The Lenovo IdeaPad S10-3 is Lenovo's third netbook in the IdeaPad line. But you could probably have guessed that from the name. Here's what you might not know: It's the best looking 10 inch netbook Lenovo has released to date, and it's the first with a new Intel Atom N450 Pine Trail processor.
The netbook is thin and light, and comes with a choice of a black or red cover featuring a textured, fingerprint-resistant cover. But in order to keep the laptop as small as possible while providing a nearly full sized keyboard, Lenovo chose to build left and right buttons into the touchpad, making it difficult to use.
The demo unit Lenovo sent me to review features a 10.1 inch, 1024 x 600 pixel display, Windows 7 Starter Edition, 1GB of RAM, a 160GB hard drive, 6 cell battery, 802.11b/g/n WiFi, and Bluetooth 2.1.
Design
At 10.6″ x 6.6″ 1″ the IdeaPad S10-3 is one of the smallest 10 inch netbooks I've tested. It weighs 2.8 pounds with a 6 cell battery, which is about par for the course.
But it's not the size or weight that make the IdePad S10-3 stand out. It's the distinctive design element such as the textured pattern on the black or red lids that gives the laptop an almost carbon fiber coated look. At a time when many netbook makers are putting glossy, fingerprint magnet lids on their netbooks, this attractive matte finish is a nice touch.
The palm rest area below the keyboard has a brushed metal look which even extends onto the touchpad. And the keyboard features flat, island-style keys with rounded edges on the bottom. In fact, the keyboard is very similar to the one designed for the new Lenovo ThinkPad X100e thin and light business notebook.
In order to reduce the size of the netbook, Lenovo made two interesting design decisions. The mouse buttons have been integrated with the touchpad. And the power, Quick Start, and recovery keys have been integrated into the bezel around the display. Normally these buttons are placed in a row just above the Fn keys on the keyboard. The first few times I used the notebook, it took me a second to remember where the power button was located, but it didn't take long to get used to.
The 6 cell battery juts out a little bit from the bottom of the netbook, which means the back of the keboard is tilted up a little bit when you place the S10-3 on a tablet. But the battery is definitely less of an eyesore than the batteries on previous IdeaPad S10 netbooks.
On the bottom of the computer there's a single large access panel which you can open to replace or upgrade the hard drive and memory.
Around the sides of the laptop you'll find 3 USB ports, an flash card reader, and VGA, mic, headphone and Ethernet ports. There's also a switch you can use to toggle the WiFi on and off.
Despite the matte finish on the lid and palm rest, the display and screen bezel are both glossy, which means the laptop casts a decent amount of glare when used in direct sunlight.
Keyboard and TouchPad
Lenovo says the IdeaPad S10-3t keyboard is 98% full sized. The isolation-style keyboard features flat keys with a small space between each key making it easy to find the correct key without looking at your fingers.
Like all Lenovo keyboards, the Fn key is located in the bottom left corner, to the left of the Ctrl key. If you're used to using computers from virtually any other company, it might take you
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