Lenovo’s UMPC bet, the Ideapad S10
With more and more companies pitching in on the UMPC market, it’s Lenovo’s turn to unveil it’s bet for the netbook market. A direct competitor to the EEE PC 1000 series and the MSI Wind, the Ideapad S10 will be released with 8.9″ and 10″ units.
Here’s the details of the Ideapad hardware specifications:
- Integrated 1.3M Camera
- 2 stereo speakers
- Multi-touch Pad & near full size Keyboard (85% full size)
- Integrated Wireless 802.11 b/g,10/100 Ethernet, Bluetooth
- Express card slot for WWAN expansion
- Up to 2-GB Memory
- 4in1 Multi-card Reader
- Form factor: 250.2 x 183 x 22-27.5mm, lightest configuration of 1.1 kg
- Large Panel 10.2” wide, LED backlight 1024×600 WSVGA
- Intel Integrated Graphics GMA 950
- Intel N270 CPU 1.6 GHz & Intel 945GSE Chipset
- Large HDD capacity 160G 9.5mm 2.5” SATA HDD (5400 rpm)
- Battery up to 3 hours with 3-cell battery, and up to 6 hours with 6-cell battery
On first glance, Lenovo’s Ideapad looks much more elegant than it’s UMPC rivals. It’s smooth, curvy, and admittedly well designed. The 9.8 x 7.2 inches may seem small for a full-sized keyboard and yet the Ideapad doesn’t feel quite cramped.
The LED indicators for power, Wifi and bluetooth are located right infront of the machine so they don’t offer much in terms of distraction. They even added two specialized buttons for the most useful features, namely system restore and the wifi switch (seen below). Just be careful with the restore button.
Lenovo went over their head and added a several more extras for the S10.
- Dedicated graphical UI for best energy management options so you can optimize its battery life
- One-Touch rescue data recovery system
- Advanced heat-dissipation tech so that your lap and wrists won’t get overheated
Initially then, the S10 will cost around $399 for a 512MB memory and 80GB HDD model and $450 for a 1GB and 160GB HDD model. The S10 comes in black, red or white. Note that these prices are for units with XP bundled in. Linux models (which are available only in select parts of the Globe, Asia included, yay!) will have a much lower price point.
The IdeaPad S10 netbook PC will be available beginning in early October.
Will the Ideapad S10 give the MSI Wind and the Asus Eee PC 1000 a stiff competition? I very much think so.
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October 7th, 2008 at 7:28 pm
which is better lenovo s10 or toshiba nb100?
October 8th, 2008 at 11:25 am
@amanda:
For cheap I’d go with Lenovo.
For quality (since they’re REALLY expensive) then it’s Samsung (err it’s not Toshiba ^_^)… although I’m thinking Dell would be a better option.
October 8th, 2008 at 5:45 pm
i’m pretty sure it’s toshiba nb100… there’s a samsung NC10…
anyway… dell mini 9? it looks great, with good battery life, although people find the different placement of the function keys as a problem, unfortunately the biggest problem for me is the 16GB memory T_T it’s too small… i originally wanted it though, until i learned of the memory size…
i really like the toshiba nb100 unfortunately the distributor of toshiba here says that they do not know if nb100 will ever be released… so therefore, i would most likely go for the lenovo…
aside from the heat issues, are there any other problems that i should know of?
thanks!
October 10th, 2008 at 1:34 pm
Support I guess.. Big names like Dell, Asus and HP have distribution and support centers here in the country so if you encounter any problem with their hardware you have easy access to them.
For Lenovo, you’d have to go through the dealer to communicate your concerns to their distributor.
Basically it’s just the time that you’ll get your unit back if and when it needs service. If you’re confident that you can care well enough for the Lenovo then it’s a great choice at a bargain price.
@Toshiba and Samsung confusion.. Guess I need to recheck my sources lol.
October 12th, 2008 at 3:01 pm
yeah. that’s got to be a concern…
thanks for the help though! really appreciated it!
i hope that dell would release a new version with a whole lot bigger memory… or that toshiba will release its nb100 here in RP.
thanks again sylv3rblade! 