Review: Lenovo IdeaPad S10e

Lenovo's netbook shows more polish than many of its rivals

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Price: £299 inc VAT

Manufacturer: Lenovo

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Verdict

The IdeaPad S10e stands out from the netbook crowd thanks to its build quality, and some useful extras such as Quick Start and Rescue and Recovery to help users get their system up and running again if problems should occur.

However, the standard three-cell battery pack will typically provide only a couple of hours' use so, although the IdeaPad is capable of running Office applications, buyers will probably need to add a larger battery pack to make it a serious mobile tool.

Daniel Robinson, vnunet.com 27 Jan 2009

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Lenovo ships the IdeaPad with Windows XP Home Edition, which is standard across most mini laptop models. This is largely identical to the full XP Professional, but lacks some key business-oriented features such as the ability to join a corporate network domain.

There is also a Quick Start environment that lets users surf the web, play digital music, make Skype calls or use an instant messaging client, all without having to boot into Windows.

This uses Splashtop, a compact Linux build from a company called DeviceVM. Users can enable or disable QuickStart from the Bios setup screen. When enabled, the IdeaPad boots into Splashtop, which takes only seconds. From the main screen, users can then run one of the pre-loaded applications or choose to start Windows instead.

In case of disaster, users can also boot into Lenovo's ThinkVantage Rescue and Recovery tool by pressing F11 when the power-on messages are being displayed. This restores the IdeaPad to its original state, a feature that we found handy when a benchmark tool crashed and left our review unit in a semi-functioning state.

Rescue and Recovery took a little over an hour to reinstall Windows and all the applications, but could prove a life saver if the worst should happen while travelling, for example.

To test performance, we used Business Winstone 2004, an old benchmark but one we've used on many Windows XP systems. The IdeaPad scored 13.4, which is almost identical to that of the Asus Eee PC S101 and better than the Dell Inspiron Mini 9, which seemed to be held back by a slow Flash SSD.

Perhaps the biggest drawback of the IdeaPad is its three-cell 2600mAh battery pack that results in a short battery life. Under the Battery Eater Pro benchmark, the S10e lasted for just 1 hour 51 minutes in Classic mode, which simulates typical activity, faring a little better at 2 hours 43 minutes in the Reader test that simulates someone reading a document. An optional six-cell 4800mAh unit should nearly double the length of time the IdeaPad can be used away from mains electricity, but will add to the weight as well.

On the plus side, Lenovo has made it easy to access the hard drive and memory, should either need upgrading or replacing. These are located behind a panel on the underside of the chassis, secured with a couple of screws. Once opened, we were able to pop out the hard drive and SO-DIMM module in a matter of seconds.

Connectivity options consist of 802.11b/g Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and 10/100 Ethernet. The Ethernet port shares the right side of the IdeaPad's chassis with a USB port, audio jacks and a single 34mm ExpressCard slot. The right side of the screen hinge features a slot for a security cable. To the left of the chassis is a second USB port, 4-in-1 Flash memory reader slot for SD Cards and Sony Memory sticks, external VGA and the power connector.

Standard applications on the IdeaPad include Norton Internet Security with 90 days of virus definitions, PC-Doctor 5, Windows Live and Lenovo's energy management tool that overrides the Windows control panel settings.

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