Customer Reviews

Lenovo Ideapad S10-1311UW 10.2-Inch White Netbook

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I go this version of the S10 and I've been using it heavily around the house and on the train ride to and from work. In addition to the S10 I purchased a 9 cell battery to replace the stock battery, and a 2GB RAM stick to bump up the RAM from 1GB to two.

First the display. It is a 10" netbook and the resolution is 1024x600. If you're doing some heavy duty graphics then this isn't the right tool. But for web browsing and email it works great.

The keyboard is just a little bit tight and I find myself hitting the very edge of the keys when typing. But with a little adjustment I can get used to the keyboard and the layout. The tab and caps lock key are easy to mix up, and the fn key + home combination is a bit awkward. But for a 10" keyboard you can't complain. And it is way better than the other netbook keyboards I've tried.

The hard drive is 160GB SATA so there is tons of room to install Office 2007 and other applications you may want to use. When the price of SSD storage comes down I'll probably snap in a SSD in place of the mechanical hard drive, but for now the drive works great and I have plenty of room for storing pictures and music.

The wireless works great and I was able to connect to my wireless router using WPA2 + PSK. I was able to clock in at 1.04MB/sec downloading from the internet - just as fast as my desktop PC. Clearly the wireless isn't the bottleneck.

Using the webcam for Skype works find. The resolution is a little low but it works great for a built-in webcam. The microphone didn't work so well but I added a USB Skype phone for better overall voice with Skype any way. (I'd recommend a USB Skype phone or headset if you want to do voice-only calls, it really makes a world of difference.)

The S10 has only 2 USB ports so if you have a bunch of USB devices I'd recommend a small travel hub. I only have a mouse and CD / DVD drive so 2 ports are just fine, but to add a USB thumb drive would take a hub.
The only slight negative I found is the SDCard reader doesn't let you push the card all the way in - it kind of sits half-way in and is somewhat exposed. I had wanted to use the SDCard for a backup device for my OS upgrade adventures (see below) but that didn't work because the SDCard hangs out too far to leave it in during normal operation. On the plus side it did work great for transferring my pictures without needing a USB port.

The 9-cell battery hangs off the back of the S10 pretty far, creating a pretty big bump on the back. It kind of hangs down, creating a mini laptop stand that raises and tilts the S10 forward about ¾ inches. The only complaint I have with the battery is it takes almost forever to charge!! I'm not sure if it's the battery or not, but even the 3 cell battery that comes with the s10 has a glacial charging pace. Still, 7 - 8 hours on the battery makes up for it, and now I have a spare (the old 3 cell) to pop in as a backup.

FWIW, I blew away all the OEM software & partitions and put Windows 7 (RC 1 build 7100) on the S10. All the hardware drivers were downloaded and work great with no installation on my part. The web cam was detected and there was an update for the intel chipset that I got after I did the windows update. But for a beta (or Release Candidate) OS it was amazingly painless. Windows 7 boots and operates just as fast as Windows XP. After putting in the 2GB stick I'm thrilled with the performance.

Overall the S10 packs everything I need into a 10" netbook. Replacing the 1GB RAM stick with a 2GB stick is the only major enhancement this little netbook could use.

I bought this for my husband who travels all over the country on business. Most laptops take up a lot of space, but this is tiny. It fits easily in his briefcase, his suitcase, or wherever... it could almost fit in the glove compartment of his compact car. It's great for email, internet, and any reports, spreadsheets, or presentations he might have to do. It even has a built-in webcam for video conferencing. The only drawback is it doesn't have a CD/DVD drive. This is a great machine, and we are very happy.

Okay, so this is my first review ever. I will try to give the pros and cons.
Pros:
Small
Reliable
Good Screen
Good Packaging
Semi-quiet (without the fan, one can barely hear the hard drive, unless specifically listening for it. However,
the fan can get a tad loud when the laptop is under load, from viewing hulu for example, but not ridiculous)
Average Pricing (Could be better) - bought it for $320 with free shipping
Comes with cool quick-boot operating system before, or on top of, Windows XP, so one does not have to load Windows XP just to go online, for example.
Easy to upgrade (upgraded hard drive to 500GB and RAM to 2GB
Even though Amazon categorizes this model as S10-1311UW, the one I received both times was the 4231 model, which is the newest model as of writing this review

Cons:
Laptop can get very hot
The first laptop I got overheated and stopped working reliably (Amazon was great, though, and sent me a replacement)
The keyboard is small (one must expect this, however, as it is a small netbook)
Right shift key is out of place from normal keyboard position (this is common with other netbooks, however)
Those are as many cons as I can think of as of now.

Overall I love this laptop and would recommend it to anyone. Though I believe it gets a little too hot, it could just be me. I bought this over the dell mini 9 and acer netbook because of the lenovo namebrand and look.

