Lenovo S10-3t 0651-37U 10.1-Inch Multitouch Netbook (Black)

Got this about 1 week ago with the 8 cell battery and 250GB hard drive. I upgraded the RAM to 2GB and have upgraded the OS to Win7 Pro in order to take full advantage of the touch/tablet features.

Out of the box, this took only about 5 minutes to power on and setup. Lenovo tries to get you to pull the trigger on several add-on apps upon booting the first time, but you can skip it. These are programs like ID vault and other useful but unnecessary programs. After skipping that, I setup a few things for Windows, and we’re in! My wireless network detected without a hitch. I’m using a Zyxel 550N router…great signal and reception.

Touch screen:

I was anxious to try the touch screen, so I dove in and tried the Lenovo installed stuff 1st. Lenovo Natural Touch is the app that appears to be much like the U1 interface shown at CES. Very “iPhone-like”. It runs a little laggy at first, but when you get a feel for the touch speed, it is actually quite responsive. I tried playing with pictures and the multi-touch works great! IT DOES WORK without having to upgrade windows to a higher version than starter edition…but, using Lenovo’s custom software. I played the sample video which ran pretty smooth and looked just fine. I then tried the notes app and recorded a video of myself which worked as expected. I was able to write on sticky notes witout a problem using my fingertip. I also bought a Pogo which I think works fine for the touch points and just okay for actual writing.

So, I had a license for Win7 Pro and decided to install it since it added full support for tablets. I got a student deal for $29 a while back…couldn’t resist. So, I did the anytime upgrade and it took about 20 minutes total. Whalla…Win7 Pro.

I quickly installed Office 2007 including OneNote. They all work fine and multi-touch works to zoom in Word and Powerpoint. OneNote is super for this tablet!!! You can take documents and use a highlighter on screen or scribble notes on top of text documents…VERY COOL and will be quite useful!

LCD quality:

The screen is beautiful–very clear and while reflective/glossy, the quality is excellent, bright and easy to look at.

The screen of course can be viewed vertically or normally. In portrait mode, I found the picture to be a little less sharp and it puts a slight strain on the eye. I’m not sure if its the refresh rate or what, but there is a slight metallic sheen to images and a little bit of a contrast issue. Nothing major, but definitely noticeable. By default, the accelerometer is turned off

Web tests:

It of course has IE, but I downloaded Firefox for security and personal preference reasons. Both run fine. They both seem to respond to the multi-touch and the spread gesture zooms in, while swiping scrolls. You can easily navigate like you would on an iPhone. Speed was good.

I played a few flash games and they played full speed. My 3 yr old daughter even played some games at [...] and used the touch screen to control them with ease!

I then tried streaming movies on netflix….perfect playback although the screen size and format can waste a little screen real estate. I played a 4:3 movie and it wasted a lot of space until I went full screen…the small browser window made it so you had to scroll up or down a bit in order to see the whole picture. Going full-screen fixed it.

So, flash and silverlight work just fine. I plan to try some other games soon to push this a little….I’ll report back as I get time.

Inking:

I have no experience with other units that have the RF pens, but I can say that the inking/writing is not overly intuitive. Windows Journal and other tablet apps work great though. One I train myself and calibrate this to my writing, I think it’ll improve a lot. The pen/highlighter that I can use in other Office apps is going to be useful for research and school work. The handwriting recognition is not super and almost a waste for inputting a lot of text, even with the Pogo stylus I bought. Plan to use this for drawing and less detailed writing…

Misc. Stuff:

SD card reader works great and you can flip through pictures on the card via the Lenovo Natural touch app. The speakers and sound quality are not good at all. It is very “tin-ny” and not loud, though in a quiet room I guess it would be ok. Voices in a movie are audible, but the EQ is bad. I didn’t try headphones, but I’m positive that they’d improve the listening experience. A program called “Bumptop” is included an pretty cool to show off touch features. It creates a 3-D environment for files and pictures that you can move around and stick on walls, stack up or sort. A brief tutorial shows you how…pretty cool. Like many other Lenovo products, this too has the facial recognition which works okay. It came with McAfee security suite on it, which I promptly removed since I’m not a fan. I am just using MS Security Suite and Malicious SW tools….works fine for me. I won’t do any risky browsing anyway on this. I haven’t tried an eBook, but I think this won’t look any different than a regular notebook. The screen is certainly not e-ink though I think it’ll serve the purpose for those of us who want the capability, but don’t plan to buy a kindle or even the iPad.

