Lenovo IdeaPad S10 Review

by Jerry Jackson

<!--[if !mso]>

<! v:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);} o:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);} w:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);} .shape {behavior:url(#default#VML);} --><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if !mso]>

<! st1:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } --><!--[if gte mso 10]>

<! /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;} -->

The ultra-portable laptop market has never been more active than it has in the last year. Since the introduction of the "netbook" category of small budget notebooks last year our office has been flooded with at least a dozen compact laptops priced well below $500. With so many manufacturers scrambling to create their own "netbooks" it was only a matter of time before Lenovo came to the table with their own value-priced IdeaPad S10.

The Lenovo IdeaPad S10 is a 10-inch netbook with a $439 starting price and some impressive features that help place it a step above the competition. Does the S10 have what it takes to stand out in a market that is becoming increasingly more crowded? Let's take an in-depth look.

Our Lenovo S10 features the following specifications:

• 1.6GHz N270 Intel Atom Processor
• 1GB PC2-5300 DDR2 SDRAM 667MHz
• Windows XP Home Edition (SP3)
• 10.2" WSVGA AntiGlare TFT with integrated camera 1024x600
• 160GB 5400rpm hard drive
• Intel GMA 950 Integrated Graphics
• Broadcom 11b/g Wi-Fi wireless and Bluetooth
• 4-in-1 Media card reader and ExpressCard slot
• 3-Cell Li-ion battery
• Size: 9.8" x 7.2" x 1.2" (including feet)
• Weight: 2.64 lbs (with 3-cell battery)
• Starting price: $439 (with 512MB RAM and 80GB hard drive)

<!--[if gte vml 1]> <![endif]-->

Build and Design

The design of the IdeaPad S10 is unsurprisingly similar to other netbooks we've seen in recent months, but Lenovo has managed to include a few pleasant surprises. The exterior is covered in white "pearl-like" plastics with a slight glossy finish. The interior keyboard and palmrest surfaces are covered with matte white plastics with reasonable durability and only a minor bit of flex around the palmrests when you press firmly on those surfaces.

What first appears to be a giant beefy hinge for the 10-inch display is actually the 3-cell battery with a small hinge on either side of the tiny laptop. Overall, the look is quite nice, but the white plastics do give this netbook a slightly "toy like" appearance. When I took the S10 with me and was using it in public with my 2-year-old daughter nearby several other parents asked me if the S10 was a toy laptop for my daughter. That is unfortunate since, as we are about to mention, the S10 is a remarkably capable ultraportable laptop.

<object width='510' height='550' classid='clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000' codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0"> <param name="name" value="flashObj" /> <param name="bgcolor" value="#FFFFFF" /> <param name="flashvars" value="playerId=1827990285&amp;viewerSecureGatewayURL=https://console.brightcove.com/services/amfgateway&amp;servicesURL=http://services.brightcove.com/services&amp;cdnURL=http://admin.brightcove.com&amp;domain=embed&amp;autoStart=false&amp;" /> <param name="src" value="http://services.brightcove.com/services/viewer/federated_f8/1827990285" /><embed src="http://services.brightcove.com/services/viewer/federated_f8/1827990285" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width='510' height='550' flashvars="playerId=1827990285&amp;viewerSecureGatewayURL=https://console.brightcove.com/services/amfgateway&amp;servicesURL=http://services.brightcove.com/services&amp;cdnURL=http://admin.brightcove.com&amp;domain=embed&amp;autoStart=false&amp;"></embed> </object>

The build quality of the IdeaPad S10 is extremely solid for a subnotebook of this size and weight. The construction is mostly plastic but all of the plastics feel strong enough to handle being tossed around inside a bookbag.

In terms of upgradeability, the S10 is much easier to upgrade than many netbooks currently on the market. Some of the netbooks we've seen to date require complex disassembly in order for you to get to the storage drive, system RAM, or wireless cards. Even worse, some other netbooks have slots for upgrades but no connections on the motherboard so it is impossible to upgrade them. This is not the case with the S10.

