Lenovo IdeaPad S10-2 Lenovo’s new IdeaPad S10-2 is an update of the S10e. The hardware is conventional netbook fare with a dual-core Atom processor and a 10.1in screen all dressed up in a smart chassis that makes it look like a baby ThinkPad. There have been a number of updates for this model, such as an increase in the frontside bus speed for the …
For pity's sake, can we start another format/category seeing as the 'netbook' has clearly been embraced, extended, and extinguished?
Something maybe like the old HP Jornada 720; plenty of connectivity, but as generic as possible, and as cheap as is consonant with a half decent keyboard and screen; AND no OS---we get to choose, you see!
Something for nerds, geeks, and people who are just a little bit interested in computers as functional, customizable, tools. Is that too much to ask? [don't answer that---I'll just get my coat instead]
Yet more proof they haven't a clue what to do with this ``thinkpad'' brand. No, I don't care that they call this an ``ideapad'', they phail all the same. I'd like someone at those portable computing devices to come up with a device geared for ergonomic power use instead of for the usual suit-wearing hunt-and-pecker. No, I wouldn't mind if that someone would be me, but nobody's asked me and I'm evidently not chinese enough to be able to talk to the notebook manufacturers.
I got a Asus EEE 701 Christmas 2007, and I love th elittle bugger to bits. It's had 1GB memory for ages and I have Xubuntu on it's wee 4GB drive with a 16GB HOME drive in the SD slot.
It does pretty much what I want it to do. I admit a screen that took up all the available space in the lid, for things like using Eclipse for coding, would be nice, but I can plug it into larger monitors at work and home, meaning it pretty much does what I want.
Since Microsoft did its number on it, the CHeap idea seems to have been lost, as pretty much the Small. For the price and weight my wife's three year old Acer laptop is almost as light, just as powerful, and to be brutally honest more comfortable to use.
£500+ netbooks? Dearie me
Loaded Windows 7 Home Edition to my Samsung NC10 and as far as I can tell, it runs just as fast as it does under XP. I've made it a due boot system which makes it pretty easy to compare performance. Also loaded the Office 2010 Beta and that runs just fine too. Maybe I'm just lucky...
Michael
I've got an S10e and it's great, so it's annoying to see them basically screwing up from a position of strength here - I was expecting bigger screens, more storage, more RAM, faster CPU, more ports, same price rather than 'hey, Win7'. I run Ubuntu 9.10 on mine which is perfectly adequate, so I'll stick with that for now.
New MS riddled bloatware OS is now PRVOEN to not run on the genre that set a new trend and is the thing most people will want in the run up to crimbo. (Not that a lot of people will care, still buying what is available at silly prices only to be fed up with it later)
MS and some manufacturers have merged, mixed up and ruined the netbook. Removing SSD's giving the HDD (and cost) of larger laptops Just because people wanted XP (and if you believe M$, vista and now win7)
Not shocked, happy now to have have it proved by the Reg.
Roll on (or roll back) linux, SSD'S and the proper netbooks of last year.
And here was Redmond thinking that XP will be dead and buried anytime soon.
LOL
For years now, sites have been awarding high marks and 'reasonable' to netbooks, usually netbooks that are minor or utterly feeble revisions.
Its easy to conceded some points to the basic idea of netbooks, cheap, cheerful, reasonable use given the costs.
Instead, we have seen no effort in real spec changes, and no challenge to the staus quo. Creeping price rises now have netbooks firmly in notebook land, and they_are_poor in such company.
Anyone shipping a netbook with less than 2GB to the consumer now needs severe reviews. The 1GB cripples the life out of already crippled devices and is the cheapest thing to fix.
ION should have been a breath of fresh air, and there are hosts of things that could be done, but most vendors stick to the limited spec and refuse to supply consumers with better kit.
The atom/945 deserves nothing from a review standpoint at all. Its dog cheap, and dog nasty, and vendors better refine the rest of the offering to hell AND keep prices fun to get good reviews.
Its still fun to see netbooks shipping wwith great big gaping failures (Dell Mini 1011 trackpad, hahaha).
No netbook is worth more than a £199 price tag, and at that price everything needs to work.
Did you actually *test* Win7 on this netbook, or are you just assuming it'll be rubbish?
I'm running Windows 7 Ultimate (RC1) on my Samsung NC10, and it's behaving perfectly. Runs like a dream with the exception of Windows Media Center (which does run, but is painfully slow).
I've got all the Aero fripperies turned on, and on the 1024x600 screen it's gorgeous. I admit the taskbar is a bit hefty but when I've installed my touchscreen (www.fidohub.com) I think the size will be perfect.
I have a Lenovo s10e and I cannot recognise the negative review and responses.
I run triple boot Win XP, Win 7 Ultimate and Ubuntu Netbook Remix. Clearly Ubuntu loads and runs the fastest and would be even faster as a plain Ubuntu, but Win 7 beats Win XP by a significant margin, even with all the bells and whistles turned on. Splashtop wireless connectivity presents me with no problems whatsoever.
Considering the specification, I am very satisfied. Of course it doesn't compete with the latest dual, triple and quad core computers but it is no slouch either. A memory upgrade probably helped.
Battery life is a bit disappointing, but I do not understand the criticism of the screen angle.
I love the format.