The 8-cell battery (getting 6-6.5hrs) works great as a grip when using this in portrait/tablet modes. The keyboard has a nice feel to it, though fast touch-typists like myself are going to struggle when trying to type a lot. The left-hand side of the KB is slightly smaller for shift/tab/caps keys, but still very useable. Full sized keys, but the layout is just slightly off. The SD slot is in the front and covered when not in use…

Final Thoughts:

I bought this because I wanted something to travel with and Apple didn’t really announce what I needed in January. So, I wanted something new and cool…which this is. I thought the idea of a touch interface was in line with progress and I’m happy I got this. For the price, this is a sound solution for a netbook that gives you just enough “shiny and new” to keep interest. The touch is not a gimmick and I will make use of it for sure. The build quality is solid and the look/finish is beautiful, though a finger print magnet for sure. Overall, I must say that I am quite happy with this purchase. As a Mac user, I often have a less than stellar outlook on PC machines, though Win7 is a huge improvement. Not without the issues that plague all Windows machines, this Lenovo is exactly what I wanted and will prove to be a great 2nd laptop and travel companion.

Dave

Before buying this you have to decide on what it is you actually want. For me it was the tablet feature. I was very interested in the iPad but after seeing the launch, the specs etc. it quickly became apparent that this wasn’t the device for me. I then went looking around and found the ASUS T91MT touch netbook. My main concerns with this netbook was it’s size and also after reading multiple reviews it’s performance. This led me on to this device, the Lenovo S10-3t. It was the correct size, used the new Pineview chipset and N450 processor so should be capable.

I’ve now had this device for a few days and played with it almost non-stop. It has both good points and bad points.

As shipped this device comes with Windows 7 Starter edition, unfortunately this version of windows does not include the built in Windows 7 multi-touch features. If you are really interested in using this device as a tablet then you must upgrade to at least Windows 7 Home Premium edition, so bear this extra cost in mind when deciding whether or not to purchase this. One of the first things I done was to upgrade to Windows 7 Ultimate edition.

Another point to bear in mind is that you will probably want to upgrade to 2Gb of RAM rather than the built in 1Gb. Again, I done this using the Amazon recommended Crucial memory upgrade. One point to note about the RAM. Amazon states in the technical details about this product that it uses 204 pin DDR2 memory. This is incorrect, it uses the more readily available 200 pin RAM.

The Lenovo has multiple connectors that should be enough for most people, vga out, twin USB 2 connectors, built in card reader etc. If you need more than what’s provided then you really should be looking at full laptop rather than a netbook. One bad point about these connectors however is that the two USB 2 connectors are too close together. The dimensions of most USB add-ons, e.g. memory stick, GPS receiver etc. are slightly wider than Lenovo allows for so you dont have room to plug in two devices. For example I plugged in a USB memory stick and tried to plug in a mouse but the memory stick was large enough for me not to be able to plug in the mouse. This seems to be an oversight on Lenovo’s part. If you buy a USB extension cord however then you will have no problems (I received a short one with the GPS receiver I bought which works out extremely nicely).

The touchpad on the Lenovo is extremely small and also annoying. I have found the cursor jumping on the screen and returning the Windows Start Icon multiple times. For nominal use the mouse touchpad will suffice but for any serious or extended use a mouse will be necessary.

Upgrading the device is extremely easy. There is a cover on the back held in place by 5 screws, simply unscrew and remove the cover to reveal access to the hard drive, RAM and also a mini PCIE port.

The device is amply powered and has taken whatever I have thrown at it without slowing down noticably. The built in graphics are good enough to handle Windows Aero quite easily and viewing video is a delight. The slowest component appears to be the hard drive but as stated above you can upgrade this from the 5400rpm drive it comes with to a 7200rpm drive or solid state drive if you so wish.

The onboard sound is a complete disaster if you are playing through the built in speakers. It is barely audible and extremely tinny. Either buy external speakers or listen through headphones.

Personally I don’t like the keyboard. The keys are very near full size and therefore quite good but they feel very cheap and it just doesn’t feel quite right. Possibly the worst keyboard I’ve come across yet. I’ve also noticed that whilst typing the cursor sometimes jumps. I’ve not figured out yet why this is happening and so am not sure if it’s something that I’m doing or something to do with the actual keyboard.