Keyboard and Touchpad

Most low-priced, full-size notebooks currently on the market feature poorly built keyboards that show significant flex/bounce when typing pressure is applied. Thankfully, most netbooks have remarkably firm keyboards due to the fact that the chassis is so small there isn't much empty space inside the notebook for the keyboard to flex or bounce.

The keyboard on the IdeaPad S10 is less cramped than what we've seen on most 7-inch and 8.9-inch netbooks, but the S10 keyboard is still extremely compact. Most touch typists will probably need some time to figure out proper finger placement on the keyboard in order to avoid making typos. Again, this is nothing new for netbooks, which usually require you to use a "hunt and peck" style of typing rather than traditional touch typing methods. Bottom line, this keyboard isn't designed to be used as a primary/main computer. For users who are considering the S10 as their "main computer" in their home or office, a full-size external keyboard and external mouse are recommended.

The touchpad design, while smaller than a traditional laptop touchpad, is surprisingly nice for a budget netbook. The touchpad in our review unit was a Synaptics touchpad with excellent sensitivity, responsiveness, and smooth tracking. The touchpad buttons are located in the correct position and have nice, deep, well-cushioned presses with a satisfying "click" when pressed. A nice addition to the touchpad was support for Synaptics multi-touch gestures which allow you to do things such as zoom in or zoom out simply by "pinching" or "spreading" the touchpad with your fingertips.

Display

The matte 10.2" WSVGA (1024x600) AntiGlare TFT display on the S10 is nice and vibrant with rich colors and good contrast. The white levels are very clear and the matte surface prevents glare and reflections which help make the screen easier to read outdoors under bright sunlight.

Horizontal viewing angles are good, so you and a friend won't have trouble watching a movie on the 8.9-inch screen at the same time. Vertical viewing angles are acceptable, but colors do tend to become darker and slightly inverted when viewed from below.

<!--[if gte vml 1]> <![endif]-->

Ports and Features

Port selection was pretty impressive on the S10 compared to other netbooks, with the standout features being an ExpressCard slot for additional expansion and built-in Bluetooth for using an external mouse and keyboard without needing to sacrifice one or more of the two USB ports.

In fact, if there isn't much to complain about here other than the fact that the S10 has only two USB ports. However, if we had to choose between a third USB port or an ExpressCard slot and Bluetooth we will gladly sacrifice the third USB port. Here is a quick tour of what you get:

Front: No ports, just indicator lights and the speakers.

<!--[if gte vml 1]> <![endif]-->

Rear: Battery

<!--[if gte vml 1]> <![endif]-->

Left: Heat vent, power jack, VGA out, 3-in-1 card reader, and USB

<!--[if gte vml 1]> <![endif]-->

Right: ExpressCard slot, headphone/mic, USB, Ethernet, security lock slot

<!--[if gte vml 1]> <![endif]-->

Performance

This Intel Atom based netbook won't be breaking any speed records, but it performed more than adequately for normal activities. Windows startup took less than 30 seconds and internet browsing, word processing, and even photo editing tasks were downright "snappy." While the 3D graphics benchmark numbers aren't particularly impressive, it's important to keep in mind that netbooks are not designed for playing computer games. The S10 and similar netbooks are mobile internet portals and productivity tools for getting some quick work done without needing to carry a giant laptop.

PCMark05 measures overall system performance (higher scores mean better performance):

Notebook	PCMark05 Score
Lenovo IdeaPad S10 (1.60GHz Intel Atom, Intel GMA 950)	1,446 PCMarks
Acer Aspire One (1.60GHz Intel Atom, Intel GMA 950)	1,555 PCMarks
ASUS Eee PC 901 (1.60GHz Intel Atom)	746 PCMarks
MSI Wind (1.60GHz Intel Atom)	N/A
ASUS Eee PC 900 (900MHz Intel Celeron M ULV)	1,172 PCMarks
HP 2133 Mini-Note (1.6GHz VIA C7-M ULV)	801 PCMarks
HTC Shift (800MHz Intel A110)	891 PCMarks
ASUS Eee PC 4G (630MHz Intel Celeron M ULV)	908 PCMarks
ASUS Eee PC 4G (900MHz Intel Celeron M ULV)	1,132 PCMarks
Everex CloudBook (1.2GHz VIA C7-M ULV)	612 PCMarks
Sony VAIO TZ (1.20GHz Intel Core 2 Duo U7600)	2,446 PCMarks
Fujitsu LifeBook P7230 (1.2GHz Intel Core Solo U1400)	1,152 PCMarks
Sony VAIO VGN-G11XN/B (1.33GHz Core Solo U1500)	1,554 PCMarks
Toshiba Portege R500 (1.2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo U7600)	1,839 PCMarks

