Pros: Soft-touch back is pleasant to hold; Ruggedized design; Extra security features; Bright display; Accurate audio.
Cons: Low resolution for price; Screen picks up fingerprints easily; Low maximum volume; Short battery life.
The Verdict: The business-centric Fujitsu Stylistic M532 Android tablet boasts a rugged build and extra layers of security. We just wish it lasted longer on a charge.
Design and Features
The Fujitsu M532 is all business, and its classy, understated design reflects that. At 10.3 by 6.9 by 0.35 inches (HWD) and 1.23 pounds, the M532 is large, yet surprisingly slim and light. The black rubberized plastic back has a nice grippy texture to it, reminiscent of the Blackberry Playbook. Along the top edge is a 3.5mm headphone jack and the power button. To the right are the volume buttons, micro USB port, and a plastic flap that covers a microSD card slot. The bottom houses a proprietary 30-pin dock connector. There is no HDMI out, and you must use the dock connector for charging and the micro USB port for syncing separately. Fujitsu does sell a docking cradle ($69 direct) which allows HDMI out and USB inputs. There are two speakers on the back, and while they're a bit small, they get pretty loud and don't sound overly harsh.
The tablet has an 8-megapixel rear-facing camera and a 2-megapixel front-facing camera. Both are pretty typical tablet cameras—they aren't spectacular, but they are serviceable. Images in good lighting look well balanced, with a fair amount of detail, but the camera really struggles in low light, producing images with almost no detail. The rear-facing camera can also shoot 1080p video at a steady 30 frames per second, but I noticed a bit of motion blur and poor image stabilization. The front-facing camera is fine for Skype calls, but not much else.
This is a Wi-Fi only tablet that connects to 802.11b/g/n networks on both 2.4GHz and 5GHz frequencies. GPS and Bluetooth 3.0 are on board as well. The default 32GB configuration has 26.53GB of free internal storage. Our 32 and 64GB SanDisk microSD cards worked fine, but the card slot is a bit too recessed and requires either long nails or something to poke the card fully into place. The M532's video player supports MPEG4, H.264, and AVI videos, but not Xvid or DivX. For audio, the M532 supports MP3, AAC, OGG, and WAV, but not FLAC or WMA.
In our battery rundown test, which loops a video with screen brightness set to max and Wi-Fi on, the M532 lasted only 5 hours, 2 minutes. It was a good deal shy of the TF300's 7 hours, 53 minutes and on the low side for 10-inch tablets. For a business-oriented tablet, I would have liked to see longer battery life.
Make: Fujitsu
Model: S26391-K340-V100
Processor: Nvidia Tegra 3 Quad-Core
Display: 10.1'
Memory: 1GB
Storage Drive Size: 32GB
Operating System: Android 4.0
Wireless: 802.1 la/b/g/n
Camera: 2.0MP front camera, 8.0MP rear camera with autofocus and flash.
Bluetooth: Bluetooth 3.0
Interfaces: 1 x Micro USB 2.0,1 x microphone/headphone, 1 x Micro SD card, 1 x SIM card, 1 x docking connector (for charging and HDMI/USB). *1 Year Carry-ln warranty
Other: Video playback 8.4 hours, digital microphone, 2 x speakers (stereo), acceleration sensor, gyro sensor, magnetic sensor, ambient light sensor power LED, power/standby button, volume up/down button.
Comalytics