Finally the touchscreen. The touchscreen is a delight once you’ve upgraded and can make use of the multi-touch. I’ts very responsive and accurate. Sometimes too accurate. It takes where you first touch the screen so if you are trying to click on a small icon the screen will pick up where your finger touched the screen, which might not be where you meant to touch. Having a stylus obviously helps as it’s more accurate but you can quite easily use touch without problems for the most part. The hinge is very sturdy and has a nice strong action to it.

It feels as though Lenovo spent most of the development cost on the screen, the hinge and the new Pineview chipset and the rest of the system seems fairly cheaply put together although I’m sure with it being Lenovo then it will last.

The good :-
Wonderful touch screen
Good chipset
Nice weight
Easy to replace parts

The bad :
USB ports are too close together
No Bluetooth
Touchpad is not very good at all
Keyboard feels cheap and not very tactile.
Speakers are a disaster
Comes with a tonne of bloatware that you need to remove.
Needs to be upgraded to take full advantage of it (extra cost)

I know a lot of the reviews are terrible right now, but that is mainly due to the fact that this thing is running windows 7 starter. I personally upgraded mine to windows 7 ultimate for about 20$, and now i get the multitouch capabilities standard and got rid of some bloatware that comes with it and upgraded to 2gb ram. This thing is lag free now and can comfortably open many programs at once without slowing down. I get the kinetic scrolling in almost anything and zoom in features too.
Main reason I bought this was because the iPad turned out to be a disappointment in what i wanted. This gives me full OS functionality with the ease and entertaining use of touch. Plus with the battery this can easily last 7-8 hrs with wifi.

All of the negative reviews you will find about this netbook (fine, netvertible) are from senseless users that are expecting this mini-powerhouse to be a full laptop replacement. If you are an educated consumer (and even if you are not) you will find that this machine lives up to all of the hype if you take a day to really enjoy it.

As soon as I booted up the machine, it was incredibly responsive. The default Lenovo configuration is pretty good, even though there is some start-up junk that slows down your initial boot. Me, being the user I am, immediately installed Windows 7 Professional to maximize my tablet experience.

The Goods:
The incredible screen responsivness! -It is even better than my iPhone!
The incredible battery life! (6-8 hours)
Very sturdy build. This machine is light, but feels awesome in your hands.
The processor, hard drive, and the memory is enough for limitless tablet fun!
It FLIES. With both Win7 Starter and Pro, this machine is very quick and will not leave you waiting like some others.

The Bad:
The battery is a tad large for my taste, BUT makes for a really nice grip while in tablet mode.
No bluetooth.

The “Eh”
People seem to be complaining about the keyboard quality. What they need to realize is that this is a netvertible tablet, not a desktop or full laptop. Yes, the keyboard feels a little looser than other netbooks, but be serious, you are not going to be purchasing this machine for its keyboard quality. Even so, I am composing this entire review on that “terrible” keyboard, and it is very comfortable.
The touchpad with the integrated buttons is a little funky, but OH WAIT, I can touch the screen!!!!

Overall, I would have to say that this is one of the best netbooks I have ever had the chance to use. Lenovo has really done it again, and I am very very happy with my purchase. Whether you are looking for something to travel with that you can have a little fun with, or if you are just looking to get over the boring, touchless, machine you use on a regular basis; this is the way to go.

This is the future of notebooks and netbooks. You will NOT be disappointed.

This is my 8th netbook…Yes, I get bored and disappointed very easily. I’m sure many of you have also noticed that many of the netbooks are starting to all look IDENTICAL.. and they probably are. Same features, same design, same hardware. If you like to show off, you could spend a thousand dollars to get something truly unique. Or you can get one of these for about $500 and blow all of the other netbooks out of the water.

The pros: A lot of bang for your buck. Compared to other netbooks in this price range, you are getting a better looking and feature packed netbook. It’s a tablet pc! How cool is that? Last tiny tablet I saw was a crappy Fujitsu that was too small for real use and too expensive for the average college kid like me.

You may not think you need a touch screen, but once you have it you won’t be able to stop using it. Also great for people who have carpal tunnel and struggle with the not so ergonomic friendly trackpads. The screen is beautifully bright, shiny, and vibrant.

It has an -8 cell battery- that lasts about 6+ hours depending on your performance settings.

It’s got -full size- keys even for the chubbiest fingers!

The touch screen is very responsive and as another user put it.. resembles that of an iPhone. There is even a program in there that makes the desktop simulate iPhone like scrolling (and the scrolling is impressively smooth). I even used the touch screen to photoshop some pictures and it was extremely accurate and easy to do with just my fingers. I also found that the touch screen DOES NOT fingerprint very easily. (The outer case DOES though).