wPrime processor comparison results (lower scores mean better performance):

Notebook / CPU	wPrime 32M time
Lenovo IdeaPad S10 (Intel Atom @ 1.60GHz)	127.172 seconds
Acer Aspire One (Intel Atom @ 1.60GHz)	125.812 seconds
ASUS Eee PC 901 (Intel Atom @ 1.60GHz)	123.437 seconds
MSI Wind (Intel Atom @ 1.60GHz)	124.656 seconds
ASUS Eee PC 900 (Intel Celeron M ULV @ 900MHz)	203.734 seconds
HP 2133 Mini-Note (Via CV7-M ULV @ 1.6GHz)	168.697 seconds
ASUS Eee PC 4G (Intel Celeron M ULV @ 630MHz)	289.156 seconds
ASUS Eee PC 4G (Intel Celeron M ULV @ 900MHz)	200.968 seconds
Everex CloudBook (VIA C7-M ULV @ 1.2GHz)	248.705 seconds
Fujitsu U810 Tablet PC (Intel A110 @ 800MHz)	209.980 seconds
Sony VAIO VGN-G11XN/B (Core Solo U1500 @ 1.33GHz)	124.581 seconds
Sony VAIO TZ (Core 2 Duo U7600 @ 1.2GHz)	76.240 seconds
Dell Inspiron 2650 (Pentium 4 Mobile @ 1.6GHz)	231.714 seconds

3DMark06 comparison results:

Notebook	3DMark06 Score
Lenovo IdeaPad S10 (1.60GHz Intel Atom, Intel GMA 950)	N/A
Acer Aspire One (1.60GHz Intel Atom, Intel GMA 950)	122 3DMarks
Sony VAIO TZ (1.20GHz Core 2 Duo U7600, Intel GMA 950)	122 3DMarks
HP dv2500t (2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7300, NVIDIA GeForce Go 8400M GS 128MB)	1,055 3DMarks
Sony VAIO FZ (2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7300, Intel X3100)	532 3DMarks
HP dv6000t (2.16 GHz Intel T7400, NVIDA GeForce Go 7400)	827 3DMarks

3DMark03 Graphics Performance Benchmark (higher scores indicate better performance):

Notebook	3DMark03 Results
Lenovo IdeaPad S10 (1.60GHz Intel Atom, Intel GMA 950)	569 3DMarks
Acer Aspire One (1.60GHz Intel Atom, Intel GMA 950)	751 3DMarks
MSI Wind (1.6GHz Intel Atom, Intel GMA 950)	589 3DMarks
Lenovo ThinkPad T60 (2.16GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T4400, ATI X1400 128MB)	4,622 3DMarks

HDTune for built-in Hard drive:

Speakers and Audio

The speakers on the IdeaPad S10 are reasonably impressive for a budget netbook. While the two tiny stereo speakers located on the front edge of the netbook produce good volume levels with minimal distortion and acceptable range, it's worth mentioning the somewhat odd placement.

Since the speakers are located on the front edge of the notebook the sound isn't being directed up and toward the user when the S10 is used as a laptop. In fact, our staff usually refers to laptop speakers with this type of placement as "crotch speakers" because the speakers are directing sound to your waist rather than your ears. Given the compact design of the S10 there weren't many other places for the speakers to go, but we'd like to see a different speaker location on next year's model.

The headphone jack on the S10 works well with the three different brands of earphones I used during the test. No static or other noise was noticed through the jack besides imperfections in the audio source itself.

