My review and a video of the S10 cold booting to a usable Windows desktop are after the jump.
First off, I'll save you from the customary review trappings like a spec sheet, detailed physical descriptions, comparisons between this and competitive netbooks, and an explanation of what a netbook is. I trust that you can get all that from doing a web search and by reading the trickle of professional reviews that will soon be a flood. Instead, I'll focus on my reactions as someone who bought this mini laptop over all of the others out there.
Initial Reactions
First reaction: As I unboxed it, I realized that pictures don't do justice to the design, build-quality, and aesthetics of the S10. It feels solid, with no thin, flexing plastic panels. The hinge feels as solid as a ThinkPad. There are rubber feet on the bottom that give it stability and bumpers on the inside of the lid that make the lid feel closed and solid without needing a latch.
I got the red version, and it's not a bright, Communist red like I was expecting, but a rich, ruby color with an automotive-like metallic paint feel. In fact, the lowercase lenovo logo is chromed and inlaid into the lid, not just glued or silkscreened on. I was also afraid that the white battery, power cords, and interior would look odd with the dominant red exterior, but it looks classy.
Second reaction: It's tiny. When you put your hand up against it, you realize that it's smaller (and although it's a bit heavier than I'd like, lighter) than a hardcover novel. This is something that you can take with you without having to even think about it. Of course, the small form factor translates into a microscopic keyboard, which seems even smaller than the 85% normal size that Lenovo claims. Maybe the alphanumeric keys are 85%, but keys like shift and tab are significantly smaller and placed awkwardly. Sadly some of the mainstay keys like Home and End are now Fn-combos. Thus, while it's not bad for occasional use, you'd be crazy to use this as a replacement for any laptop.
I'm really disappointed that Lenovo, who inherited TrackPoint technology from IBM, didn't use that here. I really prefer to use a pointing stick rather than a touchpad because it's much more comfortable (and less obvious that you're using the mouse to others since your hands never leave the home row of the keyboard. So we're left with a tiny touchpad with annoy mouse buttons that require a lot of pressure to click and make a loud clicking noise to boot.
So then I'm thinking how nice a travel mouse would be for extended use. Oh, but wait, no Bluetooth is included in the initial models. And only two USB 2.0 ports, so it's not even that practical to get a wireless mouse with a USB dongle. Bummer.
Cold Boot Video
One question I had was whether Windows (XP Home SP3, BTW) on a weak-spec'ed platform was functional compared to the solid-state disk-equipped, Linux based netbooks. Fortunately, the answer seems to be "yes." As you can see in the video below, my S10 booted from cold-off to a functional Windows desktop in about a minute (another 15 seconds or so for the disk activity to completely die down to idle), and that's with the default 512MB RAM. Using standby and hibernation closes the "instant on" gap between this machine and those using Linux-based netbooks.
From there, it's a mostly positive user experience. Unlike many notebooks I've used, the hard drive rarely runs, probably thanks to tweaking down the bloatware and unneeded services. For example, I went to turn off the Indexing Service and discovered that it wasn't installed. Very cool. Once I figured out that setting Lenovo's Energy Management utility to "Super Energy Saver" mode disables the wireless and wired network adapters, it was easy to get wireless working. I love that I can suspend or hibernate, or toggle the WiFi enable/disable button and wireless reconnects without a problem.
Given the weak integrated video chipset and the cramped 1024 x 600 screen resolution, you're not going to be playing any 3D games on it, but it did handle smooth playback of 720p-encoded WMV-HD and Divx video.
On the negative side, the S10 doesn't come with reinstallation discs but rather Lenovo's OneKey Recovery utility (apparently OEM'ed from CyberLink). Unfortunately, the printed documentation suggests that you can recover to the factory image via OneKey and a hidden partition, I couldn't figure out how to do that in OneKey. The only visible options are to backup the system partition to an image file and to create bootable recovery discs from the backup image. But there's no default image, so you have to create one before you do anything that you might want to recover from and then you have to burn it to...hmmm, no built-in or included CD/DVD burner. That's kind of messed up!