Facial recognition works like a charm. I never have to type my password in to unlock the netbook.

Convenient buttons located on the side of the lcd that instantly control orientation, mute, and “Natural Touch” the program that simulates the iphone scrolling.

College students will also appreciate that the screen actually DIMS to the point where you can barely see the screen. A much needed feature for people like us that have to sit through slideshows and don’t want to light the entire room with our pc’s…also great for someone who needs some privacy.

And last it’s about the size of a small textbook which is great for travel.

The cons: As with the other netbooks..forget about the speakers. They aren’t very loud and pretty much sound like a tin can. The screen rotation can be a little tough…I sometimes feel like I have to force the screen to turn (could be a good or bad thing I don’t know). 2 USB ports which is one less than many netbooks. Slightly heavier than the other 10.1″ netbooks out there…this is because of the big battery pack and it is -slightly- thicker than the average 10.1″ netbook due to a thicker screen. The webcam is on the right side of the lcd which means you have to physically move your body to be in line with the camera. No bluetooth ..Unlike other Lenovos, this one does not have the keyboard lighting feature. and my biggest gripe is the Windows 7 starter OS. Can it get any more basic than that? I can’t even personalize the desktop wallpaper!

Overall I would say this is an ideal netbook for someone who is willing to pay a little more for features that aren’t necessarily imperative to have…just for the coolness factor. Other than the touch screen this Lenovo does carry much of the same features that most netbooks already have today. It’s perfect for the gadget lover!

LENOVO IDEAPAD S10-3T (COSMIC NIGHT)
INTEL ATOM
DOLBY SURROUND SOUND
CPU: 1.66GHZ
RAM: 1024MB
HDD: 250GB
LAN: 10/100M
DISPLAY: 10.1″ HD
BATTERY: 8 CELL
OS: WIN7 STARTER

Looking at some of the reviews here I have a hard time believing the machine I am using at this moment is the same one. Then again I new what I was buying before hand. I was dissapointed in the announcement of the iThing and was hoping to find a viable alternative that was:

1. Affordable 500-700
2. More versatile (Netvertible, USB ports)
3. Portable (not pocketsize but not horrible to tote when needed)
4. Stable
5. Able to provide web access, ebooks, music, movies, games, gps

I bought this after doing quite a bit of research and thought I knew the limitations before I got it. Boy was I suprised.

Out of the box, with Win 7 Starter and 1GB RAM and TONS of bloatware from Lenovo this thing crawled. Just like every other netbook out there. I knew it would be slow when I got it so I picked up a 2GB SD-DIMM and upgraded immediately. One of the best things about this device, you actually CAN upgrade the memory, hard drive, and even has a free mini pci-e slot. Most of the others solder memory in, use proprietary drives, or have no free slots.

After that I did a CLEAN install of Win 7 Ultimate, loaded drivers, and started to test. I have been very impressed, moreso than I would have thought. It’s pleasantly snappy, fantastic screen with all tablet features enabled, and does more than I originally hoped.

I was planning on this to be primarily used as a nice little web browsing, epub reading, and email checking machine. But I have sucessfully tested HD video, (MKV h264 with CCCP) some light games (World of Goo is a blast with the screen, Fallout 1/2, Quake Live). The SD multi reader makes this a great way to view and offload images from my DSLR. The USB ports are incredibly handy on a device this size. The keyboard actually feels nice, my only complaint is the god awful speakers.

This is a great little box for around the house use, ebooks, music, some video, gaming etc. With a cheap 3 dollar BT reciever I am able to tether to my 3G phone, I have a BT GPS puck and software loaded and can take advantage of that. The screen is bright, crisp, and with capacative multi-touch and the Win 7 Tablet features easy to use and responsive.

I am very happy with my purchase, It’s not a monster rig that will play the latest games, it does need the benefit of 2GB RAM and Win 7 Prem and a clean install to realize it’s potential. If you know that ahead of time you too will be pleasantly suprised by the usefulness of this great little device. 4* -.5 for the bloatware -.5 for the speakers.

I bought this system for $500 and got the 1.66Ghz version with Windows Starter and 1GB RAM. The system is not that good with those specs. You have to upgrade certain elements and then this system reaches it’s potential.

