Lenovo IdeaPad S10 Review

I don't seem to have any issues setting the power management schemes. All schemes can be customized in any way I want. ( Blog.)

Personally I try to avoid buying from abroad in case of warranty issues. IdeaPads do not have the same warranty as ThinkPads. Mine has 1.5 years of Asian warranty, including China. (If China is not specifically mentioned, then there's no warranty for China.)

 

Lenovo screwed the launch for the S10 here in the U.S.

From what I understand, when they originally listed the S10 on their site for pre-order back in August, they were selling the White, Red, and Black (which was $10 cheaper) with Bluetooth. At the time of launch they were also offering a 15% discount on all Ideapads which they probably did not intend to apply to the Ideapad S10, and which may be part of the reason why they took down the pre-orders for a short time (another part being the confusion re: X4500 chipsets).

Just my speculation but the removal of Bluetooth from the current S10s sounds like Lenovo is trying to cut their production cost and sell a few netbooks at an increased profit to recoup lost revenue on their pre-orders.


Or maybe I'm just being overly cynical like I usually am.


Eventually they'll start putting the Bluetooth back in but I hate to wait. I'd still like to know if it's something I can add myself. From pics Ive seen online of the S10's insides it looks like the S10 is still set up for an internal Blueooth module but according to a Lenovo Agent I would have to use a USB to get Bluetooth.

I think she just doesn't condone me dissecting the netbook and voiding the warranty.

 

Thank you. Here are the details:

• User cannot adjust the system setting via XP Power settings, must use Lenovo Energy Management tool
• Lenovo's power management tool shows a handful of prefab settings (Balance, Performance, etc.).
• When viewing those prefab choices, the visible menu tabs do not permit the user to adjust system settings either.
• But, when viewing the icons for the prefab settings, double-click on a particular setting and new tabs appear, which *do* permit adjustment to system and monitor.

I was just looking everywhere for visible menu tabs.
Silly me, I neglected to double click on Lenovo's prefab settings to find additional menu tabs.

 

cheers for the info, it will be interesting to see what spec and price the S10 eventually sells with/for when it finally reaches the UK.

 

One more issue (sorry if I'm being a dope): How can the user adjust the *very loud* beep that occurs whenever the user connects or disconnects the AC power?

 

Never mind... found it.
There's a "PC Beep" setting in Master Volume that does it.
(It does not screw up the volume of other audio.)

 

wow, and the s10 just drop it price to 399$ 381$ with student discount. I wonder if it a good deal now to get it ...

 

BTW, in case anyone cares, I paid the equivalent of US$600 (today's exchange rate) for my S10.

It's 1 GB, 160 GB HDD, BT, and comes with the black slipcase, and an additional 6 months of asian warranty.

The S9 (also already available) is the same thing but has a smaller screen and 80 GB HDD, is something like $520.

 

Wow. That's very expensive. Not worth it for me to buy it from Asia then.

 

I've no idea how he obtained 3hr 43min...that seems impossible. I have an IdeaPad S10, and with screen brightness all the way down, browsing the web, I'm lucky to get 2hrs 45min.

 

I finally received my S10 order that I placed in August last week and I am attempting to use it as my primary computer. I have a red one but I am not a fan of the white trim. For a netbook, the screen size is decent. On some web pages there is a scrolling problem and online video streams that can't be re-sized are often too big. The keyboard has a good feel but the miniature keys will make it hard for most people to use. I have a horrible time trying to use the right shift key. Most of the keys are cramp together, as expected with a netbook, but I would have expected the right shift key to be a top priority during keyboard design--it appears it was not. The speakers are extremely weak so tote along a pair of headphones. I have had too much of a problem with heat. My fan goes on and off pretty frequently. I installed a 320GB hard drive and an Intel B/G/N internal wireless card for better wireless range. There is no bluetooth and I haven't been able to find hardware that would work yet.

