Lenovo heralds netbook PC duo
Mini laptops for basic computing
Lenovo has signalled its entry into the netbook market with two mini machines.
Lenovo's S10 (above) and S9 are its first netbook PCs
The IdeaPad S9 has an 8.9in screen, but the flagship S10 sports a more attractive 10.2in display. The netbooks weigh in at just over 2 lbs (1kg) and are designed for surfing the web, emailing, listening to music and running basic applications, such as Microsoft Word. The keyboard is said to be 85 per cent of the size of a full-function notebook PC’s keyboard.
An energy-efficient LED backlight display helps to lengthen battery life.
The S10 laid bare
Wi-Fi connectivity and an Express Card slot feature on the duo, and a web-cam’s been installed above the display. Only two USB ports are included, but users have the benefit of a 4-in-1 memory card reader.
A 1.6GHz Atom and 160GB HDD feature in the S10
Lenovo has only released the full specifications for the S10, which runs on a 1.6GHz Intel Atom processor, comes with 2GB of memory and a 160GB HDD. Users have the option of either a three or six hour life battery.
Two speakers are integrated into the S10 netbook, and the built in webcam has a snap quality of 1.3-megapixels. Users can also choose between Windows XP or Linux.
The S10 will retail for £319 (€401/$626) and the S9 for £279 (€351/$548), with both PCs scheduled for UK release in October.
COMMENTS
How much?
I'm writing this on a Fujitsu Siemens Amilo Li2727, that cost £249 about two months ago. It's fully featured, and other than it's running Windows Vista, I don't think I've ever bought any IT equipment in 22 years that has been such good value, or delivered as much bang-per-buck for the money. It's even less expensive than the last two PDAs I bought.
The point being, that while all these sub-notebooks are rather good... they are a bit expensive. I know they have fallen from thousands to hundreds, but the Acer Aspire One... that's the price point that they need to hit. The success of the eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee PC was its price.
When will El Reg test the Acer? I've only read good things about it elsewhere.
@Torben Mogensen
"""My ageing Lifebook P2120 has a 10.6" screen with 1280x768, so I would not "downgrade" to smaller resolution"""
I totally agree. Seems like nearly all of these new tiny laptops have resolutions that I'd find acceptable on a pocket sized device. I've got a Lifebook P5020 with a similar screen, and there's no way that I'm ever getting an actual laptop with a lower res.
So I grabbed a HP 2133, which does 1280x768 on an 8.9 inch scren. It's slower than my 4 year old Lifebook, and the via hardware doesn't work perfectly with Linux, but it's far more useable to me than any of the other toy Eee clones would be.
With tiny laptops comes tiny pointing devices?
Why aren't they using the trackpoint to save space for keyboard keys?
"160 GB of hard disk drive space...
"... or 4 GB of solid state drive storage."
That's a bit tight.
@Ishkandar
That was the idea - I know that many laptops fail even at Basecamp due to the cold temperatures (hence High Altitude). Was just a thought :o)
@dom : Tsk... there's always one trying too hard isn't there....
