Are you looking at the best? Really?
Is Lenovo S10 the best netbook available? Wired magazine thinks so and they have boldly declared this in the title of their recently published review. They gave the S10 a final score of 9 out of 10!
I personally have yet to use an S10 but from what I have gathered the machine is lacking in some major areas! I personally think the reviewer, Christopher Null, has been huffing glue.
Lets see... firstly, the keyboard is slightly smaller than the 1000H and Wind, there is only 2 USB ports, no Bluetooth and a sub-two-hour battery! The review also states that the 10" screen is a winning factor as a 9" screen has "become the norm on mininotes". First of all, who the hell in the industry is still referring to netbooks as mininotes, and secondly the 1000H and Wind are arguably the two most successful netbooks this year - both of which output on a 10" screen. Also Chris Null makes unfounded claims such as in regards to performance - "compared to the category it's at the top". On what basis is this claim made? Seeing as its got identical hardware to most/nie all other available netbooks some comparative 3DMark scores might be of use?
In the review there is not even a slight mention of the heat issues that many early users have reported. And sure the Lenovo S10 is cheap at USD469 but the reviewer compares it to the Eee PC 1000 which he says "runs about $600". Where is he getting this price? Tiffany's? The 1000H has been dropping steadily in price since launch and can be got for USD477.44 on Amazon.com at the time of this posting.
Unfortunately this is a lazy and uninformed review coming from a highly respected source of many things tech. 9 out of 10 is a highly inflated score for a netbook that is leeching off the market proven initative originally taken by Asus and MSI.
Update: I was recently contacted by Chris Null, the author of the review (via email and a comment to this post), who has revised the pricing on Wired and informed me that he believes the S10 deserve 8 out of 10, rather than 9 and that the final scoring was an overridden editorial decision. Credit goes to Chris for actively getting in touch although I still strongly disagree with the Wired review and stand by my comments above.
He also provided the Lenovo S10 benchmarks as promised which show a very, very slight edge over the competition in terms of Quake FPS scores;
PCMark05: 1369
Quake FPS test: 8.7
These are compared with the following scores also provided by Chris;
MSI Wind
PCMark05: DNF
Quake FPS test: 8.5
Acer Aspire One
PCMark05: DNF
Quake FPS test: 8.6
HP 2133 mini-note
PCMark05: 834
Quake FPS test: 6.0
6 comments:
Performance is based on PC Mark 05 scores and a Quake benchmark test. Most netbooks can't even complete the test at all. Wired doesn't normally publish actual scores but I can share them with you if you email me. I stand corrected on the price issue (and will have Wired correct the review), having accidentally compared to the 1000, not the 1000H which you are right is the more accurate comparo. PS "mininote" or "mininotebook" is a very common synonym for netbook. Google it.
Chris, thanks for your response and I hope you didn't take any personal offense from my post.
However comparing the S10 to benchmarks that other netbooks couldn't complete is hardly a comparison worthy of declaring the S10 at the top of its category in terms of performance.
Mininote is a perhaps lesser used term now than it was a few months ago. 'Mininote' gained popularity with the launch of the HP 2133 mininote, however I think using it to describe the product class is inaccurate - similar to describing Inline Skates as Rollerblades.
I will endeavour to email you today in regards to your PC Mark 05 and Quake Benchmark Test scores.
Check out the following comment from PC World tests:
"More impressive is how this model performs under pressure. The S10 has the same 1.6-GHz Intel Atom CPU and 1GB of RAM as most of the other mini-notebooks we've seen (such as the Acer Aspire One and Asus Eee 1000H 80G XP), yet it beats them all in performance. The IdeaPad S10 earned a score of 41 on the PC World Test Center's WorldBench 6 suite; it's hardly a speed demon, but it's fairly fast when you consider that the nearest competitor, with the same guts, received only a 37."
Sounds like it performs quite well.
Yeah the hardcore performance of the machine isn't too bad at all.
i own an S10. i don't feel it is the best, as it has shorter battery life than others. the keyboard kinda sucks.the cardreader doesn't read CF cards. but it is undeniable it is one of the best looking one, hence my purchase.
Strange... My S10 gets a minimum 2 hours of battery life, and that requires playing videos non-stop on it. Just setup your power usage properly and you're all set. :)
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