Get Big Benefits from a Tiny Netbook
The Lenovo S10e offers high performance and long battery life in a small footprint.
Netbooks are the new big thing these days because of their tiny size and even smaller price tag. Lenovo has a solid contender with the S10e. This netbook offers decent horsepower, a small footprint and has great battery life. It may not be for everyone, but the S10e is a solid computer that is worth considering.
End-User Advantages
The Lenovo S10e's design is simple yet sophisticated. Weighing 3 pounds, it's not the lightest netbook on the market, but there's less than a 1-pound difference among most of the netbooks available today. The six-cell battery stands out a bit in the back of the netbook, but I believe Lenovo designed it this way to give it an angled look.
The S10e comes with an Intel Atom 1.6 gigahertz CPU, which provides a great balance between performance and battery life. The 10.1-inch LED screen has a nonstandard resolution of 1024x576. Most programs should work with this unusual resolution, but some may not.
The Lenovo S10e comes with Windows XP Home installed on it.
I wiped that out and installed Windows Vista 64-bit, Windows 7 64-bit and Ubuntu 9.04 Desktop 64-bit. The netbook ran wonderfully on all three operating systems. Ubuntu and Windows 7 make a
decent bump in system performance. Lenovo does not offer a Linux-based operating system for the S10e, but I hope they do in the future. This could lower the price even more.
Why It Works for IT
In the IT environment, the S10e provides an amazing number of advantages. First, the size of the unit is great for technicians, who usually carry a large notebook and a bag full of tools, possibly some spare parts and a few other items – a hefty weight to lug around. Having a 3-pound netbook with a five-hour battery life is a big win.
There is never a need to repair the netbooks. The hardware support warranty is simple: If one breaks, just send it to Lenovo and they will send you a brand new one (just make sure you keep your hard drive so you don't lose your data). And the S10e is affordable and sturdy enough to serve as a loaner for users who are having their main computer repaired.
Disadvantages
The S10e has a few disadvantages. The small screen size might be a problem for someone who has difficulty reading small type, and the small keyboard might be inconvenient for users with large hands.
The S10e's number-one bottleneck for performance is the 160-gigabyte hard drive. The 5400 RPM SATA drive is great for battery life but really puts a dent in performance. If performance is an issue, however, the drive is easily replaced.
The S10e also does not support the latest 802.11n wireless standard. With many schools converting to wireless infrastructures, having the fastest wireless access available should be a priority. The netbook also comes with only 1GB of memory. No computer should be running with less than 2GB of memory, so you would be wise to consider an upgrade.
