It looks like the mini notebook (or often referred to as netbook) is now a bona fide market segment, with all the big companies jumping on the bandwagon to produce one as well.
So what we have here is the Ideapad S10, sporting almost all the same specifications as the rest of the mini notebooks on the market.
It has a 1.6GHz Intel Atom processor, 1GHz RAM, Windows XP Home Edition, 10in screen, webcam and all the usual complement of USB ports and VGA output.
However, the S10 does have one feature found in only one other notebook — an ExpressCard slot, something which until now, only the Hewlett-Packard MiniNote has.
So does the S10 sink or swim in a virtual sea of mini notebooks on the market? If you want the quick answer, skip to the end of this article. If you want the long answer, then read on.
Design and feel
Design-wise, the S10 is really nothing to shout about — like most mini notebooks on the market, it comes in white (with some other colours as well) and while it is far from ugly, it’s not pretty enough to stand out from the crowd.
Having said that, the build quality is top notch, as the plastic seems very solid with no flex anywhere and even the hinge holds the screen up without wobble. Top marks to Lenovo for this.
On the size front, the S10 is actually about the same size as the MSI Wind, which means that it’s actually pretty small, though certainly not as small as, say, the Asus Eee PC 901 with a 9in screen.
However, the extra size over other 9in screen notebooks means there’s a bit more space for a larger keyboard — the S10’s keyboard is obviously smaller than full-size keyboards, but it doesn’t feel cramped and touch typists should be able to take to it without any problem.
The keyboard’s tactile feedback is actually very good — somehow, the travel and resistance is just right so that when you type there’s a very satisfying feel without being noisy.
A couple of things I didn’t like about the keyboard layout — the Fn and Ctrl keys are reversed from standard desktop keyboards, and there doesn’t seem to be a shortcut for Page Up and Page Down functions (which is a drag when viewing long documents and webpages).
The touchpad is pretty small but I didn’t have a problem with it in every day use. At least the right- and left-click buttons are placed below the touchpad, unlike on the HP Mini Note and the Acer Aspire One where the buttons are oddly on either side of the touchpad.
Oh yes, the S10’s touchpad actually supports multi-touch, albeit in a limited manner — you can use a “pinching” motion to zoom in and out of images and webpages, but that seems to be about the limit of it.
Scrolling is still via a little area on the far right of the touchpad, although the S10 has a nifty little trick that makes this a little easier to use.
Once you place your finger on the right edge of the touchpad and scroll is engaged, you can actually move your finger away from the side (without lifting it off) and use little clockwise or anti-clockwise circular movements to scroll up or down.
As far as the ExpressCard slot goes, in this day of USB peripherals, an expansion slot like this is increasingly irrelevant.
In any case, Lenovo has managed to put the slot in without sacrificing the overall slimness of the case, so I suppose it’s great that it’s there when you need it, perhaps for a 3G or HSDPA expansion card.
The S10 comes with an SD/MMC card reader, but strangely, cards cannot be inserted fully into the machine — when inserted, half of the SD card still sticks out, which means you can’t really leave an SD card in there as backup storage or risk it breaking off when it catches on something.
Performance
As far as pure performance goes, the S10 performs like any other mini notebook running on the same 1.6GHz Atom processor — i.e. it runs Windows XP very well, plays QuickTime videos up to 720p (but not 1080p) and runs office productivity applications with no problems.
Audio levels are very good — I could really jack up the volume loud enough for movies and music to be heard even in noisy cafes and such, although not surprisingly for such small speakers, the bass is a bit lacking.
The screen has very good vertical and horizontal viewing angles, which is also another plus when it comes to viewing movies on this mini notebook.
The S10’s battery life is a trifle short — in tests I got about three hours, doing some surfing and watching videos.
The power management options are however very extensive.
Lenovo gives you several power profiles to choose from, ranging from peformance centric to a super energy saver option where the — notebook can disable hardware components like the sound chip, lower screen — brightness, turn off the wireless and wired Ethernet card and, of course, underclock the Atom processor for maximum battery life. Doing this will get you perhaps an hour or so more battery life.
Conclusion
Well, while the Lenovo Ideapad S10 may not be particularly good-looking enough to stand out from the crowd, on the performance side there’s little to fault here.
For one thing, the S10 actually feels quite solid, and yet light and small enough that it’ll easily fit in a knapsack.
If I could single out the feature that makes this notebook worthy of consideration, it’s the keyboard — tactile feedback was actually surprisingly better than most notebooks I’ve tried and the size was just large enough for easy touch typing.
As far as the ExpressCard slot goes, I’m not sure it’s really all that useful but Lenovo has managed to add one in without really — impacting the small size of the notebook so I guess if you need it, it’s there.
Pros : Solid build quality; ExpressCard slot; extensive power management options; 10in screen with wide viewing angle.
Cons : Fn and Ctrl keys reversed.
Lenovo IdeaPad S10 Netbook Specifications :
Processor: Intel Atom N270 (1.6GHz)
Memory: 1GB DDR2 SDRAM
Graphics: Intel GMA 950
Display: 10.1in screen
Storage: 160GB hard drive
Connectivity: WiFi, 10/100 Ethernet, Bluetooth
I/O ports: Three USB 2.0 ports, ExpressCard slot, VGA output
Operating System: Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition
Other features: 4-in-1 Flash card reader, 1.3-megapixel webcam
Dimensions (w x d x h): 25 x 18.3 x 2.7cm
Weight: 1.25 kg
Popularity: 9% [?]
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