Lenovo IdeaPad S12 Laptop Review

The Lenovo S12 is often a transportable, reasonably priced, and multimedia-minded netbook which has a full-size keyboard and good battery daily life. Its 12.1-inch display can make the S12 big enough for many who lament the tininess of the 9- or 10-inch display screen, but it nevertheless retains its netbook standing.

What needs to be the shining gem inside the Lenovo S12's crown is definitely an embedded nVidia Ion chipset--a netbook wunderkind that can have the ability to operate 1080p video and games (see more about that right here) with relative ease in comparison with just about each other netbook. Sadly, this isn't that netbook. Lenovo sent us a $499 teaser that packs only an integrated GMA 950.

Thinking about the S12 comes from the same factory where chunky, no-nonsense ThinkPads are often produced, its design and style is surprisingly smooth and hot. It comes in either shiny black or shiny white (ours was black), which has a delicate circle style. Even advocates of Mac-sexiness should admit to its perception of style.

The S12's sizable keyboard is definitely enjoyable to find out on the netbook, though not exactly groundbreaking on the netbook of this dimensions. For that most aspect, the keyboard was good and simple to get about. But the Ctrl and Fn keys are switched (the Fn crucial is the lower-left-corner important), which created keyboard shortcuts a ache. Soon after all, if I want to contort my hand in unnatural positions just so I can open up a whole new tab on Firefox, I will obtain a Mac.

The trackpad is neither textured nor indented, which adds to your smooth design--and some issues. It was at times difficult to distinguish from the relaxation of the laptop; nonetheless, that took only a few days to overcome. The mouse buttons had been another story--they felt cheap and were currently starting to lose some of their press after just a few days of testing.

The display, a 1280-by-800-resolution LED back-lit glossy panel, is astonishingly simple for the eyes: Following numerous several hours of staring at it, I failed to really feel I was straining a lot of. The hues have been crisp and vivid, with very little glare, even when I was external. The larger resolution was a definite in addition for the netbook and, compared to most netbooks, this machine incorporates a wonderful, "large" screen--like HP's tweener-class Pavilion dv2. The only real drawback is always that the best brightness stage, whose use is virtually a prerequisite for testing, saps battery existence quite speedily.

The S12 touts specs equivalent to other netbooks: a few USB two.0 ports, an ethernet port, a 4-in-1 card reader, a 1.3-megapixel Webcam, 802.eleven b/g Wi-Fi, an ExpressCard slot, and both a three- or six-cell battery. The six-cell battery on our unit ran 7 hours, 41 minutes within our lab tests--great but even now short with the record-holding Toshiba Mini NB205-310. That netbook's battery lasts for almost ten hours! As for overall performance, it shouldn't arrive as much of the surprise that it scores proper inside the assortment of other netbooks, earning a 38 in Computer WorldBench six tests (slightly earlier mentioned common).

Which is because the S12 runs Windows XP Home with a one.6GHz Z270 Atom CPU and 1GB of memory. The hard drive arrives in 160, 250, or 320GB capacities. (Our test unit arrived with 160GB).

The S12 includes a handful of nifty novelty capabilities, that are pretty fascinating for regarding the 1st five minutes--or in the event you strategy to again up your computer every 5 minutes. Very first is the "one-step back-up key," which can be positioned above the keyboard and permits the person to back again up critical files. Also included is a "quick-start crucial," which lets the consumer get on the web and check e-mail, surf the world wide web, and examine photographs devoid of starting up up the whole operating method. While this sort of a essential is tantalizing in concept, I failed to locate it to get considerably faster than simply starting up the OS.

The S12 also features a "face-recognition" attribute, which uses the Webcam to safeguard person logins--with the user's experience. This characteristic worked a whole lot greater than I anticipated it would; following a short set-up, the camera was ready to understand my encounter about five seconds after I sat down to the computer, and logged me in. This characteristic can be utilized as a substitute of a password for your typical XP login display screen, that's pretty handy--if you don't have fingers. Considering that the 5 seconds it took to scan my deal with could also have already been utilized in typing my password, this feature is really only helpful in the event you desire to experience like Tom Cruise in Mission: Difficult.

If you are looking for a netbook with respectable battery daily life, a bigger display, as well as the capability to understand your encounter, then the Lenovo S12 is really a sound alternative. It packs a punch within a little netbook package deal. With its big hard disk, better-than-average battery lifestyle, and fashionable exterior, it is great for your standard netbook user around the go. It really is less expensive and lasts extended than HP's Pavilion dv2--another 12-incher. Even so, this S12 can be a taste of items to arrive. Should you wait just a little longer, an Ion-powered product with the nVidia GPU on board will arrive out, marketing for $50 more. That is wherever the sensible money's at.