 

This PDF at the FCC shows the internal photos of the Ideapad S10:
http://gullfoss2.fcc.gov/prod/oet/forms/blobs/retrieve.cgi?attachment_id=986027&native_or_pdf=pdf

That PDF contains this photo which shows the bluetooth module in the bottom right corner and the wire that connects it:
http://blog.laptopmag.com/wpress/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/gallery9.jpg


And this pic is of an S10 that was dissected by someone who purchased it without a bluetooth module:
http://www.liliputing.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/disassembly-04-bluetooth.jpg


It looks like the ports needed to connect Bluetooth is still in the S10s currently being sold in the U.S. that don't have Bluetooth. It also looks like the wire connecting the BT to the MB is an 8-pin wire but I don't know for sure if that means any of those 8-pin internal BT modules on eBay will work.

And therein lies the rub.

 

Is the SD slot SDHC compatible?

 

This is a stupid question but, lets say i have a Lenovo s10 and 2 extra internal hard drives. Each hard drive has a different set of information, can I put one in one day and use the computer and the next day switch it out for the other one without a problem and use that?

Basically what I'm asking is can I use two different internal hard drives (each with a legit copy of XP) without any problems?

 

Yes you can, as would be possible with any computer or laptop. However, it is extremely inconvenient. Not to mention I would be weary of repeated opening and closing of the access panel to swap drives. I wouldn't want to put unnecessary wear on the laptop, but yes, you can do it.

Buy a bigger hard drive and just use one.

 

I bought the black s10 on eBay for $350 USD with free shipping. It was listed as $499 with "Buy it now" but Microsoft has a cashback program from 30% off any Buy it now item paid with Paypal. Anyone can do it. It just takes 60 days to get the cash to you in order to ensure that you do not return the item. Anyway, it'll be delivered in a few days I can upload all the details and pics if people like.

 

What are the specs on your S10?

 

The default specs, which is 512MB and 80GB. I bought 2GB of RAM separately to upgrade, roughly 30 bucks. The Atom CPU is limited to 2GB total, so the internal 512MB will be ignored.

Since there is a little confusion with the Blutooth (varies by world region) I'm gonna have to wait until I have it in my hands to know for sure if it has BT or not.

 

Would a bluetooth dongle work with it?

Would love to buy one specifically for school use and this way i can either tether my 3g connection or be able to text/email through the phone with the s10 when i have no wifi.

(sorry for all the stupid questions, I know nothing about computers)

 

Definitely.

 

Got my black S10 today and as expected, this thing looks great. I'll post photos eventually (but sooner if requested).

First thing I noticed was that the darn C: drive is FAT32, while the OneKey backup partition was NTFS. That's pretty stupid. (FAT32 is old does not support and files larger than 4GB). Anyway I found the reason was because OneKey does not support NTFS (Also really stupid). So... in addition to being upset about the stupidity of the people who designed this machine, I'm gonna format it to my own version of Windows XP.

But yea other than that this netbook is pretty awesome.

 

If there's one thing wrong with this picture, it's the white plastic, as pointed out in the review. It really doesn't look that attractive, and I'd actually like to see the ThinkPad look.

 

The other colors look much better. That's why I got the black model. Unfortunately it seems everyone else thought the same way because it is horribly delayed. I ordered it 8/20 and it is shipping this Wednesday 10/29. Sad.

 

So, which Configuration you guys choosed?

And do you recommend Black or Red over White? I thought about buying the Red... can somebody put High Quality Picutres of Black and Red to compare.. thanks.

Here in Germany its seems that in 4 Weeks the S10 is available with 180Gig HDD, and 6 Cell Accu...

 

I hope they offer the 6 cell battery to buy separately because mine is supposed to ship today and it'll have the 3 cell. I'd like the 6 cell though since I don't think the 3 cell provides much more than 3 hours if that. I purchased the black one. I think the white one looks kind of junky and toyish. The red looks decent too.

 

Im tempted to buy a Red S10 and a Black S10 then switch around the lids and keyboards to get a Red cover with a Black keyboard....but then I'd get stuck with a Black one with a White keyboard that I doubt I could even sell on eBay.


Hopefully by the time they release the Blue S10 they will have realized people like the black keyboard better.

