark 7 Score | 3367 points | |
Help |
Storage Devices
You might think that the SSD is a high-end drive considering such good scores. The numbers that we determine with AS SSD and CrystalDiskMark, however, do not support this. It actually seems that the Samsung drive with the slightly confusing designation MZ7LN128HCHP is average at best, and the performance is between eMMC drives and the familiar SSDs like Samsung’s 840 models, for instance. But the performance is obviously good enough to ensure a fast working device in practice, and the difference to conventional hard drives is still big enough.
* ... smaller is better
GPU Performance
There is one perfect phrase for the integrated HD 4400 graphics card of the Haswell processor: It gets the job done. The GPU performance is more than sufficient for office and less demanding entertainment applications (like the playback of HD videos), which are the main usage scenarios of the A514. The benchmark results are not surprising; the Acer TravelMate P256-M-39NG with the identical processor is on par. Higher clocked i3 CPUs like the 4030U inside the HP Pavilion 13-a000ng x360 perform slightly better in 3DMark, and even an entry-level dedicated GPU like the GT820M in the Asus X555LD-XX283H is faster than the HD 4400.
3DMark 11 Performance | 752 points | |
3DMark Ice Storm Standard Score | 30090 points | |
3DMark Cloud Gate Standard Score | 3276 points | |
3DMark Fire Strike Score | 446 points | |
3DMark Fire Strike Extreme Score | 202 points | |
Help |
Gaming Performance
There are obviously limitations if you want to play some games to relax from work. Less demanding titles like The Sims 4 just run smoothly with medium details, and the display resolution of 1366x768 pixels is a sensible limit. The graphics performance of the Intel HD 4400 is, however, sufficient for casual gaming or classics that are already a couple of years old.
low | med. | high | ultra | |
Sims 4 (2014) | 121 | 27 |
Sims 4 | |
1024x768 Low Preset (sort by value) | |
Fujitsu Lifebook A514 | |
Acer Aspire V 15 Nitro VN7-571G-56NX | |
Lenovo ThinkPad T440s 20AQ-0069GE | |
Dell Inspiron 15-5558 | |
1366x768 Medium Preset (sort by value) | |
Fujitsu Lifebook A514 | |
Acer Aspire V 15 Nitro VN7-571G-56NX | |
Lenovo ThinkPad T440s 20AQ-0069GE | |
Dell Inspiron 15-5558 |
Emissions & Energy Management
System Noise
All in all, the LifeBook A514 is a really quiet system. You cannot really hear the 29.6 dB(A) on average while idling – except when the fan suddenly spins up (without a load increase, for example), where it can reach 35 dB(A) for short periods. This almost corresponds with the maximum value of 35.1 dB(A) under full load. However, this does not affect the good overall impression: The HP 350 G1 reaches almost 39 dB(A) under load (values higher than 40 dB(A) are clearly audible for a user with average hearing), despite the slower CPU.
Noise Level
Idle |
| 29.6 / 29.6 / 35 dB(A) |
DVD |
| 34.7 / dB(A) |
Load |
| 34.2 / 35.1 dB(A) |
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30 dB silent 40 dB(A) audible 50 dB(A) loud |
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min: ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Temperature
The results of our temperature measurements are a bit surprising at first: The values only surpass 30 °C at one spot during idling (at the front center of the bottom), so nobody will start to sweat. But the temperatures increase significantly under load. Up to 46.5 °C (at the bottom around the fan) is definitely too much for use on the lap – just like the maximum temperature of the power adaptor (45 °C). For comparison: The Asus X555LD-XX283H never reaches the 40 °C mark, despite the similar CPU and the additional dedicated GeForce 820M.
Such high temperatures were not only the result of long benchmark sessions; one hour with The Sims (see below) was already enough to reach a bottom temperature of 40 °C. This is the price for the virtually silent fan under load.
(±) The maximum temperature on the upper side is 40.4 °C / 105 F, compared to the average of 34.2 °C / 94 F, ranging from 21.2 to 62.5 °C for the class Office.
(-) The bottom heats up to a maximum of 46.5 °C / 116 F, compared to the average of 36.7 °C / 98 F
(+) In idle usage, the average temperature for the upper side is 28 °C / 82 F, compared to the device average of 29.5 °C / 85 F.
(±) The palmrests and touchpad can get very hot to the touch with a maximum of 37.6 °C / 99.7 F.
(-) The average temperature of the palmrest area of similar devices was 27.8 °C / 82 F (-9.8 °C / -17.7 F).
Speakers
The internal stereo speakers of the LifeBook sound – independent of the volume – pretty dull over the whole frequency range. In combination with the (as expected) missing bass, you get an inconveniently tinny sound characteristic. The sound chip from Realtek does offer some improvements via "DTS Sound" that can reduce the rattling a bit, but the result is still not satisfying, particularly during music playback. Even clever equalizer settings in the media player did not really help.
Power Consumption
The results of the A514 are better in this section. While idling at the highest luminance and with the activated High-Performance profile, the review unit hardly consumes more power than the majority of comparison devices at the most frugal setting (energy-saving mode and minimum luminance) – we measured up to 6.4 Watts with a minimum consumption of just 3.8 Watts. The maximum value under load is also quite low at 27.9 Watts, but the LifeBook is on par with other devices like HP 350 G1, which basically consumes the same amount of power.
Off / Standby | ![]() ![]() |
Idle | ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Load |
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Battery Runtime
The A514 manages 350 minutes in our Wi-Fi test with its very compact 48-Wh battery. This test uses a script that changes the website every 40 seconds, while the energy-profile "Balanced" is active and the display brightness is adjusted to around 150 cd/m². Based on the assumption that no one just clicks through websites, the determined runtime should be sufficient for a whole business day. Other low-cost office laptops like the HP 350 G1 are not as enduring, despite the weaker CPU. The result of the LifeBook is therefore very good compared to the rivals.
Battery Runtime - WiFi Websurfing (sort by value) | |
Fujitsu Lifebook A514 | |
Fujitsu Lifebook A555 | |
Toshiba Satellite Z30-B-100 | |
HP 350 G1 F7Z01EA |
Pros
Cons
Verdict
Working with the LifeBook A514 is a smooth experience: No question, the combination of a current Haswell i3 and Samsung SSD can actually convince, and the power consumption as well as the noise development are great. But there are also some details where the Fujitsu is not that convincing, which affect the overall impression a bit.
The (decently built) case with the ports that meet the current standard is neither good nor bad. The input devices are generally decent as well, but won’t be sufficient for frequent writers. Left-handers will also have a problem with the position of the touchpad on the left side of the palm rest.
All in all, the Fujitsu LifeBook A514 is a solid office notebook, but it still wants to retail slightly above value, despite its strengths. The fast hardware cannot completely compensate for the drawbacks in the individual ratings.
The display of the A514 illustrates the inconsistency of the system in some areas. While the contrast and the black value are above-average, the maximum luminance is too low. This means you can only use it outdoors on a cloudy day. Real issues are the high temperature development under load as well as the pretty bad internal speakers.
Then there is the price, which is pretty high at 530 Euros (~$581, RRP) for the SSD version (489 Euros, ~$536, with 500 GB hard drive). The very similar Asus X555LD-XX283H is already available for 410 Euros (~$449). It does not have an SSD, but it has a dedicated GPU in return and is also a bit more versatile (also suited for some light gaming).
Fujitsu Lifebook A514
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02/25/2016 v5(old)
Oliver Moebel