Lenovo crashes Eee PC party with IdeaPads

But are they as much fun?

By John E. Dunn, Techworld | Techworld
Published: 06:25 GMT, 05 August 08

Better late than never, Lenovo has launched the IdeaPad S9 and S10 sub-notebooks, the company’s answer to the embarrassing success of the Eee PC from rival Asus.

The S9 features an 8.9 inch screen, integrated 802.11g Wi-Fi, 512MB of memory, 80GB of hard disk space or a 4GB solid state drive (SSD), and is built around Intel's 1.6GHz Intel Atom N270 chip. The more expensive S10 features a 10.2 inch screen, 1GB of RAM and a larger 160GB hard disk. Users can choose from Linux or the supposedly extinct Windows XP.

According to Lenovo, the S9/S10 sub-notebook concept sits somewhere between a fully-fledged laptop and the mobile phone, and will be bought by both consumers and businesses.

"As rapidly as the technology changes, today's consumers are looking for mobile products that feature the best of basic computing functions in an extremely compact and affordable form, and Lenovo designed the IdeaPad netbooks for that purpose," said Lenovo's Liu Jun.

Other features include a webcam, and OneKey rescue, a claimed one-button system for restoring the machine after an operating system problem or malware glitch.

In contrast to the recently-launched Asus Eee PC 1000 series - based around pretty much the same hardware and software combinations - the Lenovo S9 and S10 lack the innovative quick-boot system, ExpressGate, which can put the machine in a usable state inside a claimed 10 seconds. The Eee PC also has more up-to-date 802.11n Wi-Fi.

That suggests that the competition will now be on price, and the Lenovo machines are competitive at £279 (including VAT) for the S9 and £319 for the S10, slightly below the equivalent Asus machines. US pricing will be $399 and $449 for two versions of the S10 - the S9 will not be sold in the US. This is significantly cheaper at today's pound-to-dollar exchange rates.

The new IdeaPads will be available in the UK from October.

What are your views on this subject? Use the form below to post a comment on this article up to 500 characters.

Characters remaining: 500

Related Mobile & Wireless news

Chip makers push Google Android devices

ARM and MIPS aim to put mobile OS everywhere

20 November 2009

Sony struggles to ship ebook readers before christmas

Reader Daily Edition may miss holiday season

Organisations offered build-your-own iPhone app service

BuildAnApp looks to take grunt work away.

Microsoft updates Windows Mobile Marketplace

Enhances security, releases desktop PC client

Related Mobile & Wireless reviews

Lenovo ThinkPad SL510

Sony Ericsson C903 phone review

Sony Ericsson Aino phone

Email this article to a friend or colleague:

PLEASE NOTE: Your name is used only to let the recipient know who sent the story, and in case of transmission error. Both your name and the recipient's name and address will not be used for any other purpose.

Techworld White Papers

Database security: Preventing enterprise data leaks at the source

IDC discusses the growing internal threats to business information, the impact of government regulations on the protection of data, and how enterprises must adopt database security best practices...

Download Whitepaper

Service-oriented security

SOA has become an integral part of enterprise software by providing a framework to efficiently develop software as services that is easily sharable, reusable, and integrated. No where is the need more apparent than in the Identity Management space. Welcome to the age of Service-Oriented Security (SOS).

Download Whitepaper

Data protection prospective vendor checklist

Organisations need a way to map business needs against all these challenges in procuring a technical solution. To help, SANS has developed the following Prospective Vendor Checklist.

Download Whitepaper

Unlock the power of the mainframe

This whitepaper presents the notion of CICS as an integration hub based on a component-based, service-oriented architecture supporting Web services. Highlights will review the challenges and contrasted support for Web services natively in CICS.

Download Whitepaper

Techworld UK - Technology - Business

COLT White Paper

Are all VoIP services the same?

Questions to ask your service provider to ensure you get the VoIP service you need
With careful choice of partner, your business can have all the advantages of VoIP access - reduced costs, flexibility and simplicity - without the drawbacks.
This white paper is your guide to ensure you get right the VoIP service and details the pitfalls which businesses would do well to avoid.

Download white paper
BMC

Ride the express lane in the journey to speed ITIL adoption

Explore the challenges in making the journey to ITIL and the criteria for selecting consulting services
By following ITIL practices, your IT organisation will become more closely integrated with the business. We recommend making the journey to ITIL in a sequence of six incremental steps, the phases of which are driven through execution of a strategic transformational roadmap.

Download white paper

Webcast: IT Financial Management: Cost Optimisation for Efficiency and Agility.
On Demand Webcast
Join this webcast to learn about the techniques and technologies that can help you prove the value of IT to the business by understanding the true cost of today's IT services and those that will be necessary to deliver future success.

Register Today

Site Map

IDG Network

* *