Heat and Noise

As we continue to see in our labs, nearly all of the Intel Atom-based netbooks produce a reasonable amount of heat while running. The IdeaPad S10 remained on par with the competition in this regard. Even under normal conditions such as surfing the web, typing documents, or downloading email attachments, exterior temperatures peaked above 100 degrees Fahrenheit after more than 25 minutes of use. Granted, this level of heat isn't horrible by any means, but it might be a little uncomfortable on your lap after an hour.

The hottest spot on this netbook was the area around the hard drive and RAM. The external temperature readings below (listed in degrees Fahrenheit) were recorded while browsing the Web and running two HDTune tests in a row after approximately 30 minutes of use:

<!--[if gte vml 1]> <![endif]-->

<!--[if gte vml 1]> <![endif]-->

In terms of noise, our review unit of the S10 remained quiet during most of the testing period ... except during graphics benchmarks. When the relatively weak integrated graphics were stressed during our review the internal cooling fan kicked into high gear. The fan noise wasn't horrible by any means, but it would be loud enough to get a teacher's attention in a quiet classroom. Again, this only happened when stressing the S10's graphics, so it shouldn't be an issue for casual web browsing.

Battery

Under normal use, backlight at 100 percent and using wireless for web browsing and watching several streaming videos at 75 percent volume, the S10 managed to deliver three hours and 43 minutes of battery life. This is similar to what we've seen from Atom-based netbooks with 3-cell batteries, so there isn't much to complain about here. However, as we've said in the past when reviewing other netbooks, these tiny laptops would make excellent mobile companions if they just had an option for a 6-cell or 8-cell battery for all-day use. In any case, lowering the screen brightness and turning off the wireless card should provide enough battery life for prolonged use with the 3-cell battery.

Conclusion

Is the Lenovo IdeaPad S10 the best netbook currently on the market and the best value for your dollar? Well, the answer isn't simple, particularly considering the way that new netbooks seem to arrive every week. The S10 does several things right that we wish more manufacturers did with their netbooks.

First, Lenovo was smart enough to realize and ExpressCard slot is important if you want to make a netbook useful. The ExpressCard slot gives you the option of adding more USB ports, Firewire, eSATA, or any number of other ports to the S10. More importantly, the ExpressCard slot makes it easy to add a broadband modem to the S10 so that you can stay connected to the internet anywhere with cell phone reception.

Second, the S10 has built-in Bluetooth. Frankly, we're amazed that every netbook doesn't come with built-in Bluetooth since it allows you to connect devices to the netbook without using one of the USB ports.

Last, but certainly not least the S10 combines the surprisingly capable Intel Atom processor with a standard hard drive. While budget SSDs are nice, most consumers can't get over the limited storage capacity of SSDs and that is why hard drives still have a place in netbooks.

On the other hand, the S10 still suffers from some of the same limitations as other netbooks: relatively high temperatures, small battery, and a cramped screen and keyboard.

Ultimately, the Lenovo IdeaPad S10 is a great ultra-portable laptop priced below $500. However, if you're willing to put up with a bulkier notebook then it's still possible to find a computer with more features and performance for almost the same price on sale.

Pros

• Small and light
• Easy to use
• Very well built and durable
• Easy to upgrade RAM, and hard drive
• Comes with Bluetooth
• ExpressCard slot offers extra expansion options

Cons

• Gets a little hot
• White plastics give this serious computer a "toy-like" appearance
• Only two USB ports
• 3-cell battery is nice, 6-cell battery would be better

 

Great review! Another option for people in the netbook market.

 

Isn't the high heat due to the compact space within the laptop?
That's what I heard from some other websites. Any how, great review on the S10. I think I plan to wait until the price of netbook drop more xD or at least when the second generation comes.

 

Great review.

Wish other netbooks had an express card slot.

 

Yes, as mentioned, all netbooks tend to run a little hotter than larger notebooks because everything is squeezed inside a smaller package. However, we've seen at least one netbook (the Acer Aspire One) manage to keep external temperatures below 100 degrees Fahrenheit, so it is possible to build a low-cost netbook and still keep it cool.

