Taiwan-based manufacturer, Wintek is all set to supply touch panel for the long-rumored and the shipment is rumored to begin in the third quarter of this year. Also, Quanta will be making these netbooks.
Quanta is a famous Taiwan notebook manufacture which has also made several Windows Mobile phones for the O2 Asia in the past. Also, it is interesting to know the confirmation of the Apple netbook finally coming.
[via digitimes]
OCZ Technology has made its entry into the over-saturated netbook market by introducing OCZ Neutrino. After nine weeks this device will be made available in the US and will come in two variations. The first model is “DIY” (do it yourself) model and it will allow the consumer to select the RAM and HDD.
Second variation is the one where you will have to bear with the standard specifications, which are not bad at all. Here are the standard specs:
However the 4-cell battery has capacity of just 2200mAh, which is not going to give you great battery life at all. I figure, this would give you a maximum of 2 hours of battery life. Also, I was expecting a better design from OCZ. That said, it is still a nice thing to see netbooks coming pre-configured with Ubuntu OS.
[via engadget]
Averatec is planning to make an entry into the netbook market in the near future. It is a well known fact that Averatec is quite popular for its ultra portables. The CEO of Averatec agrees as much as we do
“The netbook and ultra-portable lines are quite blurred and we want to bridge that gap.”
Averatec’s first netbook will be launched in the latter part of this year.
via twice via netbookboards
A-Data Technology lauched a massive 512GB SSD at CeBIT 2009. The company claims that it is the highest capacity SSD in the whole industry. It has the read rate of 230MB/s and write speed of 160MB/s. It can be used in laptops, netbooks and PCs.
[via digitimes]
Just benchmarked the 1002HA that I received yesterday. Here are the results. I’ve compared it to its more expensive sibling: EEE S101 (review), which uses 16GB SSD instead of HDD.
First, CrystalDiskMark benchmark on the 1002HA:
Results of Crystaldiskmark on S101. S101’s SSD completely nails the HDD of 1002HA
Now, here are the results of Crystalmark on 1002HA:
..and of S101’s. As you can see, the scores are nearly identical except in the HDD department.
Stay tuned for the full review which will be coming in few days as I am using the machine heavily, which will let me to publish the review as-soon-as possible
Update – The reviews are up. Review of ASUS EEE 1002HA
At CeBIT 2009, ASRock have entered into the nettop segment by launching S330, a nettop using the dual-core Atom 330 processor. For storage, it comes with 160GB HDD. It comes with a total of 6 USB ports which should be enough for your USB peripherals. ASRock have also included their popular Instant Boot to make the overall package even more attractive. No information is given on the RAM although the Asrock has put 2xDIMM slots which lets the user expand the RAM upto 4GB.
[Asrock]
A lot of us have switched to EEEbuntu on our EEE PCs. If you are like me, who likes to keep his netbook clutter free, you will want to set up RAMdisk. And if you thought that setting up RAMdisk in Windows XP was easy (see this article), then in EEEbuntu, it is even easier.
Usual warning about RAMdisk: you will loose all the data upon restart. That is why, it is only recommended for web browsers
Samsung NP-Q1EX, first spotted at CES in January is finally going to hit the US shores very soon. Unlike its older sibling, Q1U, it does not have a keyboard, which was quite useful for typing short URLs quickly and for basic office editing on-the-go. Although by shedding the keyboard, the Samsung was able to further shrink its size and thus making it more ‘portable’.
Specifications:
Samsung claims that it will have 4.5-hours of battery life. Right now, it is too early to comment on that. Also, its not-so-recession-friendly price tag of $775 is surely going to turn-off a lot of customers from buying it.
Looks like it was not completely true that the ASUS would completely rule out the 8.9-inch netbooks despite what the recent reports have been indicating so far. At CeBIT 2009, Shih said that the customers these days prefer the 10.2-inch models over the smaller models. This clearly indicates that most of the customers are looking for bigger screens and better keyboards.
Although, he made it completely care that the company is no longer going to concentrate on 7-inch EEE PC. Personally, I still believe that by using 7-inch screens in the netbooks, they can unveil even tinier EEEs (if they do not cover the sides with the speakers).
[via liliputing]
Lenovo made its entry into the netbook business last year by launching two netbooks, namely Ideapad S10 and S9. Lenovo did not join the netbook arena in its initial stages. Instead, it watched the whole game and learnt from the mistakes of other manufactures. So, are we impressed by the Lenovo Ideapad? Read on to find out!
