Lenovo IdeaPad S12 Review

[Charles P. Jefferies]

by Charles P. Jefferies

The Lenovo IdeaPad S12 features a 12-inch screen and is one of the largest netbooks on the market. This 3.42-lb machine is designed to let consumers easily surf the Internet and perform other light tasks on-the-go without having to spend a lot of money. The S12 comes pre-loaded with Windows XP, has a full-size keyboard, and includes a six-cell battery for five hours of run time – read on to see how it fared in our testing.

Our Lenovo IdeaPad S12 review unit has the following specifications:

• Intel Atom N270 processor (1.60GHz)
• Windows XP Home Edition
• Intel GMA 950 integrated graphics
• 1GB RAM
• 12.1-inch widescreen display (1280x800) with LED backlighting
• 160GB 5400RPM hard drive (Hitachi HTS543216L9A)
• 6-cell Li-ion battery (11.1V, 52Wh)
• Broadcom 802.11b/g wireless
• One-year limited warranty
• White color (also available in black)
• Dimensions: 11.5 x 8.5 x  0.9 – 1.4 inches (W x D x H)
• Weight: Starting at 3.42 lb w/ 6-cell battery

As configured, our S12 is currently priced at $499. The base model starts at $449 with a VIA Nano 1.3GHz processor.

Build and Design
Since all netbooks have nearly identical specifications, manufacturers have to look at the design and build quality to differentiate themselves. Lenovo's IdeaPad S12 is a docile and friendly-looking machine with a not a square edge in sight. The company's second generation of netbooks feature rounded edges and a slimmer chassis. The S12 looks well built; all of the parts fit together neatly.

The back of the lid has a "fashion" design with hundreds of little circles dotting the lid. The S12 would be at home in a Target store because I think all of those little circles resemble the company's bullseye logo. In addition, the majority of people I showed it to thought it was a girl's machine, probably because it is white and has that circle design on the lid. Your mileage may vary – I suggest guys go with the black version.

The S12 is constructed of ABS plastic through and through. It looks and feels sturdy and is not fragile at all. The only part of the notebook that could be more solid is the battery, which wobbles ever so slightly. There is little flex anywhere on the machine, with the exception to this being the lid; ripples show on the screen when only mild pressure is put on the back of the screen. This should be a non-issue as long as the machine is not thrown around. The hinges that hold the display on are very solid as well. A point of interest about the lid is that it only tilts back about 20 degrees past vertical; given how light this machine is, it will likely be used in a variety of situations and therefore should probably tilt back another 10-20 degrees or so.

The entire base of the notebook has a matte finish, while the lid is glossy plastic front and back. The glossy plastic is surprisingly durable; I did not use a sleeve to protect the S12 in my bag during the week I had it and there were no scratches at the end of the review period.

The glossy screen attracts dust and fingerprints easily, so keep a microfiber cloth handy. As far as cleanliness goes, the white plastic stayed clean during the time I had it; only time will tell how it fares in the long term. Hopefully the plastic is not too absorbent and will not pick up stains and other discolorations. The black S12 is be better at hiding everyday wear and tear.

Compared to the Dell Inspiron Mini 12, a direct competitor to the Lenovo S12, the S12 is slightly smaller (albeit about a tenth of an inch thicker). The S12 feels deceptively heavy in the hands depending on how you pick it up (by the back, front, and so on). The stick-out 6-cell battery is the primary reason the S12 feels weighty.

Overall, the S12 has excellent fit and finish with an accommodating design.

Screen and Speakers
The S12 has a 12-inch widescreen display (16:10 aspect ratio) with a 1280x800 resolution and LED backlighting. Contrast and brightness are excellent; the LEDs lighting the display (instead of the traditional CCFL lighting used in most notebooks) make for a very even brightness distribution, with only a hint of bleed at the bottom. There are ten levels of brightness; I found level 7 or 8/10 to be the sweet spot, but dimming the screen to 4 or 5/10 are perfectly usable and will extend battery life. The top brightness level is almost too bright. Viewing angles are average at best – from above the picture washes out quickly, and from below it darkens. Side-to-side angles are better but there is noticeable color shift.

Unfortunately the glossy screen coating means a lot of reflections, so using this machine outside or areas with a lot of lighting sources could get annoying.

The 1280x800 resolution of the display is excellent for a netbook; most have 1024x600 or less. The display also has a 16:10 aspect ratio, which is unusual since most manufacturers are moving to 16:9 displays. The higher resolution makes the S12 feel more like a full computer than other netbooks with lower resolutions.

There are two speakers located beneath the palm rests on the S12. These are essentially stereotypical notebook speakers – they get loud enough to hear sounds and are reasonably clear but for situations where audio matters, like movies and music, do make use of the headphone jack.

Speaking of the headphone jack, it is unfortunate that some background hiss is present. It is easily drowned out with audio and most people probably will not even notice it, but to a headphone audiophile like myself, it is disappointing.

Keyboard and Touchpad
The IdeaPad S12's keyboard is, in a word, superb; it is full-size and requires no adjusting from a standard notebook keyboard. There is no flex and key travel is just right. The keyboard feels of high quality and allows for precision typing; each key is anchored securely and does not wobble at all. It has excellent tactile feedback and enough resistance that you can rest your hands on the keyboard in typing position without pressing keys accidentally. Lenovo designers made good use of the keyboard real estate – I am pleased to see the PrintScreen key is its own key and not mapped as a secondary function (as in, needing to press the [Fn] key in conjunction with the corresponding key to use it), and that the PgUp and PgDn keys are near the arrow keys. The Home and End keys are secondary function keys, but looking at the space the designers had to deal with, it was clearly not an option to make them separate as well.

