A Netvertible Called Lenovo Ideapad S10-3t

I’ve been using tablet PCs as far back as 2004 when I bought the HP TC1100 with Windows XP Professional Tablet edition. The TC1100 is more of a slate than a tablet PC since you can detach the keyboard and use tap on the screen with a digitizer pen to input commands and text by way of a soft keyboard. On one occasion my daughter borrowed my Tabby (yes, we give names to our computers at home) and many of her classmates thought it was a “cool, new” computer. Once on board a plane I took out Tabby to do some work and the passenger next to me asked what device I was using. I could never fathom why HP would decide to kill this product in favor of a conventional tablet PC with a swivel screen. You can see the slate formfactor of the TC1100 on first season of Bones.

Anyway, Lenovo had its Tabby equivalent in the form of the X61 and more recently the  X200T. The next iteration is the soon to be available X201T.

With Tabby being six years old and nearing retirement I’ve been on the lookout for a  replacement machine. I’ve checked out HP’s TX2 and Dell’s XT2 (ever get the feeling some product marketeers just aren’t that creative?). Both are too heavy for a  truly portable experience. The growing popularity of netbooks certainly made me think of  the possibility of a netbook equipped with a digitizer. True enough a number of tablet  netbook (netvertible) have recently cropped up (see list at the bottom).

The success of the iPod Touch and iPhone shows the possibilities. But even the latest Apple product – the iPad – can’t be construed as a true productivity tool because of its technical limitations. To get a sense of what I mean, click here to watch this video.

One vendor that has been pushing hard and fast in the netbook craze is Lenovo. Lenovo has branded its netbook offering under the label ‘Ideapad’. Early this year, Lenovo launched its first tablet netbook. What is unique about this tablet netbook is Lenovo’s use of a capacitative touchscreen (the same technology used on the  iPhone). This is important because capacitative screens are one of the reasons why the  iPhone and iPod Touch became popular. Unlike resistive screens which require you to put  pressure on the screen to register an action, capacitative screens uses static electricity to initiate an action. The net result is a more fluid experience.

The Lenovo Ideapad S10-3t uses the new Intel Atom Processor N450 which  offers a 40% reduction in power consumption. It is rumored that when the N470 becomes  available, the S10-3t will offer this option as well.

The fact that this is a netbook and not a laptop means you have to be prepared to take things in stride. A standard feature in most laptops and desktop computers is the ability to multi-task, i.e., run a number of applications at the same thing. The good news is that on a netbook you can still multi-task (unlike iPhones, iPod Touch and iPad). The bad news is that depending on the applications you are running, the experience may not be as smooth or satisfying. For example, watching a video while surfing the Internet will result in the inevitable skips or pause in the viewing experience. Don’t fret! This is hordes better than on an Apple iPad where you can’t surf the Internet while writing your memoirs. The Apple iPad OS simply doesn’t support this today.

 

Getting an Edge with Lenovo

Back in the days when IBM still had a personal computer division, the Thinkpad series (first released in 1992) were targeted at mid- to large enterprises that wanted transportable computers that were rugged, asthetic and had the computing power needed to run most business applications. The classic Thinkpad designed has remained largely unchained over the years. However, the business dynamics of enterprises have changed. Economic downturns and the need for greater cost control have led managers to agree to use other brands as long as they did the job.

This changed in the perception among business executives is one of the reasons why Dell and HP successfully penetrated the enterprise despite being considered of inferior design and manufacture (to date, I still hear executives swear they will never use either brand with reliability cited as the most common reason).

When Lenovo bought the PC division from IBM, the Chinese company (in China they were known as Legend) decided to keep what it saw was a ‘winning’ design formula in the Thinkpad. Lenovo launched less the less pricy, 3000 series to target small businesses as well as consumers. The 3000 (C, N and V) series was eventually discontinued and giving rise to the Ideapad series with a much better aesthetic formfactor to meet a more design-conscious market. The Thinkpad family continued to be sold at a premium and despite new technology and materials, the external design remained the same – staid, boxy, heavy and black. Most executives I see carried their Thinkpad on a carry-case with wheels (that should tell you something).

If Apple Computer were to be credited with changing industry perception about personal computers is that you don’t have to be drab (dressed in black) to be productive, efficient and business-like. In fact you can be all of these and also be cool.

At the Consumer Electronics Show in January 2010, Lenovo decided to give the Thinkpad a facelift. The first two models to come off the show floor were the Thinkpad X100e and the Thinkpad Edge. The X100e is the first netbook for the business executive. I’ve read a number of very positive reviews about the X100e and so did my own review when I was handed the new netbook for a few days of handholding. True to its legacy, the X100e is a laptop with the business executive in mind. It carried everything you ever needed from your laptop at netbook prices. There were only two things I didn’t like about the X100e – weight (it was heavy at 1.36 kg) and the processor that came with the test unit was and AMD Athlon Neo MV-40 was not as energy efficient as the Intel Atom processors (of course the AMD chip has more compute horsepower compared to its Intel counterpart).

In the conventional laptop category, Lenovo launched the Thinkpad Edge, a 13.3″ laptop sporting a new body and new keyboard, while retaining the Thinkpad tradition of rugged, solid design.