 

Is it led backlit display. One of the features of these displays is that they don't contain mercury but at the bottom of this netbook is note stating «this product contains a lamp which contains mercury».
Thanks

 

Yeah, it is an LED screen.

 

if it's led why does it contains mercury

 

The sticker shouldn't have been put on the product. It isn't using a CCFL which does contain mercury.

 

thank you atbnet

 

FYI, there is a small utility that ships with XP that you can run to convert a FAT32 drive to NTFS, one-way only. It works without a format and is pretty quick.

 

For those of you who ordered the black S10 expect to wait a few more weeks. I just recently canceled mine after calling them and finding out it would be November 14th or later to ship. Almost three months after ordering - terrible.

 

So does the version being sold here in the U.S. have bluetooth or not? I am reading conflicting things.

 

i just got one from tigerdirect.com and it does not have BT

 

i want to buy UMPC notebook for comfortable typing purpose. what do you think is better, HP 2133 mini notebook PC or Lenovo IdeaPad S10???
so far i read that HP has 92% normal sized keyboard, eventhough it has only 8,9 inch for display, and Lenovo S10 has 10,2 inch in screen,
but the keyboard size only 85% normal size?? where as acer spire one has 89% keyboard size... vewwy confused here...
more Q, which speaker is better, HP or L S10?
one more Q, which one is getting hot faster, HP 2133 or S10?
Many thanks, J.

 

which one is better HP 2133 mini notebook PC or Lenovo S10 (for typing purpose), which speker is better to? and which one get hot faster? many thanks...

 

I'd say the 2133 has better speakers and keyboard. It also gets hot faster since it has a magnesium alloy shell.

 

All the specs seem very similar apart from the 3 cell / 6 cell battery issue.

Other than that which one is better?

And why would you buy the Lenovo over other models?

 

Do you mean the restore function doesn't work at all?

My ancient Thinkpad was delivered pre-formatted with FAT32 but then self-converted itself to NTFS. The restore function (F11) worked fine afterwards.

 

I will be starting medical school in a foreign country in a couple more months, and I was considering to buy a mini notebook under $500 since that's all I could afford at this time. I came across the Lenovo IdeaPad S10 as a nice budget notebook, great review by the way.

I need to buy an internet card in the country I'm going to and I was worried about the internet connectivity of the S10 more than anything to keep in touch with family and friends.

Also, is there a CD/DVD drive that is compatible with the S10, because I need to download MS Office or is there a way to download it off of my main desktop computer? MS Office is on my desktop. Not sure if that's possible though.

Any help would be much appreciated!!

 

Ideapad S10 is getting some updates in March so if you can you might want to wait and see what Lenovo does to it.

Just about any external USB CD/DVD drive can be purchased separately and used with the S10.

 

Is this for sure ?

I am actually pretty interrested ina s10 lately.

Btw the question regarding the battery did not find any reply.
Is it 3hr40 min or more 2.5 hrs ?

S.

 

NBR reported the refresh on the Idepads a couple of weeks ago:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=338657

 

Well not much that could wait .... (i mean no ground breaking news)

S.

 

There's nothing to say whether or not those will be the only changes made.

January is half over and February is a short month so it's not a long wait for specifics.

 

has anyone any links or infos beyond press release and technical data about the ideapad s9e? I'm looking for a netbook under 300 euros (germany), and there's an offer for it for students at 289 €. it's my favorite so far, only the poor battery life is a downside. how big and heavy is the ac supply (euro, 230/240v)?

 

god i cant wait till the day netbooks resolution standard becomes 1024 x 768 or 1280 x 800 this is nice though

 

But am so impatieeeent!

I know, but school starts and I get so bored with electronics that I need to have it immediately

Seriously:
I found a S10, 1gb (will upgrade to 1.5 - i have a gb left here), 80gb, BT wifi ..., 6 cell battery and xp for 408$.

This is to take with me (I have a desktop at home - with wol), do Onenote in school, Office stuff, Outlook, record some stuff (audio) and I have a 100gb slim external hdd already.

Does this seems like a good deal ?

 

wait for the samsung NC20 you wont regret it.