Lenovo Laptop Reviews

Lenovo s10 Review

Lenovo didn't waste any time launching its own netbook when ASUS, HP, and Acer first introduced theirs. That first version of the Lenovo IdeaPad S10 possessed many desirable netbook traits, including an ExpressCard slot and a 10-inch widescreen, that kept the other three from running away with this category. But that was six months ago. Since then, netbooks have been evolving at a furious pace, with manufacturers improving aesthetics, slashing prices, and bridging the features gap between them and mainstream laptops. New to the IdeaPad S10 (Red) ($410 street) are a Linux pre-boot environment and several color options, and it's still one of only two netbooks (the other is the HP Mini 2140 with an ExpressCard slot. The additions, unfortunately, are overshadowed by a small keyboard and a pricing strategy that lacks aggression.

Lenovo didn't really go out of its way to spice up the S10's design. While adding an array of color options (for $10 more) that include red, pink, and blue is admirable, the Dell Inspiron Mini 9 and Mini 12 now offer seven color options for buyers, and netbooks like the HP Mini 2140 and the ASUS EeePC 1002HA are wowing customers with metallic designs. Granted, concocting a winning design is guaranteed to drive up prices, but Lenovo isn't going to win over new customers by slapping colors on a netbook. I'm sure it's already in the road map, but Lenovo needs to expand its netbook lineup beyond colors; perhaps an 11-inch or a 12-inch model such as the ones that Acer and Dell recently launched, or even a netbook tablet—a field Lenovo knows very well, given the success of the ThinkPad X200 Tablet.

The S10 (Red) tips the scales at 3 pounds, slightly heavier than the original S10 (2.7 pounds) because of a heavier, six-cell battery (the latter was reviewed with a three-cell battery). The Acer Aspire One (10-inch) and the Samsung NC10-14GB are slightly lighter at 2.9 pounds with their six-cell configurations, while the ASUS EeePC 1000HE is the heaviest at 3.2 pounds. The extended battery sticks out an inch from the back and elevates the rear of the S10 about a half an inch from a hard surface. Though the battery is a small bump in the road on design, that's outweighed by the fact that it's larger, with plenty of battery life. ASUS, on the other hand, designed its EeePC 1000HE so that its big battery is flush against the base. Little design details like these count when there are so many similarities among netbooks.

Six months ago, the S10's 10-inch widescreen and 1,024-by-600 resolution were the cream of the crop. Now, larger netbooks like the Dell Inspiron Mini 12, the Samsung NC20, and the HP Pavilion dv2 are deploying 12-inch widescreens and higher resolutions. Though the Dell Mini 9's screen, at 8.9 inches, is even smaller than the S10 (Red)'s, Lenovo needs to raise the stakes in screen size. More important, the S10 (Red)'s 89 percent keyboard is less than perfect to me, as others like the ASUS 1000HE, the NC10-14GB, and the HP Mini 2140 have bigger keyboards. The typing experience is crucial, and right now the S10 (Red) is losing significant ground in this area (which is ironic considering Lenovo's ThinkPad keyboard expertise). Furthermore, the pair of mouse buttons are noisy and hard to click, and the touchpad is small relative to those of the Acer One (10-inch) and the HP Mini 1000.

The feature set is the S10's saving grace. Even though it doesn't offer an embedded 3G modem like the HP 1000 and the Dell Mini 12, or have an HDMI port like the HP dv2, an ExpressCard can fill these voids. By adding this slot, Lenovo limited the S10 to two USB ports, while other netbooks like the Acer One and the ASUS 1000HE have three. Otherwise, the 160GB hard drive matches those of the One and the 1000HE, and standard netbook features like VGA-out, a 5-in-1 card reader, headphone and microphone ports, and webcam are also present.

A new software feature in the S10 (Red) is a pre-boot Linux environment, powered by a company called Splashtop. A Linux splash screen appears as soon as you power up the system, giving you to either enter the environment or boot into Windows XP Home Edition. Within the environment, there are options for a Web browser, music and photo manager, games, and Skype's video chatting software. You also have access to your 802.11b/g Wi-Fi connection, which connected flawlessly to my home router. The music and photo manager can sync to their respective folders (My Music and My Pictures) in Windows XP Home Edition, but that's it—there's no file manager that lets you access other file types. Overall, though, this Linux pre-boot is a neat little addition that can save time and battery life (since it consumes less power than Windows).

