“Review: Lenovo IdeaPad S12” |
| Posted: 11 Nov 2010 08:22 PM PST Long, long ago in the year 2009, we first heard news about the forthcoming Nvidia Ion GPU for netbooks and got excited. At long last, netbooks would be more capable of graphics processing and handling HD video. One of the first frontrunners claiming an Ion netbook was Lenovo, and the IdeaPad S12 seemed like the perfect mini-notebook to contain it. After initially launching with Intel graphics, at long last we have received the Nvidia Ion-packing S12, far, far later than the original target date. It does have 256MB of discrete graphics, a 2GB RAM and a large 320GB hard drive, plus 32-bit Windows 7 Home Premium and Bluetooth. On the other hand, it also costs AU$839. That's a bit of a problem. Ultra-low-voltage processor thin-and-lights offer better performance minus the graphics at similar or even more affordable price points, and the aging N270 processor in this S12 configuration is practically on the verge of extinction. That's not to say the IdeaPad S12 doesn't have its advantages. It still has a great keyboard, good sound, solid design and a very bright screen, it's just that the portability segment is incredibly competitive, and even if you decide on a 12-inch netbook the likes of Asus' Eee PC 1201N offer more for a lower price. From a design standpoint, the S12 looks like a larger brother of its smaller 2009 sibling, the Lenovo IdeaPad S10-2. Compact and well-proportioned, the outer matte black plastic case (white is also available) is topped with a glossy plastic lid patterned in a subtle series of varying polka-dots. It's a smudge-collector, but attractive. Inside, smooth matte black plastic surrounds the keyboard, and the 12-inch glossy screen is surrounded in glossy plastic. It looks professional and stylishly austere, not unlike a ThinkPad. The full keyboard feels great, and the touch pad is an improvement on the S10-2 in terms of size. It feels like a "real" laptop. It might be the most comfortable and solid keyboard we've experienced on a netbook. Above the keyboard are a few dedicated buttons for volume control and muting, along with a QuickStart button that launches a Splashtop instant-on OS. The browser, music player and photo viewer in this OS are serviceable and load faster than booting up Windows 7, but the fastest way to "boot" is still keeping the S12 in standby and reawakening as needed. Facial recognition security software that operates off the webcam and a one key backup/data recovery hot button are also included. The 12.1-inch glossy LCD has a 1280x800-pixel native resolution, which is standard for a screen this size. The effect of having a larger screen, especially in the vertical dimension, is critical for ease of use when browsing the web and working on office documents. The added screen real estate really made a difference on our productivity, as opposed to the 10.2-inch IdeaPad S10-2. Though the additional screen and keyboard size obviously add to the unit's bulk, it's a trade-off that really makes the netbook far more usable. It's up to you whether portability or productivity matters more, but it's a distinction that's a key defining point between the two models' philosophies. Three USB ports are better than average for a netbook, but the S12 is closer in size to a thin-and-light, so one's expectations might be closer to that territory for ports. Bluetooth is an appreciated add-on, but the S12 still doesn't have 802.11n Wi-Fi. The included 1.6GHz Atom N270 processor is very familiar to us at CNET; it's the chip that's been in nearly every netbook this year. Not surprisingly, this meant netbook-level performance in our benchmark tests. Adding an Ion processor did help significantly with multimedia multitasking, and also sped up Photoshop and iTunes performance somewhat. The chief advantage of the Nvidia Ion is its enhancement of HD graphics and gaming, and we were indeed able to play games on this laptop. The Nvidia Ion is similar in design to the 9400M processor in Apple's older MacBooks, which should equate to good graphics performance — on the other hand, however, the S12 has an Atom processor, not a Core 2 Duo, or for that matter, a Core i series CPU. We'd advise some curbing of enthusiasm: Unreal Tournament 3 in 1200x800 pixels with normal graphics settings ran at 16.5fps, which is barely functional. Lowering the settings to 800x600 pixels netted us a much better 21.2fps, but it wasn't better than the HP Mini 311, which also has an Nvidia Ion — this was surprising, especially since this S12 has double the RAM. HD playback was definitely improved, but most notably for HD video files. Streaming video, including full-screen 480p Flash playback had some stutter, even with Flash 10.1 installed. Sadly, the Atom processor is the real bottleneck here. We'd love to see Ion processors paired with improved Atoms or ULV processors — as it currently stands, the IdeaPad S12 offers too little for its high price. The included six-cell battery delivered three hours and 45 minutes in our video playback test. That's about an hour less than the IdeaPad S12 without Ion, and brings battery performance to an acceptable but not spectacular number. We've seen netbooks and thin-and-lights get well over six hours of life more often than not nowadays. (Shorter bars indicate better performance) (Shorter bars indicate better performance) (Shorter bars indicate better performance) (Shorter bars indicate better performance) (Longer bars indicate better performance) Via CNET This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php |
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