If you plan to do any listening to speech or music on this machine, you'll needs to attach headphones or external speakers. The single speaker on the bottom of the unit puts out too little volume to make dialog comfortably audible, even in a quiet room. The headphone jack generates plenty of signal though, making music piped through my external desktop speakers sound great.

Bottom Line

As a business machine, the reasonably thin-and-light Fujitsu Stylistic Q550 ticks all the right boxes--security, swappable battery, matte screen, and active digitizer. The only caveat is the pokey Atom processor. If you run only a few things at a time, and nothing too media heavy, this tablet should be able to handle general office tasks without slowing you down. The machine's usability, battery life, and Windows 7 convenience make it one of the strongest slate-style on the market today.