Lenovo S10-3 Review
Pros:
Terrific design, Great keyboard (98% full size), Excellent bundled software
Cons:
Small Touchpad
Bottom Line:
The Lenovo S10-3 is a great improvement over the S10-2 in regards to both the design and the functionality of the keyboard. The built in Quick Start function and terrific Veriface software strike high notes for it's built in software. Sadly, the key area the S10-3 falls short in is the touchpad. Because the touchpad and buttons are part of one single combined unit the usable surface area of the touchpad is even smaller than you expect (see the video above to get a better idea of what I'm saying). If you use the netbook with a mouse this isn't an issue, but I believe most users probably don't use mice with their netbooks. I believe the small touchpad holds the S10-3 back from greatness in the mid range netbook market priced at $350
Quick Product Specs:
Intel Atom N450 1.66 GHz Processor, 1 GB RAM, 250 GB Hard Drive, Windows 7 Starter (see full specs)
Full Review:
Design:
The netbook is only 1 inch thick, but near the back of the unit the 6 cell battery adds a little more height to the unit (nothing more than a typical battery bulge though). The top of the unit displays an eye pleasing checkerboard design that is fingerprint proof. Inside the netbook we see a brushed style that adds to the overall pleasing aesthetics of the unit. The island style keyboard looks lovely and I'll get to how great it is in a later part of the review, but here we get our first look at my major complaint about the netbook - it's touchpad.
Usability:
The Lenovo S10-3 has one of the best netbook keyboards I've laid my hands on. Lenovo designed a new island style chiclet keyboard that has raised edges on the sides of the keys to make it easier to prevent fingers from touching incorrect keys while typing. This keyboard is massive on a 10 inch netbook coming in at 98% full size. It just looks and feels incredible, it's too bad that this big keyboard comes at a price - small touchpad. The usable space on the touchpad is 2.75 inches wide by 1 inch high. Clearly the width isn't an issue, but in this case the height is. I didn't measure based on the physical size of the touchpad instead I measured based on where the touchpad stops responding to my finger (which is right where the dots are on the touchpad). So that's why we're stuck with this small touchpad. I truly wish the touchpad were just .3 inches taller even (1.5 inches is what the Sony Vaio W has), but sadly it isn't. If you use this netbook with a mouse everything is amazing because then you don't have to worry about the touchpad but you still get a huge wonderful keyboard.
The netbook does feature the new Splashtop 2.0 which allows you to customize the experience you receive when using the Quick Start feature. Quick Start allows you to boot to a separate OS in under 10 seconds to access email, skype, pandora, CNN and other various applications that you can change out. Back again is Lenovo's Veriface software which allows you to login to your computer with your face.
Battery Life:
The Lenovo S10-3 has a 6 cell battery that provides the netbook an average battery life of 7 hours which I am inclined to agree with based on light browsing / blogging. At this price I'd like to see a battery life that comes into the double digits like so many models offered by ASUS (i.e. 1005PE), but it's still a good number.
Overall Performance:
Overall I think the Lenovo S10-3 does a few things wonderfully for $350
Used Options:
 |
US $10.99
Tagged: Lenovo S10-3
Great review Chris. I received my S10-3 a little under a week ago and I love it. The keyboard is amazing and so is everything else………..except the touchpad.
The touchpad has gotten better as I’ve used it and tweaked some of the settings but it really should be bigger. I’ve gotten used to it and I don’t regret my purchase at all! Running Windows 7 with Aero. 2GB RAM upgrade on the way.
[...] with the keyboard on the Samsung N150 and about the only keyboard I believe tops it is the Lenovo S10-3 keyboard (the combination of island style and raised edges make it the best in my book), but that [...]
[...] believe the future for keyboard design is in island style keys with slightly raised edges (i.e. Lenovo S10-3). With that said the keyboard is still completely usable and it makes up for an area the Lenovo [...]
Hello, works right click “drag & drop” ? Thanks
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