When you start it for the first time the system is quite slow because of lot’s of processes running by default, not enough RAM, and you can’t use the touch features because it has Windows 7 Starter Edition, also Lenovo Energy Management slows down the CPU on purpose to have longer battery life but it does make programs lag.

Follow some of these tips and improve the performance of your S10-3T:
Tip No. 1 – Upgrade RAM to 2GB
Tip No. 2 – Install a fresh copy of Windows 7 Home Premium, Pro or Ultimate
Tip No. 3 – Install only the drivers that you need and optimize Windows 7 visuals
Tip No. 4 – Tweak Lenovo Energy Management for faster CPU performance
Tip No. 5 – Use the right browser (Firefox + Grab and Drag plugin)
Tip No. 6 – Use Stephen Perrin’s Rotation Program

I have other tips in the works which you can view at:
Lenovo S10-3T Blog

Once the system is optimized you can do a lot of crazy things which can be quite impressive. You can view some of my videos about the Lenovo S10-3T at:
Youtube – /JesseBAndersen

Make sure you get the 8 cell battery with the system, it’s way more expensive to buy it separate.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2Fs%3Fie%3DUTF8%26x%3D0%26ref_%3Dnb_sb_noss%26y%3D0%26field-keywords%3Dlenovo%2520s10-3t%26url%3Dsearch-alias%253Delectronics&tag=alldevs-20&linkCode=ur2&camp=1789&creative=390957

I got my Lenovo S10_3t about 3 weeks ago. When I first started using it, I noticed that almost everything was a bit laggy. So I decided to add 1GB of memory and re-install Windows 7 Ultimate and now this has become my favorite laptop to use. Here is what I did:

- added memory
- reinstalled windows 7 ultimate
- installed all new drivers from
[...] installed new bios driver
- did NOT install all of the additional lenovo software such as lenovo natural touch and veriface. all of custom lenovo software was crap and made the pc very slow and didnt wotk.
- installed kindle for pc from http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?docId=1000426311 which lets you read your kindle books on any pc.
- installed textpad from [...]
- installed norton internet security 2010 from [...]
- installed microsoft office 2010 home edition

Now, this tablet boots in 37 seconds compared to 252 seconds when all the junk software was installed and screen scrolling speed is identical to the iPad.

I have used the iPad ever since it was released in April and I find this tablet much more productive to use because it runs Windows and I can watch youtube flash videos which you can not do on the iPad because it does not support Flash.

I highly recommend this tablet as an iPad alternative.

If you are thinking about the Asus T101MT, then stop doing it. I first purchased the Asus because I was concerned with the 8-cell battery weight of the Lenovo, the glossy screen, and tiny trackpad. Unfortunately, the “glittery” aspect of the Asus resistive screen was just too much and it was quite dark even at it’s brightest setting. So, let me eat the 15% restocking fee for you and recommend the S10-3T without reservation. Actually, it was my first choice, but I wanted a light, small form-factor netvertible, At first glance, the Asus seemed the better fit, but I was immediately disappointed as soon as I turned it on. Yeah, the screen was just that bad. Additionally, I found myself using the stylus to get better accuracy, which became somewhat annoying when I couldn’t get the accuracy with tapping with my fingertip. I usually had to use my fingernail if I didn’t use the stylus.

The capacitive screen on the Lenovo is very responsive and accurate. It might not appear that way due to the amount of crap running, so you should immediately open up the Control panel and remove most of Lenovo’s software to free up your 1GB RAM (which you are going to replace, right?) and reduce the amount of CPU usage due to useless background junk. It’s a very crisp screen and definite improvement over the Asus. While the battery is a bit heavier, I think it evens out since the Asus seemed just a bit thicker and the bigger battery does serve as a good handhold in tablet mode. Asus was averaging 3.5-4.0 hours while the Lenovo is getting 6.5-7.0. No surprise here given the battery.

The trackpad is just small enough to be noticeably different, but hardly a gamebreaker. Given that the buttons are embedded in the trackpad, it’s actually a little more efficient. I’d say you’ll probably be finding yourself having to do an extra swipe to get somewhere across the screen.

If you are still unsure about it, you can visit Jesse Andersen’s blog at [...] for NUMEROUS videos and tips on how to get the best out of the S10-3T. Man, I wish I had seen this site first, otherwise I’d not have wasted time and money on the Asus.

The only negative I can level against the Lenovo is the fan. I never noticed it on the Asus, but you can definitely hear it with the S10-3T when you are using it heavily.