Lenovo launches Ideapad S10

THE ULTRAMOBILE PC market got a little more crowded today, as Lenovo announced its entry into the netbook arena with the Ideapad S10.

Lenovo's Ideapad S10 joins a growing list of small, low-powered and low-priced miniature laptops that typically weigh less than three pounds and sell for under $500. Other ultralight machines in this less-is-more category include MIT's OLPC, the Asus Eee PC, Acer's Aspire, MSI's Wind and HP's Mini-Note.

With a name that echoes the Thinkpad brand Lenovo inherited from IBM, the Ideapad S10 has a 10-inch screen, the choice of either a 3-cell or a 6-cell battery, and either an 80GB or a 160GB, 5,400 rpm hard drive. The Ideapad S10 keyboard keys are 85 per cent of full size.

The Ideapad S10 runs a 1.6GHz Intel Atom N270 processor and holds up to 2GB RAM. It's based on the Intel 945 GSE chipset with GMA 950 graphics and has an Ethernet port, an ExpressCard WWAN slot, two USB ports, a webcam, a headphone jack, and a 4-in-1 card reader. Priced at $399 or $499 depending on hard drive capacity, it comes in either black, white or red. Punters can have any Operating System loaded as long as that's Windows XP.

Lenovo will sell a lower priced model with a smaller 9-inch screen outside the US, where it will also offer Linux preloaded instead of Windows XP.

Lenovo's Ideapad S10 will be available in October. µ

L'Inq
PC Magazine