Lenovo IdeaPad S10 (Red)As for parts, the S10 (Red) uses the same processor as the configuration from six months ago. The 1.6-GHz Intel Atom N270 processor and 1GB of memory are standard parts for netbooks. The Atom N280 processor found in the 1000HE is slightly faster, but you wouldn't be able to distinguish performance differences in the real world. In video-encoding tests, the S10 (Red) finished in 5 minutes 7 seconds, which was actually slower than the original S10. The ASUS 1000HE and the Acer One (10-inch) finished in less than 4:30. SYSmark 2007 Preview testing is a better measure of overall performance, and the S10's overall score was in line with those of the Samsung NC10-14GB and its predecessor. The 52-Wh battery delivered a smidge over 5 hours, according to MobileMark 2007 tests; both the Acer One (10-inch) and the ASUS 1000HE easily surpassed 6 hours in the same test.

Since Lenovo is known for its business laptops, the presence of an ExpressCard slot makes it a compelling netbook, say, for small businesses that need to support features like 3G, extra USB ports, or even a Serial port. While the IdeaPad S10 (Red) seems inexpensive, netbooks like the HP Mini 1000, the ASUS EeePC 1000HE, and the Acer One (10-inch) are about $25 to $50 cheaper. The additions of a bigger battery, colors, and a Linux environment in this version of the S10 are modest, not groundbreaking advances. Overall, unless Lenovo provides some siblings for this netbook, preferably ones with bigger screens, higher resolutions, and sleeker exteriors, it risks falling behind in the one category where it cannot afford to do so.

Lenovo ThinkPad T61

The ThinkPad T61 14.1" widescreen notebook was recently released by Lenovo as an update to the T60 series. The T61 uses the new Intel Centrino Duo platform (Santa Rosa) and offers a number of design updates.

Important to note is that this review covers the 14.1" widescreen version of the T61 series. As with any laptop model series, there are going to be widely varying configurations you can choose that will greatly affect system performance. For this review, we're dealing with a T61 with the following specifications:

Design and Build

The ThinkPad T61 is a premium product with a durable build, it is geared towards business users or simply those willing to pay a bit more to get something that won't fall apart after 1-year of use. For somebody that travels a lot or relies on their notebook to earn a livelihood, the build and reliability factor is probably more important than having the latest and greatest components inside.

So how does the T61 excel build-wise? Basically the same as its predecessor T-series notebooks did. The T61 body is a rugged plastic that does not flex. Inside the stiff and thick plastic casing is a magnesium roll cage in both the lid and main chassis. The lid on the previous T60 was a magnesium material, while the lid on the T61 is a plastic composite with a magnesium "roll cage" plate inside. The reason for plastic now being used in the lid is to allow better penetration of radio waves, such as 802.11 and WWAN, thus providing greater wireless range and signal strength.

The keyboard remains the same between the T61 and T60 -- meaning it's once again excellent. The only difference is that now there's more room on the keyboard side areas since the notebook body is wider, the speakers have been relocated to this extra real estate. The keyboard is spill proof and has two drain holes to make sure if you do happen to spill your morning Starbucks coffee, the liquid is carried away from sensitive components and out through the bottom of the notebook

The thick metal hinges that attach the screen are very rigid and ensure the screen does not wobble. You'll need two hands to adjust and open the screen as the hinges are very tight. The double screen latch system locks securely to make sure the screen stays down when being carried around.

The hard drive is protected within the magnesium roll cage and shock mounted. Even if your T61 is dropped the included Active Protection System (APS) software will work with the on board accelerometer to detect a fall situation and end hard drive activity to prevent data loss.

