Fujitsu FMV Note series with Blu-Ray or DVD optical drives
The PC market has gone through many transformations, but the removal of disc drives from notebooks was likely the most visible shift toward a new era. Recently, we covered a PCWorld interview with Tom Petersen , who said he doesn’t even use flash drives anymore and relies entirely on cloud storage for virtually unlimited space.
Yet there are still markets where older formats continue to thrive. Blu-ray discs remain popular in Japan, not necessarily among enthusiasts, but for everyday use. When I need to check a disc, I use an old laptop kept just for that purpose. In Japan, you can still buy laptops with built-in optical drives, and some even include a dedicated Copilot button.
Microsoft Copilot button and disc drive, not something you see every day
Fujitsu’s just updated FMV lineup includes several 16-inch models, each tailored for different users but sharing the same overall design and chassis.
- FMV Note WA3-K3 – can be configured with Intel Core i3-1315U, i5-1335U, or i7-1355U processors, 8GB to 64GB of memory, and 256GB to 2TB SSDs. Buyers can select either a DVD Super Multi or Blu-ray Disc drive.
- FMV Note A53-K3 – Intel Core i5-1335U, 16GB of memory, 256GB SSD, and a DVD Super Multi drive.
- FMV Note A75-K3 – Intel Core i7-1355U, 16GB of RAM, 256GB SSD, and a DVD Super Multi drive.
- FMV Note A77-K3 – AMD Ryzen 7 7735U processor with 16GB of memory, a 512GB SSD, and a Blu-ray Disc drive.
I’m not exactly sure why they have Copilot buttons, as neither Raptor Lake, nor Rembrandt-R these chips are based on, have NPU built-in. I wasn’t aware that it is even okay with Microsoft to add this button to such systems.
These laptops aren’t even that chip, they range from $820 (WA3-K3) to $1410 (A77-K3), which is quite a lot given what they offer. But again, that’s Japan where everything is a bit more pricey.
