There are two types of people who regularly need to disassemble laptops: hackers and service technicians. While Lenovo’s service training site for the IdeaPad S10e netbook is geared toward the latter, it’s choc full of information that could be helfpul to anyone looking to upgrade the wireless card, hard drive, or other internal components of this 10 inch netbook.

Not only does the site have a ton of details about exactly what’s inside the netbook, but it has helpful videos showing each step you’ll need to take to safely disassemble a Lenovo ideaPad S10e.

Unfortunately there don’t seem to be similar pages for other Lenovo netbooks like the IdeaPad S10-2 or IdeaPad S12.

thanks Erica!

The Lenovo Ideapad S10e is designed for educational markets, but it also adds a few features that the original IdeaPad S10 lacked. For one thing, it comes with the Splashtop “quick start” software preloaded. This provides quick access to Firefox, Skype, and a few other apps. I got a chance to play with a few IdeaPad’s running Splashtop and rival quick start software HyperSpace at CES, and while it’s a neat idea, I find it really doesn’t take that much longer to boot Windows and launch any program you like.

Laptop Magazine has a detailed review of the IdeaPad S10e, and they were pretty happy with the quick start feature, which took 11 seconds to load, plus another 10 to launch Firefox. The lack of support for Firefox add-ons is a bit annoying, but like I said, you can always just ignore quick start and load Windows. The Splashtop interface doesn’t cost extra.

The S10e starts at $379, although you can pay more for configuration with better specs.

The Lenovo IdeaPad S10 netbook may have a starting price of $349, but you can pick up an IdeaPad S10e from Buy.com for just under $300. The two computers are pretty much the same. They sport a 1.6GHz Intel Atom N270 CPU, a 10.1 inch 1024 x 600 pixel display, 512MB of RAM, an 80GB hard drive, 802.11b/g WiFi and Bluetooth.

The netbook comes with a 3 cell battery and Windows XP Home Edition. While it may not have the largest hard drive, the fastest wireless connection, or the highest battery capacity, the price drop makes the Lenovo IdeaPad S10e one of the cheapest netbooks available with a 10 inch display.

Update: As Gordon points out in the comments, the Lenovo IdeaPad S10e typically has a 0.1 inch, 1024 x 576 pixel display. But the Buy.com product listing says this model has a 1024 x 600 pixel screen. It’s possible that the product page is wrong, so if you really want those extra pixels, you may want to contact Buy.com before placing an order.

Sure, Asus may have promised to add the Splashtop “instant” on interface to every computer with an Asus motherboard. But it looks like Lenovo is going to beat Asus to the punch when it comes to adding Splashtop to netbooks. Today the company announed it’s working with DeviceVM, the company behind Splashtop to add the interface to the lenovo IdeaPad S10e netbook.

According the press release, the S10e is “now shipping.” But it looks like this particular model is aimed at educational markets, not consumers. So it’s not clear if and when  you’ll be able to pick up an S10 with Splashtop preloaded. 

The IdeaPad S10e is available with Windows XP Home, or SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop, and comes with either a 4GB SSD or a hard drive with up to 160GB of storage. 

SplashTop software basically lets you boot a light weight operating system in a matter of seconds which gives you quick access to frequently used applications like Firefox, Skype, and Picasa. If those are the apps you plan to use, you can boot your system in around 5-10 seconds instead of waiting 30-60 seconds for a full Windows or Linux desktop to boot up.

In related news, when I checked the Lenovo IdeaPad S10 order page to see if there was any information about Splashtop (which will actually be called “QuickStart” on Lenovo machines), I noted that Lenovo has apparently cut the price of the red S10 model by $20. At $409, it’s stil $10 more than the white or black models, but it’s cheaper than it was last week.

Via Eee PC.net / Image credit: Engadget