For as long as I can remember I've used laptops for my primary day-to-day work and most of my after-hours browsing and general use. I recently replaced my 17" Dell notebook with a smaller 15.4" m1530 XPS (due to weight, and I no longer do any hardcore gaming on my laptop). I hadn't given much thought about netbooks until we received a review sample of the Lenovo IdeaPad S10. I picked it up, and my first reaction was that it was tiny compared to my m1530, and very light (about 2.5 pounds). My second thought was am I really going to get much use out of something this size? The IdeaPad S10 is not much bigger than a portable DVD player. My third thought was, how are my big hands going to use that small keyboard??
The review machine I received was equipped with an Atom N270 CPU (1.6GHz), 1GB DDR2, an 80gb 2.5" Hitachi HDD, and a 10.2" (1024x600) screen. It came installed with Windows XP Home, Norton Internet Security 2008 (which I replaced with NIS 2009), and CyberLink OneKey Recovery (pre-configured with a factory-default restore setting, in case you need to blow everything out). Also included was a new 6 cell extended runtime battery (which I used for testing), that provided about 4:30-5hrs of runtime during my tests. The memory is easily upgraded to 2GB, but the S10 only has a single slot (I would definitely recommend this upgrade, especially with memory prices as low as they are now). The hard drive would also be easy to upgrade as it's just a standard 2.5" laptop drive, and could even be replaced with a decent-sized Solid State Drive, and improve performance & battery life quite a bit (I'm considering a 120GB SSD replacement when I get my own machine). Also included on the machine is a SD card reader, VGA output, two USB 2.0 ports, a 10/100 Ethernet port, headphone/mic jacks, and an Express Card slot.
After unboxing the S10, I set it up next to my main laptop so I could get connected to the wireless, and get a few applications installed (Microsoft Office, OpenVPN client, VZ Access to test it with my BlackBerry as an Internet connection, etc), and one of the first things I noticed was that I was NOT having any major issues with the main keys on the keyboard. They were big enough that I could use it comfortably, and most of the keys were placed where I could find them after a few glances at the keyboard. I've had a few instances where I've mistyped things due to hitting the wrong key for Ctrl, but I've gotten used to that as well. I've since tried the keyboard on one of the smaller Eee PC 900's, and I definitely prefer the S10's layout (dedicated non-Fn PgUp & PgDn keys are nice, I use them quite frequently).
Once all of my software I was going to use finished installing, I set about getting it all configured the way I like it. Since I was going to be using this while out and about, I decided I'd get it configured for my VZ Access with my BlackBerry connected via Bluetooth. That's where I ran into my only real problem. Let me first add that this IS a review sample, and it has been through few a few hands before I got it for review, but the Bluetooth adapter drivers weren't installed by default on the unit I had in hand. A few minutes on Lenovo's web page and the drivers were downloaded and installed, but it'd have been nice for them to have been included on the restored image on the machine (I've tested the OneKey Recovery a few times since then, and have to reinstall that driver every time). After that, I paired my BlackBerry to the laptop, configured VZ Access for a Bluetooth connection, and I was able to connect pretty much anywhere. It would be nice if the S10 had the option for an internal 3G connection, but for me the tethered BlackBerry option works out better. Next I set up my email, and my VPN connections to home and work. Everything configured and worked fine I'm used to a 2.5GHz C2D laptop, so I was concerned that the slower Atom N270 1.6GHz single-core processor would be too slow, but I found that it has enough power for what I was doing and then some. I could connect to my mail without any issues and get to my VPN connections from pretty much anywhere as well.
For my first outside of the house test, I took the S10 to one of our local coffee houses, and used their free wireless to get on the Internet. Armed with a set of headphones, I connected the laptop to my home network, and started up my SageTV PlaceShifter software, and logged into my PVR system at home to see how performance was remotely watching TV. The system did that quite well, both full-screen and windowed, with good quality (nobody else was using their wireless at the time, so I had the bandwidth to myself). Since there weren't many other people there, I tried the system's internal speakers. Not surprisingly, the sound on them was only ok, there's not much room in these smaller sized devices for high end speaker systems. At maximum volume the sound level could easily be surpassed by the general noise in the system from a few feet away. Not really a problem, but if you're thinking of using this as a portable movie system, I'd suggest carrying an external battery powered speaker system (I use a Saitek A-200 with my laptop, and it works great with the S10 as well). After watching the previous night's episode of Battlestar Galactica over coffee, I figured I'd surf the net a bit. I found that lower vertical resolution did mean I needed to scroll more, but using the PgUp & PgDn buttons, as well as the scroll area of the touchpad worked quite well. I also noticed that the Norton NIS and Windows Live toolbars took up quite a bit of real-estate, so I chose not to have them displayed. As all the 10" netbooks I've looked at have the same screen resolution, this is neither better nor worse than the others, just not exactly what I was used to. My email connection to the office worked perfectly, and I was able to work as if I were at the office. I will also say that I had several people ask where I got such a small laptop, and had I been a Lenovo dealer, would have probably made a half dozen sales before I left.
The machine is quite capable of running almost everything I threw at it (my Office apps, Sage software, Big Fish & Popcap-type games, etc). You wouldn't want to try something like World of Warcraft on it (although I suspect it'd run on the lowest settings), and I did have a few issues trying to play some HD 1080 videos on it, but I never expected it to be able to handle a 1080p source file either. If Intel would let the manufacturers put the Atom 330 dual-core 1.6 in their netbooks, I believe this would change. I installed several of my wife's favorite games on the S10 and let her play with it for a bit. When I told her I'll have to send it back, she asked me when we could order her one of her own. I've used it to watch my favorite shows while she was watching hers on the big TV (wearing headphones of course), and surfing the net in bed while she was asleep. We used it in the car several times for entertainment while we were going on a few short road-trips, and it's definitely more convenient than pulling out my larger work laptop, and gets much longer run-times. It also makes a great platform for viewing our digital photos (much better than viewing them on the tiny 2.4" screen on the camera). Other than when I'm at work, it now seems to be my go-to machine and also the system I grab whenever I'm heading out or just sitting around the house. I'll have to admit I'll be ordering one myself in the next few days (I think I'd prefer the blue, I'm not a huge fan of white Laptops), and while I've looked at several manufacturers machines in the past week, I'm pretty sure I'll end up with an S10 like I have now.
Additional images provided by Doug Bemis.
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