Since the last years, the netbook market has been more active than any other. Every now and then we are getting informed about another netbook launch. The market has been flooded with similar spec’d notebooks under $500. The most common configuration of them is 9-10 inch display, Intel Atom Processor, three or six cell battery and a 1 GB RAM. The Lenovo IdeaPad also falls in this category of netbooks. Can it survive in this steep market? We have made a review to find the answer. In this review you’ll find details about :
- Design
- Processor,RAM
- Hard Disk
- Ports
- Screen
- Keyboard
- Touchpad
- Audio
- Battery Life
- Ambient Heat And Noise
- Software
- Wireless
- Price
- Pros
- Cons
- Conclusion
Design
The IdeaPad S10 looks and feels solid from outside. The design is simple rather than trying to look gorgeous. The chassis is made from shiny plastic but not glossy enough to catch fingerprints. The hinges have a matte steel finish with a hole for the Kensington Lock. The flat rounded edges of the netbook give a very thin look to it. The weight was not on the lightest side though. With the three cell battery it weighs 2.6 pounds which is of the same weight of some netbooks having a six cell battery like the MSI Wind. But the weight is certainly not unbearable to carry around.
Processor, RAM
The S10 offers a good multimedia performance with its 1.6 GHz Intel Atom CPU, 1GB RAM, Intel GMA945 Express Integrated Graphics Chip with 64 MB memory. Video playback on full screen is extremely smooth and multitasking with a few applications gave a moderate response.
Hard Disk
The system came with a 160 GB Western Digital Scorpio Blue Hard Drive. The speed of data transfer is one of the fastest for a netbook. Wondows XP Home boot time was 40 seconds and after removing Norton Internet Security 2008, boot time improved to an impressive 30 seconds.
Ports
It comes with a standard set of ports like Ethernet, VGA Out, Microphone, Headphone and a 4-in-1 memory card reader. There are only two USB Ports and the space for another USB port is utilized by a Express/34 slot which can be used to add a mobile broadband card.
Screen
The display is matte 10.2 inch WSVGA AntiGlare TFT with 1024X600 pixel resolution. Colors are vibrant and white levels are very clear. Horizontal viewing angles are good so that you can watch a movie with one of your friend without any problem. The vertical viewing angle is however not that much good. Colors appear somewhat inverted if the screen is too much tilted backwards.
Keyboard
The keyboard is 85% of a full sized keyboard is more spacious than 9-inchers but is noticeably smaller than the HP Mini 2140. The keys are a bit small sized and a little less springy and mushy type. The positioning of the keys are mostly correct but I didn’t like the shift key being placed at the right of the Up arrow.
Touchpad
The touchpad is small 2.3X1.5 inches but the rough surface makes precise movements easy. The multitouch facilities were very useful specially the zooming in and out function is imitated by moving bringing two fingers close to each other or moving them apart just like in iPhone. This allowed easy zooming in case of browing web pages using IE7 or while viewing pictures using Windows PhotoViewer. The mouse buttons are placed below the touchpad. The feedback of the buttons are just like what we want.
Audio
We didn’t expect the best sound quality from a budget netbook like this. But the sound was reasonably good and loud with minimum distortion. The placing of the speakers are quite awkward though. Since the speakers are located at the front edge of the laptop, the sound seems to follow a downward path making the system a little inefficient.
Battery Life
The unit comes with a three cell battery which is capable of running the system to 3 hours on normal usage and 2 hours on high workload which is quite the standard with netbook with three cell batteries. However if you like netbooks with more battery backup, Lenovo has assured to give a six cell battery pack which is supposed to run it at least 5 hours.
Ambient Heat and Noise
S10 feels a bit warmer than other netbooks of this category but the heat generated is not the worst in any situation. Same for the cooling fan noise. In normal situations, the fan noise is barely audible but when its graphics is stressed the fan kicks in harder and the noise may draw other’s attraction in a quiet environment.
Softwares
It comes with Windows XP Home Service Pack 3 and also a Internet Explorer 7 preloaded. Lenovo also packs in a licensed software for backup and emergency restore from CyberLink called OneKey Recovery. The program can be launched by hitting a curved arrow button above the keyboard. On pressing the button in powered off mode, the system boots into OneKey Recovery Mode which allows you to store complete images of your hard disk to create your own restore disk to bring the system back from a total crash.
Wireless
The 802.11 b/g WiFi card packs one of the fastest transfer rates among netbooks. It offers good connectivity even a good distance away from the hotspot. The speed was good enough to watch a streaming video from Hulu without any noticeable jerk.
Price
Available at a starting price of $439, the standard configured ones will be available at around $479.
Pros
- Small and portable
- ExpressCard slot offers extra expansion options
- Very well built and durable
- Easy to upgrade RAM, and hard drive
- Comes with Bluetooth
- Standard Sized HDD with good speed
Cons
- Gets a little hot
- Looks something like toy laptop for babies
- Only two USB ports
Conclusion
The way the netbook market is being flooded every day, even a little drawback becomes a big hole and a little improvement in a feature seems to be paramount. The S10 does quite good not have too many breaking-the-deal cons. The Express Card Slot and Bluetooth offers good connectivity options and a good capacity standard HDD offers the space and performance. Overall, it makes a good choice providing the value for your dollars.
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