Again, some netbooks get even hotter than the S10, so the S10 temperatures are acceptable. Still, we know Lenovo has some of the best engineers in the business, so they can probably find a way to make a netbook run cooler than this.

 

Thx for review Jerry!whould you say that it is built better then Dell mini inspiron?

 

i like the fact that it has a smaller volume than almost all 8.9" netbooks even tho it houses a 10" screen.

just over 1.1 coblic litres, versus nearly 2.0 cubic litres for the asus 1001 eepc!

 

One Q Jerry, have you had any experience touch typing with the Aspire One or EEE PC 1000H? If yes, how did the experience on the S10 compare?

 

is teh screen 10.2 or 8.9? both is mentioned in teh review....

 

The S10 screen is 10.2"

The S9 is available overseas, and has the 8.9" screen.

 

I was in the market for a netbook previously, and finally gave up after realizing that even the 10 inch widescreen is a bit small for my liking.

I had a Thinkpad 240x ( 4:3 ratio, 10 inch screen) back in the late 90s, and found it to be stellar machine and almost the perfect size for a netbook. It had a 90% full size keyboard, and was quite easy to touchtype on. It also had the hallmark Thinkpad build quality, with a very responsive keyboard.

I can't understand why Lenovo can't just revive that size, and update all the tech bits. It was a great machine for its time, and was just the right size (about half the size of my current R61 with teh 15.4" screen).

Having said that, the S10 does seem to be the best of the current crop. I imagine its closest competitor would be the MSI Wind, both in terms of features and price.

One thing perplexes me though, why no Trackpoint on the S10? Wouldn't the Trackpoint be ideal for something this size, instead of the touchpad?

 

It would be good from a size standpoint, but a trackpoint is very difficult to use.

I'm still waiting on my S10 to ship. I got the black model, apparently those haven't shipped yet. From this review I think I will still keep my order.

 

i ordered white s10 back in aug but canceled the order because they changed the ship date to Nov. lol

i really liked the looks of s10 (pro best among the netbooks) but my only concern will be its *heat issue*.. if i read it right from their website, s10 was designed with thermal design at first place, i don't understand Why it runs hotter than other netbooks..(may be it was only on paper.. )

i currently using eee 1000H and, although it is bit fatter than s10.. it runs cooler and works great with my daily duties..

i just hope LENOVO/IBM fixes the heat issue with s10 and i might dump my current eee and get new s10 in the future..

 

The S10 is physically larger than the Mini 9 (though not by much) but the plastics on the S10 have slightly more flex when pressed than the plastics on the Mini 9. That said, both netbooks are very solid and I suspect each are equally rugged ... and equally vulnerable to damage.

We haven't had an ASUS Eee PC 1000-series netbook in our office yet (though we will soon) so I can't compare the S10 to the Eee PC 1000H. However, I'd say the Acer Aspire One and S10 have roughly the same size keyboards. Neither is ideal for touch typing unless you have very small fingers, so you'll end up "hunting and pecking" while typing ... or you'll end up making more than a few typos.

 

Thanks for the info. Looking forward to your input on the 1000-series once it arrives.

 

I have a feeling that this product, along with the ideapad series of notebooks are developed and engineered by a completely different group of people (consumer division) than those that develop the thinkpads (business division).

That being said I think it would be great to have a Thinkpad quality netbook, with a keyboard and trackpoint similar in layout to current Thinkpads (IMO, the best keyboard layout) albeit smaller in size. I can only imagine however, that the price of such a device would put it well into the territory of budget-priced, full featured laptops.

 

Is it me or does it look a lot like the Asus EEE?

 

3h43m battery life is very very good actually. Based on most other reviews, 3-cell-equipped netbooks don't get pass the 3hours autonomy under normal use. As a matter of fact, some other review has the S10 with 3-cell at around 2h30min.

A bit puzzled by the huge difference in results.

 

I was just about to point this out. When I read this, I was surprised that there was no cult-like worship about the battery life. MSI wind and Acer Aspire One both get around 2h30m from 3 cell batteries. In comparison to the battery life of those two netbooks, S1O's is AMAZING!

