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(More customer reviews)I go this version of the S10 and I've been using it heavily around the house and on the train ride to and from work. In addition to the S10 I purchased a 9 cell battery to replace the stock battery, and a 2GB RAM stick to bump up the RAM from 1GB to two.
First the display. It is a 10" netbook and the resolution is 1024x600. If you're doing some heavy duty graphics then this isn't the right tool. But for web browsing and email it works great.
The keyboard is just a little bit tight and I find myself hitting the very edge of the keys when typing. But with a little adjustment I can get used to the keyboard and the layout. The tab and caps lock key are easy to mix up, and the fn key + home combination is a bit awkward. But for a 10" keyboard you can't complain. And it is way better than the other netbook keyboards I've tried.
The hard drive is 160GB SATA so there is tons of room to install Office 2007 and other applications you may want to use. When the price of SSD storage comes down I'll probably snap in a SSD in place of the mechanical hard drive, but for now the drive works great and I have plenty of room for storing pictures and music.
The wireless works great and I was able to connect to my wireless router using WPA2 + PSK. I was able to clock in at 1.04MB/sec downloading from the internet - just as fast as my desktop PC. Clearly the wireless isn't the bottleneck.
Using the webcam for Skype works find. The resolution is a little low but it works great for a built-in webcam. The microphone didn't work so well but I added a USB Skype phone for better overall voice with Skype any way. (I'd recommend a USB Skype phone or headset if you want to do voice-only calls, it really makes a world of difference.)
The S10 has only 2 USB ports so if you have a bunch of USB devices I'd recommend a small travel hub. I only have a mouse and CD / DVD drive so 2 ports are just fine, but to add a USB thumb drive would take a hub.
The only slight negative I found is the SDCard reader doesn't let you push the card all the way in - it kind of sits half-way in and is somewhat exposed. I had wanted to use the SDCard for a backup device for my OS upgrade adventures (see below) but that didn't work because the SDCard hangs out too far to leave it in during normal operation. On the plus side it did work great for transferring my pictures without needing a USB port.
The 9-cell battery hangs off the back of the S10 pretty far, creating a pretty big bump on the back. It kind of hangs down, creating a mini laptop stand that raises and tilts the S10 forward about ¾ inches. The only complaint I have with the battery is it takes almost forever to charge!! I'm not sure if it's the battery or not, but even the 3 cell battery that comes with the s10 has a glacial charging pace. Still, 7 - 8 hours on the battery makes up for it, and now I have a spare (the old 3 cell) to pop in as a backup.
FWIW, I blew away all the OEM software & partitions and put Windows 7 (RC 1 build 7100) on the S10. All the hardware drivers were downloaded and work great with no installation on my part. The web cam was detected and there was an update for the intel chipset that I got after I did the windows update. But for a beta (or Release Candidate) OS it was amazingly painless. Windows 7 boots and operates just as fast as Windows XP. After putting in the 2GB stick I'm thrilled with the performance.
Overall the S10 packs everything I need into a 10" netbook. Replacing the 1GB RAM stick with a 2GB stick is the only major enhancement this little netbook could use.
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Enjoy more perks with increased portability. The IdeaPad S10 notebook makes it easy to get connected, anytime, anywhere. And it's designed to keep pace with your busy lifestyle, possibly even simplify it. At a mere 2.65 lbs and about one inch thin, it's so light and portable you can take it wherever your day takes you. Plus it's loaded with thoughtful standard features to make your life a little easier. It features a winning combination of mobile technology and exceptional engineering at a fantastic price.
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