ULVs vs. Netbooks: The Battle Continues

Industry experts have been telling us about how the future of the notebook market will be fought between ULV laptops and netbooks. In case you are not familiar with ULV laptops, they are energy efficient netbooks that use next generation mobile CPUs that help you get more battery life on the go. Intel and AMD both have their own ULV CPUs that are already being used in top laptops on the market. But are ULVs really that much better than netbooks? A look at current ULV notebook line up suggests otherwise.

The fact that top ULV laptops come with dual core CPUs is a big plus. Many first time netbook owners complain about their devices not being capable of displaying high definition videos. Some complain about their mini-notebooks processing power. With ULVs, you do get more powerful CPUs on your laptop without sacrificing too much battery life. But the current ULV market is not that much superior to the netbook market. And netbooks are still more portable than CULVs. Let’s not forget that netbooks are a bit cheaper than ULV laptops as well. (more…)

Lenovo Ideapad S10 10.2-Inch Netbook

Lenovo Ideapad S10 10.2-Inch Netbook is a mobile laptops designed for people on the go who do not want to sacrifice performance for portability. You get the best of two worlds with S10. You get what you would expect to get with a top notebook. Decent CPU power, plenty of space to store your ideas, and a device that weighs than some college books. The price is is about $380, which makes this affordable to most college students and small businesses. Let’s see what S10 has to offer in detail:

Lenovo S10 Features

• Weight: S10 is super portable. It weighs only 2.4, and it’s only 1.04 inch thick. Easier to carry around than some books.
• Screen: the 10.2 inch size LED back light screen provides you with enough screen real estate to get your work done, and light makes it easier to read documents.
• CPU: it will be a matter of time before we see 2.0GHz netbooks, but at 1.66GHz S10 is close enough.
• Battery: the 3 Cell Lithium-Ion battery will get you about 3 hours of us under normal condition. The battery make last longer depending on what you use S10 for.
• Size (LWH): 7.2 inches, 9.85 inches, 1.08 inches

Lenovo S10 is a good netbook for folks who are looking for performance but don’t want to break their budget. I would like to see more battery life. Top netbooks last for 7-9 hours of use, so getting 3 hours out of S10 is not ideal. The connectivity features also leave something to be desired. Wireless G is the bare minimum needed to get Internet work done properly these days, and it would’ve been better if S10 came with a wireless N adapter.

Verdict: B.