Let’s first take a quick glance its specifications:
Hardware and Design
The Lenovo S10 is a very well designed netbook. The company Lenovo is often associated with high built quality when it comes to the laptops and the Ideapad S10 is no different. Immediately, when you touch, you feel quality.
On the right side, you will find the Kensington lock, USB 2.0 port, earphone jack, microphone jack and express card slot.
On the left side, you will find the power port, VGA port, USB 2.0 port and multi-card reader.
Display
The Lenovo Ideapad S10 has a 10.2-inch matt display. It has the usual netbook resolution of 1024 x 600. Having said that, we expected more from Lenovo as it entered late into the netbook market. Do not get us wrong, the resolution is perfect for the 10.2-inch and colors looks nice and vivid. Had it come with something like 1280 x 800, it would have it an obvious edge over the other netbooks for sure.
Keyboard
I always stress on keyboard a lot when doing netbook reviews. This is because people buy these 10.2-inch netbooks mainly because it provides the manufactures to fit in bigger keyboard. So, how is the quality of the Lenovo keyboard compared to the keyboards of Acer aspire one, ASUS EEE 1000H and S101? Just for the sake of comparison, I was able to type at 100+wpm on all the 10.2-inch netbooks. On S10, I achieved 80wpm. This does not mean that the quality of the keyboard is any less than found in other netbooks.
Trackpad
The trackpad is small when compared to other 10.2-inch netbooks. The EEE S101 and EEE 1000H or 904HA feature a much bigger trackpad. That said, we did not face any problems in using the trackpad. It is quite responsive. However, if you do something like graphic designing on your netbook, you will find using the small trackpad a little cumbersome.
Memory
The Ideadpad S10 comes with a respectable 160GB HDD and 1GB of RAM
Upgradability
The Lenovo has made upgrading the HDD as-well-as RAM quite easy for the end user. You do not have to seek for any experts help or visit service center just to change RAM or HDD.
I posted a “how-to” on how to change the HDD and RAM of the S10. I’ve just pasted the contents of that post here:
Here are the instructions:
1. Flip the unit over such that it rests on its front cover. You will see two screws that provide the access to the HDD and RAM.
2. Unscrew the two screws. You will need Jeweler’s scewdriver to unscew them. Once done that, carefully remove the back panel starting from one side.
3. Here you will find access to the HDD (left side) and RAM (right side). Just a little pull towards the left will take the HDD out. You can swap it with a SSD or HDD of your choice. To take the RAM out, gently push the holders in opposite direction to which they are pointing to and then pull the RAM out carefully. Put in the RAM of your choice. Upto 2GB can be used.
Here is the HDD used in the Lenovo S10.
4. After upgrading, make sure to go to the BIOS and check if the S10 has recognized your RAM properly or not. You can enter BIOS by pressing the F2 key of your keyboard immediately upon bootup.
Battery Life
The Lenovo S10 comes with a 3-cell Li-ion battery. Axiomatically, we did not expect it to break any records in terms of battery life. We were able to squeeze 1 hour 45 minutes, which is fine for its capacity. However, if you turn off the wireless, you may be able to cross the 2 hour mark.
Speakers
The speakers are located on the front of the device. They produce adequate amount of sound. They are perfect for skype and for other audio conversations. Although, like other laptop/netbook speakers, they lack bass.
Lenovo One Key Recovery
Most of the netbook manufactures do not give a lot of heed to the software side of the netbook. Unlike other netbook manufactures, the Lenovo Ideadpad S10 comes with Lenovo One Key Recovery software. To explain its functionality, let me give you an example:
Say you are away from home and some random virus messes up the OS. Since, you are not at home, you do not have access to the external DVD drive and you cannot reinstall the OS. Note that this is the most common case with most of the netbook manufactures. They bundle a recovery DVD with the netbooks. With Lenovo S10, you do not need a DVD drive to restore the OS. When the device is off, just press the One Key Recovery button and the system will ask you, if you would like to make back up or to restore the OS. You can restore it to factory image or to some user defined image.
Crystal Disk Mark benchmark result
Some Size Comparisons
Thickness comparison of EEE S101 and Ideapad S10
EEE 701, S10 and S101
Final Thoughts
The Lenovo Ideapad S10 is a perfect mobile companion of those who want top-notch netbook from a reputed notebook manufacture. The processor is fine for the normal tasks that one does on-the-go. The battery life is little low, but if you can manage with that, you have a winner in your hands.
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