I got a Gateway LT3100 series recently (in the UK, Packard Bell dot M/A) and it runs Windows 7 Home Premium quite well, Aero, WMP12, and all the fixins. Sure, it sucks on full-screen video, can't play HD anything, and gaming is weak at 10-12 FPS, but it is a netbook. I know what to expect.
I keep reading reviews of ION based netbooks in hope that one or more may close some of these gaps, but most of them fail at it... I know these machines are the bottom of the barrel, but some machines between the bottom of the barrel and the lowest rung on the Laptop ladder (most capable laptops start at $700 to do anything more than what a netbook can pull off for almost half of the price) to fill the needs of the still-largely unanswered market segment: a decent subnotebook that's light and portable that's a jack of all trades that costs less than $600. A machine that won't splice together 720p video, or play Crysis at full settings, but can at least play games above 30 FPS on the lowest settings and play video regardless of where it's from or how big it is.
So, IBM, sorry... I'll pass on this. If you're going to bother with elevated specs, make sure it does one task well at least.
And it works great. Much better than XP, and if you turn the task bar icons to small (as I do even on my 1920*1200 screen) then the taskbar takes no more room than on XP, and is infinately more useful. My other half still uses it with Office 2007... It does have 2GB RAM though.
Maybe the bloatware Levano ship it with is the problem? I know it was with my Viao TZ21...
I have an Ideapad S9e - same as S10 but 9" rather than 10" screen.
When I first booted it into XP I was amazed how fast it was at doing everything.
Really impressed.
Then I started to make the system a bit more secure....
Added anti-virus - AVG
There were a few XP security updates that needed to be installed.
Then the different apps started to want to be updated as well and left behind their little updater apps.
Now the machine is usable but nowhere near as quick as when I first got it.
I also get the mystery slow down when an app or XP decided to auo-download an update in the background without letting me know.
I expect the Linux experience is so much better just because there is no anti-virus used and the update system is done in a more controlled way.
I still use the S9e regularly and love the size. If ti wasn't for the need for my wife to use it on the odd occassions I'd dual boot it to Ubuntu or Xubuntu and be done with it. (she would be confused by the boot menu)
Why did you try to make a general point about Windows 7? Are you paid by PC manufacturers to burst the netbook bubble so people start buying more expensive machines? Or worse still, Apple or Google? If Windows 7 Starter Edition sucks on this then blame it on either the Starter Edition or Lenovo. Look on youtube for Windows 7 netbook and you will see they all run responsively and as good as XP. One bad experience shouldn't be taken as a trend.
The reviewer seems to have ignored the huge body of evidence out there that netbooks run Windows 7 Home Premium/Ultimate/Professional very well indeed. I can't vouch for Home Basic but can they have botched it so badly? I run Win 7 Ultimate on a 2Gb Dell Mini 9 and Win 7 Professional on a 1Gb Dell Mini 10 and am very pleased with them.
This is the first windows 7 netbook you've had your hands on? If this is so I am really disappointed in this website. I've been running 7 pro compressed and jammed into the 4 gig OS drive on my 901 since a week after it came out (my school is slow with granting MSDN-AA) and it boots and feels faster than XP. It also work much better with wireless, and the after getting used to the taskbar I keep trying all the tricks on older computers and getting frustrated (drag window to sides to resize, and middle click on taskbar firefox button to open new window). In fact the only problem I have had so far is the intel/asus graphics driver for 7 didn't support 1028x768 scrolling mode, so I had to downgrade and lose aero to play games that require 768 minimum.
If there's a problem then it's either with starter, or with the hardware/drivers, not putting 7 on a netbook in general, windows 7 works wonderfully with everything else.
I've always loved the old ThinkPads, entirely because of their neat little ideas and ruggedness. So when I heard they were doing a netbook - my laptop form factor of choice - I was somewhat excited.
Now imagine my dismay when it was launches with no clit mouse, or keyboard illumination.
This may sound strange:
Lenovo is the maker of The Thinkpad - the black, ugly unfashionable bastion of reliability and torture tolerance. Bit expensive, but somehow quite respectable.
And Microsoft, the big company that's popular to scorn.
But Lenovo cares not a whit for the "personal" (non-corporate, bulk buying) customer. Just visit their forum, follow a few threads in the Ideapad line. See how the U330 (and otherwise fine piece of hardware) has important and significant video driver and battery problems, which the company does not deign to address. See the loss of confidence among the faithful and the hopeful. Experience (preferably second-hand) how Lenovo is so very much shoddier in its customer care than, say LG or HP or Dell or Acer.
At least Microsoft releases fixes and updates and added value with regularity. It is putting a genuine effort, and for my money Windows 7 is quite good to begin with. Maybe not as cool hip and easy to live with as the Snow Leopard, but quite good looking, fluent and capable to hold its own.
Stay away from anything Lenovo branded that's not at least a big seller flagship Thinkpad. Or you are simply asking for it.
An earlier coward was right to say that Lenovo have wasted their ThinkPad inheritance.
If you yearn for ThinkPad look and feel - and serious quality to boot - look at the Samsung N510. No "is it carbon?" here, just corporate black.
Stuff in the extra 1Gb RAM and you've got a nice clear 11 inch LED screen, solid hardware, good graphics performance and long haul battery life.
And for all Win7 refuseniks out there, grab one with XP while stocks last.
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