Then there's the funky drive partitioning. 80GB isn't a huge hard drive, but I was counting on XP being a fairly light install (and it is--like 7 GB or so). Unfortunately, Lenovo divided the drive into 3 partions: a small, hidden parition of a few GB (perhaps for the recovery feature that I can't access), a system partion of 30GB, and parition of 40GB that only has a directory of Lenovo drivers and installation software. But what takes the cake is that the system parition that Windows is installed on is formatted as FAT32 and the Lenovo partition is NTFS! Truly, WTF? If I wasn't afraid that I might have to re-install Windows and be unable to, I would try to dynamically resize the partitions and convert to NTFS.
And then there's the crappy selection of pre-installed software. While thankfully they didn't throw in a ton of useless, bloatware like most PC manufacturers do, they did include Norton Internet Security...on a 90-day trial. And seriously, who uses marketing literature to tout that they include Adobe Reader, a power management utility, and Windows Live Toolbar? Add OneKey and that's all that's included. Weak.
But overall, its performance seems pretty snappy, well-suited for basic web tasks and as a personal media player (though not by the built-in speakers--they're loud but they sound like the $10 radio I have on my desk at work).
That's about all of my initial reactions...here's my list of pros and cons in a less TL;DR format:
Likes
- Solid construction
- One of the best looking netbooks out there
- Quick bootup
- Long, long power cord (around 10' total)
- Decent price considering what you get (though specs do seem anemic compared to competitors)
- Fairly light considering its solid construction (2 lbs., 5 ozs. without battery; 3-cell battery adds another 6 ozs.)
- Good system responsiveness despite Windows, traditional hard disk, and Atom CPU
- Easy to upgrade the memory
- No trouble handling 720p-bitrate video
- Bright, crisp display
- Loud speakers
- ExpressCard slot for future 3G (or hopefully WiMAX) expansion
- Good WiFi signal strength
- Built-in SD/MMC/MS/MS Pro card reader
- WiFi toggle via a solid button rather than a sliding switch
- Tiny keyboard with oddly-placed keys
- Tiny trackpad with loud mouse buttons
- No TrackPoint (aka mouse pointer stick embedded in the keyboard)
- No volume mute button or key sequence
- Small hard drive, partitioned into two usable partitions (one FAT, one NTFS--why?!?)
- Lack of OEM or third-party accessories at launch
- Low-runtime battery (28 watt-hour, 3 cell battery)
- Cheap, cellphone-quality webcam
- Crappy crapware selection included
- No apparent way to do a factory restore & no included re-installation discs
- No cable management for power cord
- Multimedia cards stick out of reader (can't insert flush)
- Gets warm (though not as hot as some full-fledged notebooks I've used)
- Only two USB ports
- No Bluetooth included (yet)
- Clock-radio quality sound from speakers
- Scant screen real estate (obviously)
Despite the long list of negatives to the S10, if you keep in mind the reason why you'd buy a netbook in the first place, this Lenovo is definitely a solid choice. While built-in WWAN and a more capacious battery would definitely help improve its coffeehouse usability, for a cheap travel companion it's a great choice. With its built-in card reader, light weight, and sturdy construction, I can see taking the S10 with me on vacation instead of a heavier, more delicate, and more expensive notebook. Although the initial config is light on hard drive capacity, it can serve as a good portable media player. And while I'd still cry if it was lost, damaged, or stolen, I'd rather lose a $400 netbook than the $1000+ ones that I normally travel with.
I can also see that it might be a decent choice as a laptop for a kid or teen, especially since the keyboard is too cramped for lengthy typing by adult hands. Searching eBay, I see plenty of sticker skins to personalize the S10 already, so it could be a good holiday gift for them.
As for me, understanding that this isn't going to be as good as an expensive ultraportable notebook, I'm happy with my decision to go with the Lenovo instead of an Eee or Wind. While some other models may offer more for the dollar, the attractiveness and build quality of the S10 is definitely on par with the well-designed shells from Dell and HP. Sure, there's no SSD or 6-cell battery, but considering it runs Windows XP decently, I'll take the bigger storage and more versatile OS of the S10 over the other Linux netbooks out there.
Questions? Leave a comment!
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