It’s Windows 7 launch day… and that means many of those pretty little netbooks and notebooks I told you about the other day that come preloaded with Windows 7 are now shipping. I placed an order for an Acer Aspire Timeline AS181T to review and it should ship in a few days. But I’ve already seen evidence that 10 inch netbooks from Asus, HP, Sony, and other PC makers have already shipped.

In related news, Lenovo has updated the IdeaPad S12 order page to reflect the fact that the $429 laptop is now available with a choice of Windows XP or Windows 7 Home Premium. What’s interesting is that there doesn’t appear to be a Windows 7 option for the Lenovo IdeaPad S10-2 at Lenovo.com. But you can order the company’s 10.1 inch laptop with Windows 7 Starter Edition from Amazon for $349.99. The same laptop is available from Lenovo.com for $299 and up.

The Lenovo IdeaPad S10-2 is Lenovo’s second foray into the netbook space. You could probably figure that out from the name alone. While the IdeaPad S10 had some interesting features that you won’t find on every netbook, including an ExpressCard, the IdeaPad S10-2 is pretty much standard netbook fare with the usual netbook specs. On the bright side, it does have pretty decent battery life and some interesting software.

But the computer also suffers from a small, cramped keyboard and touchpad.

The unit featured in this review has a 10.1 inch, 1024 x 600 pixel display, a 1.6GHz Intel Atom N270 CPU, 1GB of RAM, and a 160GB hard drive. It supports 802.11b/g WiFi. The laptop can also be configured with a 1.66GHz Atom N280 processor and Bluetooth.

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Lenovo recently unveiled a new version of the IdeaPad S10-2 netbook with a 10.2 inch, 1280 x 720 pixel HD display, and Sascha from Netbook News got a chance to check it out in person at IFA in Berlin. No real surprises to report. The netbook is pretty much identical to the lower resolution in most respects, but you can fit a heck of a lot more on the screen thanks to the extra pixels.

Sascha also spotted a number of lids that Lenovo laid out next to the netbooks on display, indicating that the company might bring out designer editions of the S10-2 soon, similar to the HP Mini 1000 Vivienne Tam Edition that released last year. One difference is that Lenovo seems to be at least thinking about carrying the design elements to the keyboard instead of just decorating the lid and chassis. One of the netbooks Sascha spotted had artwork splashed over the keys as well.

You can check out a video of the designer lids and IdeaPad S10-2 with an HD display after the break.

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I’m about to pack up the Samsung Go netbook which I recently reviewed. But before it goes, I couldn’t help but take the opportunity to photograph all 7 mini-laptops I’ve had sitting on my desk for the last few days. If you’ve been reading the site, you’ve already seen most of these little guys. But you probably haven’t ever seen them all in one place before.

In the photo above, you can see the following computers, clockwise from the top left: Lenovo IdeaPad S12, Acer Aspire 1410, Asus Eee PC 1101HA, Dell Inspiron Mini 10v, Asus Eee PC 1000H, Samsung Go, Lenovo IdeaPad S10-2.

After the break you can see a slideshow showing some of these netbooks together. By request, a few of the photos show the 11.6 inch models (the Aspire 1410 and Eee PC 1101HA) next to a couple of the smaller 10 inch netbooks so you can get an idea of the size difference. In my opinion, it’s not that big, and if you’re going to give me a 1366 x 768 pixel display I’d rather have it on an 11.6 inch screen than a 10.1 inch display. But since all of the 10 inch netbooks featured here have 1024 x 600 pixel or lower resolution screens, the point is kind of moot.

I haven’t shown every combination of each netbook next to the other, because that would have taken all day. But these photos should give you an overview of how these 7 models stack up against one another in terms of size and design. You can view higher resolution versions of the images either by hitting the full screen button in the slideshow or by visiting the photo album in the Liliputing Forum.

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cyberport

A few months back there was a rumor going around that the Lenovo Ideapad S10-2 would eventually be available with a higher resolution 1280 x 720 pixel display. And it looks like eventually means today, because the netbook is available from a number of retailers in Germany with the high resolution display for about 349 Euros (about $499 US).

The Lenovo IdeaPad S10-2 M21BCGE has a 1.66GHz Intel Atom N280 CPU, a 10.1 inch display, 1GB of RAM, a 160G hard drive, and a 6 cell battery as well as a 1.3MP webcam, 3 USB ports, 802.11b/g WiFi, Bluetooth, and a 4-in-1 card reader.

While the netbook has the same Intel 945GSE chipset as most Intel Atom powered netbooks, some stores report that it uses Intel’s 4500M graphics media accelerator, while other retailers say it has the same Intel GMA 950 graphics found in most netbooks.

While the new model isn’t available in the United States  yet, I did notice today that Lenovo is offering US customers a few more configuration options for the Ideapad S10-2. You can now customize your own netbook with a base price of $330.