I have read other reviews of the S10 like dysonlu, and it seems that the battery life hovers around 2h30m. So, what's with the huge disparity? It doesn't seem like it's due to the settings. If anything, it looks like you're running the S10 harder than the other reviewers.

By the way, how's the wifi connection?

 

Thank you very much for yet another definitive, consistent, and non-biased review. As someone who ordered one on 8/19 and is still looking at a 10/23 ETA, I'm definitely looking forward to mine (if it ever ships). At least the White and Red ones are shipping now.

The only gotcha I wanted to post about was that for your $439, you get a S10 with 512MB RAM, 80GB hard drive, and *no* Bluetooth. The RAM and hard drive are user-swappable, so I could care less to boost those at Lenovo "upgrade" prices, but it's an incredible shame that they don't let you customize by adding Bluetooth.

I'm amazed by the battery life, though -- not sure how this 28Whr, 3-cell ends up running for 3+ hours... Seemingly defies all previous 1.6GHz Atom tests...

 

does anyone know if the synaptics multi-touch gestures will work in linux?

i.e. is there a synaptics linux driver that supports multi-touch, the first thing i would want to do is install opensuse 11.1 over the top of XP.

 

Having read other reviews and experiences about the 3-cell battery life as well, I was kind of stunned by this. How on earth did you squeeze about an hour more than most other people with even more battery consuming usage?

Great review anyway, still waiting these beauties to launch in Europe (hopefully with a 6-cell in it - just in case)

 

Ditto, stunned at the battery life figure, that's more like 4cell territory than 3 cell.

 

Regarding the battery life. Maybe the author made a typo?

Or, Lenovo shipped him a "one-of" super S10, review edition. ;-)

 

compusa.com has them in stock(whiteone)..

http://www.compusa.com/applications...OMEM122&cm_mmc=Email-_-HDTV-_-COMEM122-_-HDTV

 

Does anyone know if the S10s currently offered are still set up to accept internal bluetooth so that an aftermarket internal module can added by the user?

 

great review.

i was looking at dimensions, trying to compare acer one with s10, i cant understand how did lenovo managed to squeeze 10" screen into 8.9 casing?

its slightly bigger than acer, but not much

as for battery life, asus eee 701 had also similar battery life, unless im mistaken. just above 3hrs? that a great battery time, and should be standard in netbook range. i wouldnt even need 6 or 8 cell battery...

but scores are whats bugging me. comparing acer and s10, seems like s10 is slower than acer? how? and they both share same cpu and graphics card, yet acer is faster somehow?

right now, acer and s10 are my candidates for buying... since my budget is very limited i would need a advice..... or should i wait a little bit longer, maybe something better is coming out soon?

btw

since i live in europe, ill try to get my hands on S9. if i manage, maybe ill write a short review

 

They didn't put a 10 inch screen in a 8.9 casing, Acer went the other way, a 8.9 inch screen in a 10 inch casing so that they could put the larger keyboard in.

 

http://www.sizeasy.com/page/size_co...igabyte-M912M-tablet-vs-MSI-Wind-U100-netbook

 

Seems like everyone is on the UPMC bandwagon now ...

 

Here in Asia both the S9 and S10 are already available. I'm typing this on a black S10. It has identical specs to the reviewer's unit (1 GB RAM and 160 GB HDD, but is black.)

Will post some pics later today if anyone is interested.

 

Again, another great review, Jerry..along with the photo's

Nice thing, is that it's offered in more colors (red)


Cin

 

Other than the white looks that makes this laptop look like a toy, I 'd say this is one hell of a laptop. Thanks for the detailed review.

 

Please do. Always nice to see more pics. But more importantly, how's battery life?

 

What I'd like to know is if this sucker really comes with Bluetooth?

Everyone I've asked says no and i know that the U.S. site doesn't offer or even mention bluetooth being installed.

 

I don't know about the US version, but my S10 comes with Bluetooth.