Dimension wise the ThinkPad T61 14.1" certainly changes from its predecessors, it is wider but not as deep since it has shifted to widescreen. The dimensions of the T61 (assuming 4-cell battery that does not stick out) are as follows: (WxDxH): 13.2" x 9.3" x 1.09 - 1.26" (335mm x 237mm x 27.6 - 31.9mm)

The T61 is actually thicker than the T60 was, which is a little disappointing, here’s the dimensions for the 14.1” T60: (WxDxH): 12.2" x 10.0" x 1.0 - 1.2" (311mm x 255mm x 26.6-31mm)

So the T61 is about .1-inches thicker than the previous T43 and T60. A picture demonstrates this difference in thickness between the T43 and T61:

ThinkPad T43 on the left, ThinkPad T61 on the right -- the T61 is about .1-inch thicker (view large image)

While the shape has changed, aesthetically the T61 is pretty much the same as past ThinkPad T series notebooks -- just wider. It is an all black look with the iconic red trackpoint. Black is a fine look, it never goes out of style, just ask Steve Jobs.

One subtle change that may rattle some is the new ThinkPad logo you see pictured in this review. But don’t get too excited, those ordering over the web are still going to get the same old IBM logo on past ThinkPads, the logo change is an option for business channel buyers.

Input and Output Ports

The port layout of the T61 has also changed quite a bit, and mostly for the good since we now have a standard FireWire port and optional media-card reader port. I’m not so thrilled with the fact that all of the USB ports are vertically oriented; I find this more awkward than horizontal.

The media-card reader is an option, but it replaces the ExpressCard slot if you go for it. You can also get a Smart Card slot in place of the ExpressCard if your company needs that. Let’s take a tour around the T61 to see all of the ports that you get.

On the left side of the T61 from back to front is the main heat vent and fan, monitor out port, modem and Ethernet LAN port, 2 USB 2.0 ports, ExpressCard and PC card slot. The ExpressCard can be swapped for a media card reader or Smart Card reader if you so choose:

On the right side of the T61 from back to front is a USB 2.0 port, then the ultra-slim multi-bay drive. This drive is hot swappable and can be removed and replaced with an extra hard drive or battery:

On the back side of the T61 you can see the 6-cell battery protruding, and then the power jack and another heat vent. Notice how thick those hinges are:

On the front side of the T61from left to right is the IEEE 1394 port (FireWire), Wi-Fi on/off switch, headphone jack, microphone jack, and the screen opening latch:

Screen

The new widescreen format screen for the 14.1” T-series is either good, bad or somewhere in between depending on your personal preference. Lenovo will try and convince you widescreen offers more screen real estate and so it’s better, the reality is the guys making the LCD screens are forcing it down the throats of the PC manufacturers because it’s cheaper to make widescreen LCDs. For a more complete look at the benefit of standard versus widescreen read the review I did of the initial rollout of a ThinkPad T60-Wide here.

Rest assured, Lenovo will offer other formats of the T61 so you’re not in a widescreen or nothing situation. It will be interesting to see if the standard screen costs more; it will almost certainly be less available.

The particular screen I got is a WXGA+ resolution (1440 x 900). It provides easy viewing and you can fit a good amount on the screen, so no complaints on that front. The screen is crisp and there are no issues with graininess. The matte finish ensures there’s little to no glare in office lighting situations.

What the T61 screen lacks is brightness, which has always been the case with ThinkPad notebooks. I wish the screen would go about two notches brighter than it does, Fujitsu and HP definitely do a better job offering brighter screens on their business notebooks.

When toggling screen brightness I didn’t get a heads up screen display of current system screen brightness level. I found this annoying as this was always included on past ThinkPads, maybe it’s a Vista driver issue still to be ironed out.

Some will be disappointed to know that the popular FlexView option in the T60 series will no longer be offered for the T61. This is a shame. The vertical viewing angles on the T61 are, like most laptops, poor. A video of the T61 executing graphics benchmark program 3DMark05 in which I tilt the screen to different vertical angles gives you an idea of how coloration varies greatly depending on how you view the screen.

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Protecting the Security of your Laptop
When people entertain laptop computer security measures they entertain matters like Trojan Horses, computer computer viruses, spyware, worms and other awful matters that hackers can send to you across the World Wide Web.

Disregarding however firewalls blocks you've in place, or how many firewalls you put up, though, there is a case of security measures that you're probably leaving out while it comes to your laptop computer.

Tips to Extend Your Laptop Computer Battery Life
1. Defrag your computer on a regular basis
2. Dim the brightness of your screen
3. Turn off all exterior USB devices
4. Close all unused programs
5. Use the standby mode on your computer

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