For a bit of extra cash you can upgrade the processor from an Atom N270 to an N280 chip, choose to add Bluetooth, and opt for a 6 cell battery instead of the standard 3 cell version. Adding all the bells and whistles brings the price of a grey, white, or black model to $401.25. If you want pink, you’ll have to pay $15 more.

What’s interesting is that you can get a white model with the exact same specs for $399 if you order a pre-configured unit.

Update: It looks like the HD version of the S10-2 is headed to Japan as well.

via NetbookNews.de

As I mentioned the other day, I have a whole lot of mini-laptops sitting on my desk at the moment. So I decided that today would be as good a time as any to do a little keyboard face-off.

I’d already kind of decided that of the netbooks I’m using this week the Samsung Go (shown in the bottom of the picture) has the keyboard that feels the best. I like the chiclet-style layout, the keys are comfortable and responsive, and their laid out quite nicely with a large right-side shift key and arrow keys below it. I’d also decided that the Gigabyte TouchNote T1028X (pictured at the top) had the worst keyboard, thanks to its extra-thin punctuation keys for the period, comma, and question mark.

But you know what? The typing test results told a completely different story.

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Yeah, I’ve got a backlog of netbooks to review. The next week or two should be fun. I’d like to thank Samsung, Gigabyte, and Lenovo for sending me these models to review. The little guy in the back of the second row is my Asus Eee PC 1000H. That’s right, I’ve actually managed to hang onto the same netbook for nearly a year. It’s a dinosaur, but it still gets the job done.

I decided to give the facial recognition software on the Lenovo Ideapad S12 a try this afternoon, and it seems to work quite nicely. I was able to scan my face using the Windows utility by walking through the setup utility. Once it had my face scanned, I logged out of my computer and was able to login just by glancing at the webcam. In fact, the computer recognizes my face faster than I can reach for the keyboard to type in my user password.

I haven’t had a chance to see if other people can fool the computer into thinking they’re me by staring it down. But I did try logging in while seated in several different positions and each attempt worked. When I held up images of other people’s faces the computer tried to scan their faces, but didn’t log in to Windows. I happened to have a Seinfeld DVD set nearby and apparently Jerry, George, Elaine, and Kramer look different enough from me that the computer wasn’t fooled.

Lenovo includes the same software on the IdeaPad S10 and Ideapad S10-2.

You can check out a video of the facial recognition software in action after the break.

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Bottom to top: IdeaPad S12, IdeaPad S10-2, Eee PC T91

The Eee PC T91 isn’t just the first touchscreen netbook from Asus. It’s also the company’s smallest netbook to date. While it sports an 8.9 inch, 1024 x 600 pixel touchscreen display, the T91 is actually a little smaller than the first generation Eee PC 701, measuring just 8.9″ x 6.5″ x 1.1″ and weighing just about 2 pounds.

I don’t happen to have an Eee PC 701 lying around, but I do have a handful of other netbooks and mini-laptops. So I pulled out two 10 inch netbooks: my trusty Eee PC 1000H and a Lenovo IdeaPad S10-2. I also snapped a few photos of the T91 with the Lenovo IdeaPad S12, which has a 12 inch screen. These images serve both to show just how small the T91 is and how large the S12 is compared to a typical netbook.

You can find the images after the break. Click on any thumbnail to see a larger version.

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The two latest members of the Lenovo IdeaPad S-series have a few things in common. They both have 1.6GHz Intel Atom N270 processors, integrated GMA950 graphics, 1GB of RAM, 160GB hard drives, Windows XP, and a version of the Splashtop quick-start software. But there’s one big difference between the two laptops… and I do mean big. While the S10-2 sports a typical netbook-style 10 inch, 1024 x 600 pixel display, the IdeaPad S12 has a 12.1 inch, 1280 x 800 pixel screen.

Along with the larger screen, the S12 has a larger keyboard and room on the chassis for a few other goodies including an ExpressCard slot and hardware buttons for controlling the computer’s volume.

I have to say, the S12 definitely feels enormous by netbook standards. But it’s still relatively light, at about 3.5 pounds. And the extra screen resolution definitely comes in handy when working on documents or viewing some web pages. Unfortunately, the Atom processor and integrated graphics aren’t up to the task of pumping out Flash video in full-screen on the high resolution 1280 x 800 pixel screen.

I’ll have more details after I’ve spent a little more time with these machines. But in the meantime, you can check out a bunch of pictures of the two laptops. I also threw in a few images of the S10-2 next to my trusty old Asus Eee PC 1000H, because it’s the other netbook I happened to have lying around. As you can see, the Lenovo IdeaPad S10-2 is a little smaller than the Eee PC 1000H. But overall the two netbooks are pretty similarly sized.

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