The hardware wireless button that toggles all wireless. Wireless devices can be individually controlled by Fn-F5. The wireless activity indicator light on the front has three possible colors for bt, wifi, or both being active at the same time.

 

when is this actually going to be available in the UK?

supertrader/supergps lists it but that is the only one, and i'm pretty sure they are justlisting it for the hits and not because they expect it imminently.

can lenovo really justify a price tag of £320 for a 3 cell device with no bluetooth when samsung are selling their new machine for £300..........

 

I took some pics of my S10 in my blog.

 

The S10s currently sold on Lenovo.com in the U.S. do not come with Bluetooth. When I asked a Lenovo agent I was told there was no definitive answer as to when the netbook would start offering it but to check back at the end of October.


Also as an FYI the White S10 w/512Mb RAM and 80G HD looks like it got a price cut. It is currently listed on Lenovo's site for $399.

 

Great blog FRiC! I'm really liking the black Lenovo.

 

Not sure to go with the s10 or the wind.
I really need bluetooth and here in the US its not available. I would love if the Asus eee pc 900 had it but sadly it doesn't.

I'm going to hold out until November but if a bluetooth equipped s10 doesn't come around by then I'm just going to have to go with the MSI Wind.

 

Not sure to go with the s10 or the wind.
I really need bluetooth and here in the US its not available. I would love if the Asus eee pc 900 had it but sadly it doesn't.

I'm going to hold out until November but if a bluetooth equipped s10 doesn't come around by then I'm just going to have to go with the MSI Wind.

 

When did you order yours? I ordered mine 8/20 and I am still waiting on my black one.

 

Ordered a red one 8/21, it arrived 10/6 (direct from Lenovo), as did 2GB RAM (from Fry's). RAM installation was a snap. With built-in 512MB, now a total of 2.5GB installed, with 2GB recognized after reboot (just as expected).

Love it so far. Was concerned about speed and about WiFi antenna sensitivity. Both are fine. Feels solid and sturdy, not cheap and plastic-y. The red is a deep ruby-red, not a tacky ding-ding-red, very nice looking IMO. Power brick requires 3-prong outlet, which my sofa-side extension cord isn't. (An easy fix.)

Required the usual marathon to install other browsers, FF-extensions, spysweeper, zone, roboform, the 19 XP-updates, etc.

Only issue so far is that the "Power schemes" seem to be non-customizable (grayed out). I want to set it so it never turns off when on AC power, but it won't let me. So, while I want to just let it run (so that Google Desktop can do the long initial-indexing), it shuts down if I forget to touch the pad every 20 minutes.

There are 2 software tools re: power management:

* The Lenovo Energy Mgt tool lets you choose among a few prefab settings, but none of those let you control when it shuts down on AC.

* The XP screen for power schemes has a "Lenovo" power scheme, with the settings visible but grayed out so you can't change them.

The manual says those settings are there to permit the S10 to get an "Energy Star" rating. Great. Now that it has the rating, how can I change the AC power settings so it behaves properly? If anybody knows a workaround for this, I'd appreciate hearing it.

 

I'm in Asia and they're available everywhere now. I just walked into a store and bought it.

 

Lucky you! At least it is good to know they are actually manufactured, just need to get sent this way.

 

Circuit City is selling the Black S10 with 1G Ram and 160G HD (with as soon as next day delivery??) and TigerDirect is selling the Pink S10 with 512Mb Ram and 80G HD.

None of them with Bluetooth though.

 

Do you think it's worth it to buy in Asia? Some friends of mine are travelling to Hong Kong later this year. How much is the S10 over there? Any gotchas and potential issues buying such hardware in Asia and bringing it over here in North America?

 

i cannot understand why Lenovo thought it unnecessary, after all these netbooks are so similar, so being the one without is a bit of a deathwish.

about time they cut the price, £320 was riduclous when samsungs was only £300 with twice the battery, memory and HD!

 

i have a few questions to ask... i hope you could help me out since i'm planning on buying a netbook soon... very soon...

aside from the heat issues, what are the other problems of lenovo s10?

which is better, lenovo s10 or toshiba nb100 or dell inspiron mini 9?

thanks!