A year ago I purchased a Compaq laptop for home use, thinking that it would also be portable if need be. Well, laptops can be carried around but they are also a bit heavy. For my birthday this year, after researching netbooks, I purchased a Lenovo Ideapad S10 from Amazon along with a neoprene carry case (with handles) and 2gb memory. With the carry case the netbook is about the same size and weight as a small purse! I don't play games or download lots of photos or videos, so this netbook with an upgrade of memory is perfect for my needs. After doing additional research, I've acquired an SSD to replace the hard drive and a SanDisk 8gb memory card for back up, etc. Eventually I'll load my Microsoft Home & Student 2007 Suite so that the netbook will have the same data and word processing capabilities as my laptop. The Lenovo hooked up right away with Sprint broadband, too. So far, so good -- very pleased with my purchase and with Amazon's great service!

I bought this Lenovo S10 laptop from Amazon for my wife about 6 months ago. We did not have it long enough to evaluate the laptop since the unit did not take charge and we could not use it for the last three months. Technical and service support from Lenovo is the worst I ever experienced with any major electronics company in my life. As of today, 3 months after we notified Lenovo of the issue, it is not fixed yet.
We sent the laptop back to Lenovo two times, each time we received the unit back, the problem was not fixed. I finally told them that they need to send me the new power adaptor since the unit did not receive any power from the malfunction power adaptor. That was a month and a half ago. They said they would send me the replacement power adaptor.
The first time, they sent me a wrong power adaptor.
I called and yelled and even cursed at them because I was dealing with stupid people that work in that Technical Service group. Every time I called to asked if they sent the power adaptor, each time they said they would send it the next day. My case (WN116340) is still open as of today (10/7/2009).
I WILL NEVER BUY ANOTHER PRODUCT FROM LENOVO AGAIN. Their Technical and Service Center is worthless.
Paul Dang

I spent a great deal of time looking for a netbook that would support the OS of my choice with minimal work for me - no messing with kexts and DellEFI or any of that. I also wanted as much of the original hardware to work under OS X as possible without having to install alternatives (i.e. wifi card). The S10 is ideal for modifying.

My review will discuss features both dependent and independent of the operating system.

The construction is high-quality compared to some netbooks I've used. The plastic doesn't creak or bend when you open the lid or pick it up. It only weighs 3 lbs., but it feels nicely solid in your hand. I've found the stock hard drive and RAM to be more than adequate, but if I wanted to upgrade, lenovo made the process easy, unlike other manufacturers who make you dig for it. The Atom processor has been described as "pokey," but I've noticed no sluggishness under OS X. With integrated graphics, streaming video like YouTube and Hulu isn't perfect, but it's on par with my 1.5 GHz G4 with 1.25 GB RAM: a little choppy, but watchable. The same could be said for any Atom netbook, and I imagine more RAM would help.

As with all netbooks, the design includes compromises to keep the form factor small and price low:

1) The S10's keyboard uses the standard layout - punctuation marks are all pretty much where you expect them to be - but the right-hand shift key is half-size to make room for the up-arrow, which I end up hitting a lot. With more practice, this wouldn't be an issue, and it's my only real complaint about the key layout. If it would really bug you, get the S10-2, which has a full-sized right-hand shift key.

2) Amazon ships this model with a 3-cell battery, and even on lowest brightness with wifi off, just typing, I haven't been able to squeeze more than 2:45 out of it. Again, the S10-2 might be a better option because it ships with a 6-cell battery (5.5 hours, easily). Either way, if you have a 6-cell battery, it will stick out a bit and prop the computer up at a slight angle.

3) This S10 only comes with two USB ports. For me, that's been plenty, but your mileage may vary. The S10-2 comes with three USB ports, but without the ExpressCard slot.

4) Under Snow Leopard, every component works except Ethernet and internal microphone. If you need it, the Apple USB-to-Ethernet adapter works great. I haven't needed a microphone yet, but if you Skype or iChat w/video, I imagine any USB mic that works with 10.6 will be fine. I prefer the S10 over the S10-2 here because the webcam ONLY works with iChat on the S10-2, not on Skype or Photobooth. The S10-2 also doesn't sleep, which gets VERY irritating after awhile. The S10 has no problems with sleep as long as you change a setting in System Prefs.

Overall, I'm happy with the S10. It has compromises, but they don't bother me, especially for the price. I'll gladly hang on to this until Apple releases something comparable in size.

The Ideapad is extremely delightful and compact to travel through airports or to use while commuting. Lenovo tech support is less than stellar; had I known it was out-sourced outside of the US, I would have purchased another brand. It's been more than 45 days, and I have not been able to reach Levono to enable the 12 month warranty!!! Have not encountered any problems in terms of use.

I bought the Lenovo Ideapad because my son who has one is very happy with it so I bought it as a gift for another daughter in law. Simply put, she was ecstatic when she got it. All I got was 'brownie points' but I'm glad she likes it.

I encourage to buy this item. It's good. But, I have to see what happen with scan on it.
Thanks
Vladimr