Lenovo IdeaPad S10 Netbook

  • Intel Atom 1.6 Ghz (ala Pentium M 1.2 Ghz in performance), 512 MB of RAM, 80 GB SATA HDD, GMA 950, 1.3 mp webcam, 3 cell battery and Windows XP Home.
  • 9.8 x 7.2 x 1.08 inches; 2.4 lbs; $429 MSRP.
  • Hands-on Video from Laptopmag on Youtube.

When the netbook market started getting more of a traction last year due to the release of the Asus EEE PC — I proclaimed aloud into an empty room on how I’ll never buy a wannabe laptop with zero functionality, battery life, and processing power. Soon after the declaration, I closed the Firefox tab and went back to my intensive game of Minesweeper.

A little over a year later, while on a different Firefox tab browsing through Fatwallet, I saw a ridiculously low-priced Lenovo IdeaPad S10 ($362 after coupon and Live.com cashback), whipped out my credit card and hit the submit button on the ordering page before I even knew what happened.

Hmm… f*ck.

But truthfully the impulsive purchase wasn’t as impulsive as it reads, because I knew there was quite a time frame involved before the Lenovo S10 was available to ship, giving me some time to cancel the order (and now it seems that shipping time frame will be even longer, maybe all the way into November).

After some consideration of other netbooks in similar configurations — such as the Asus EEE PC 1000H; the MSI Wind; the nicely priced Acer Aspire One ($400 for 6 cell on Amazon); and the recently released Dell Mini 9 — I decided to keep my order of the Lenovo IdeaPad S10, even with Lenovo’s entire sketchy pre-ordering ordeal (if you’ve also ordered an IdeaPad S10, you’ll know what I’m talking about).

The decision process was as follow:

  1. Not much of a laptop person (in fact, never owned one), but got sick of bumming laptops off friends and family when I needed the mobility.
  2. With netbooks pricing of around $350 to $550, you’re coming close to various categories of budget laptops, which are usually 15″ machines weighting at about 6.5+ pounds.  Not my cup of tea.
  3. A full-feature portable laptop (that’s under 3 or 4 pounds) will cost more than $1,500… and I’m just too much of a cheap ass to spend that much.
  4. Recent netbooks are equipped with bigger hard drives and Windows XP, giving you the option to run other applications so you can do more than just surf and type.

Lenovo IdeaPad S10 Shipping

In either case, the Lenovo isn’t shipping until supposedly September 23rd (realistically a much later date), so I’ll have many more nights to sleep on the purchase.  But I think I’ll end up keeping the order — after all, blogging in a Starbucks or Panera Bread has always been my childhood dream.

Update: Just for those people stumbling in via search engine looking for updates, Lenovo has updated the ship date to 10/21/2008. If you’ve ordered a white one within hours when it was available on Lenovo’s site, you should have yours shipped recently on 9/23/08. Supposedly the white ones are shipping first. Meh!