Lenovo's IdeaPad S10 Reviewed

Netbooks are typically a "me too!" product, created by manufacturers who think their Intel Atom-based, small form factor notebook is going to stand out from the countless others, despite little to no attention being paid to the areas that could differentiate their product from the rest. Lenovo's IdeaPad S10 is a welcome deviation from the norm that's just as suited to the touring musician as it is to the couch surfer. Read on for our full review.

The Specs

Our review unit had the following specifications, that differ slightly from currently available S10 models:

• 10.2" LCD (1024x600)
• Intel Atom N270 Processor (1.6GHz, 533MHz FSB)
• 1GB RAM (DDR2 PC5300, Expandable to 2GB)
• Intel GMA 950 Integrated Graphics
• 160GB HDD
• ExpressCard/34 slot
• Bluetooth

The Keyboard

Once you've set fingertips on a couple of netbook keyboards, you've realized that this is one of the most important areas of differentiation there is. Unfortunately, it seems most of the manufacturers have failed to come to the same conclusion.

The IdeaPad's keyboard is one of the best netbook keyboards I have ever used. The keys are solid, with no rattle, next to no "give", and you can hit the space bar on the very left or right edge and still get a perfect key press. Sadly enough, there's a number of catches.

- F11 and F12 share the same key. F12 is accessed with the Function key.

- The tilde is gone, and the numbers have been pushed too far to the left, so hitting higher numbers than intended was common - especially with 2 and 1.

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