Lenovo S10-3: Review with Pics

[ranns]

A day after I got my S10-3T, monchter and I went to the Lenovo Shop again. He was in awe when he saw the S10-3, that he bought it right away. My Favorite Lenovo staff Rey was in a meeting. Good thing they still had two units left. We got one and the last one was bought 10 minutes later. It was so good that all their stocks of 4 S10-3T's and 10 S10-3s were sold out in two days. The red colored lid S10-3 is good, but the black one is better.

It has basically the same specs as the S10-3T except for the touch screen. The LCD also has a size ratio of 16:9. The battery however is a 6-cell type which goes for more than 6 hours based on our initial testing. It also has Windows 7 Starter Edition but we upgraded it to Home Premium along with the RAM upgrade to 2GB. It also has an extra mini pci-e slot for 3G modem but I have yet to see the BIOS since it's different from the S10-3T.

S10-3 Specs:

Processor: Intel ATOM Processor N450 ( 1.66GHz 667MHz 512KB )

Operating system: Genuine Windows 7 Starter

Graphics: Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 3150

Memory: 1GB PC2-5300 DDR2 SDRAM 667MHz

Display: 10.1 "SD LED Glare(1024 x 600) 16:9 ratio

Pointing device: Multi-touch Trackpad

Hard Drive: 250GB SATA 5400rpm

Battery: 6 Cell Lithium-Ion

Network Card: 10/100 Ethernet, Lenovo b/g/n Wi-Fi wireless + Bluetooth

Media Reader: 6-in-1 Card Reader

Weight: 1.1 Kg.

Accessories : Sleeve Case


Here are the pics:


Overall design is simply amazing! The lid has a carbon fiber design. No more finger prints!


wide screen lcd, brushed aluminum design palm rest, island-style 98% keyboard (no flex)






Apple Macbook inspired muti-touch trackpad


Full use of the screen bezel (power button on the left, and One-key Recovery and Quick Start buttons on the right)




Tilts further


Left side where the VGA port, power jack, USB port, card reader and wireless switch is located.


Right side consist of mic/headphone jack, 2 more USB ports, and LAN port


The 6-cell battery is now flushed with the back of the unit. Small bulge at the bottom which gives a nice upward tilt.

[ranns]

Post continues....

The lenovo logo is embossed on the carbon fiber design which gives a more elegant look.




Textured keyboard keys


Bottom panel has a rough finish, an easy to remove back panel plate for upgrading, and an aztec design vent holes!


The 6-cell battery is surprisingly not protruding that much at the bottom. Nice job Lenovo!


Back panel removed. Only 4 screws to loosen.


Better view of the 3G modem slot with pre-wired antenna. Wifi module is at the top part.


Compared to the older Lenovo S10-2
















Close up of the 6-cell battery


SIM Slot inside the battery bay


The BIOS section


Side-by-side



I hope they put up this design on the tablet version too. I'll bet it'll be another hotcake version.

[sartre]

i got mine too

sir ranns, any idea on how much a 3g modem is? thank you

[ranns]

Some old ones costs around 2k-2.5k. The one I used cost a bit more

[sartre]

sir, any store where i could buy even the 'old ones'? tia

[ranns]

There are quite a few on eBay. However, I found a bit of problem with S10-3 BIOS.

After I successfully unlocked my S10-3T BIOS to receive a third party 3G modem, I now tried it on monchter's S10-3. I know it's the same specs as my S10-3T minus the touch screen, but it has a different BIOS. When I first tried the third-party 3g modem card to my unhacked S10-3T, it wouldn't boot up because of it. But when I tried the same card to the unhacked S10-3, the booting went through! I was able to boot into windows but the device wasn't detected. I re-inserted the card and it was the same. The only thing I can think of is that the mini pci-e slot is disabled. That's why no matter what card I insert there, it will still boot up but won't be recognized in Windows.

One thing I noticed also is when I tried to hack the S10-3 BIOS, I couldn't find any traces of VID/PID which I found in the S10-3T BIOS. I tried looking for all the approved VID/PID and there wasn't any. I thought at first that maybe there is no white list in the BIOS (which is next to impossible) that's why I was ecstatic when it first booted up with the card installed, only to find out that it's not recognized by windows.

[sartre]

thank you sir.

please keep us posted of any development on s10-3's bios modifications

[ranns]

Good news for S10-3 users! The mini pci-e slot is not BIOS locked!

I know now why it didn't work the first time I tried it. It's not enabled by default! After you install your modem and fire up your netbook, you need to press Fn-F5 and enable the 3G modem there by setting it to "on", and windows 7 will recognize it and ask for drivers. Just install your modem's drivers, install the connection manager too, and you're set! I think you can practically plug in any card and it might just work!

It puzzles me why Lenovo did this to S10-3 while locking the BIOS of S10-3T.

[dencio888]

Got a new unit this week, how long usually does a 6cell last with wifi on?
I got mine working continuously for approximately 530hrs only on Energy Star power scheme mode.
Shouldnt it be more than 6hrs ?

[ranns]

you are right about the actual battery life. Mine goes for the same length on Energy Star mode. It might go more than 6 hours on super power saver mode though.