All in all, this is one of the best netbook/notebook keyboards I have used in a long time.

The touchpad has its ups and downs. While tracking is easy and it is reasonably accurate, it is a bit too small – I found myself running out of room often. If it measured a half-centimeter more in diameter, it would be perfect. The touchpad buttons provide good feedback and make an audible but not annoying click when depressed. The buttons are easy to find by feel and other than wishing they were slightly larger, I have no complaints about them.

Ports and Features
The IdeaPad S12 has a limited selection of ports – let's take a picture tour. All descriptions are left to right.

Left Side: Power jack, exhaust vent, wireless on/off switch, two USB, media card reader (MMC/MS/MS Pro/SD)

Right Side: ExpressCard/34 slot, headphone and microphone jacks, USB, VGA out, 10/100 Ethernet, Kensington lock slot

Front: Stereo speakers

Back: Battery

The S12 has the essentials; given what a netbook is designed to do, the port selection is difficult to complain about.

Performance
I used the S12 more or less as my primary computer for one week and I quickly found out what a netbook is good for and what it is not good for. Its Internet surfing performance is reasonable, as is its performance in most everyday activities such as playing music and reading email. OpenOffice.org ran without any hitches. I was able to use Firefox and listen to iTunes simultaneously without trouble.

That said, doing anything more strenuous than surfing the Internet can quickly overwhelm the Intel Atom processor. Despite its Hyper-Threading technology, which makes Windows think it has two cores, the Intel Atom is still a single-core processor and a very limited one at that, and therefore multitasking with several programs is not going to be smooth. Alt-tabbing between applications is not instant. In everyday performance, users coming from faster computers will notice programs take longer to open, web pages take longer to render, and in general performance is toned down a notch. Going through ten megapixel images and trying to watch high-res movies from my video camera were clearly too much for it to handle. Know the limits of a netbook before you buy one.

Overall, the S12 is what a netbook is supposed to be – a more portable compliment to a user's primary computer. I found the S12 to be a great companion at work – I used it to listen to music and keep a web browser with my email open. For everyday tasks, the performance is just fine.

All netbooks generally have the same specifications and therefore will have nearly identical performance. Nonetheless, we run a full set of benchmarks for each netbook reviewed.

wPrime processor comparison results (lower scores mean better performance):

Notebook / CPU	wPrime 32M time
Sony VAIO TZ (Core 2 Duo U7600 @ 1.20GHz)	76.240 seconds
HP Pavilion dv2 (AMD Athlon Neo MV-40 @ 1.60GHz)	103.521 seconds
ASUS Eee PC 1000HE (Intel Atom N280 @ 1.66GHz)	114.749 seconds
ASUS Eee PC 1008HA (Intel Atom N280 @ 1.66GHz)	116.030 seconds
ASUS Eee PC 1005HA (Intel Atom N280 @ 1.66GHz)	116.421 seconds
Lenovo IdeaPad S10-2 (Intel Atom N270 @ 1.6GHz)	122.247 seconds
HP Mini 2140 with HD screen (Intel Atom N270 @ 1.60GHz)	123.281 seconds
Dell Latitude 2100 (Intel Atom N270 @ 1.60GHz)	124.062 seconds
Acer Aspire One (Intel Atom @ 1.60GHz)	125.812 seconds
Lenovo IdeaPad S10 (2009) (Intel Atom N270 @ 1.60GHz)	126.406 seconds
Lenovo IdeaPad S12 (Intel Atom N270 @ 1.60GHz)	134.374 seconds
ASUS Eee PC T91 (Intel Atom Z520 @ 1.33GHz)	141.031 seconds
Samsung NC20 (VIA Nano ULV U2250 @ 1.30GHz)	173.968 seconds

 

PCMark05 measures overall system performance (higher scores mean better performance):

Notebook	PCMark05 Score
Sony VAIO TZ (1.20GHz Intel Core 2 Duo U7600, Intel GMA 950)	2,446 PCMarks
HP Pavilion dv2 (1.60GHz AMD Athlon Neo, ATI Radeon HD 3410 512MB)	2,191 PCMarks
ASUS N10 (1.60GHz Intel Atom, NVIDIA 9300M 256MB)	1,851 PCMarks
Toshiba Portege R500 (1.20GHz Intel Core 2 Duo U7600, Intel GMA 950)	1,839 PCMarks
ASUS Eee PC 1005HA (1.66GHz Intel Atom N280, Intel GMA 950)	1,637 PCMarks
Dell Latitude 2100 (1.60GHz Intel Atom, Intel GMA 950)	1,588 PCMarks
ASUS Eee PC 1008HA (1.66GHz Intel Atom N280, Intel GMA 950)	1,564 PCMarks
Acer Aspire One (1.60GHz Intel Atom, Intel GMA 950)	1,555 PCMarks
ASUS Eee PC 1000HE (1.66GHz Intel Atom N280, Intel GMA 950)	1,535 PCMarks
Lenovo IdeaPad S10-2 (1.6GHz Intel Atom N270, Intel GMA 950)	1,511 PCMarks
Lenovo IdeaPad S12 (1.6GHz Intel Atom N270, Intel GMA 950)	1,449 PCMarks
Samsung NC20 (1.30GHz VIA Nano ULV U2250, VIA Chrome9 HC3)	1,441 PCMarks
HP Mini 2140 with HD screen (1.60GHz Intel Atom, Intel GMA 950)	1,437 PCMarks
ASUS Eee PC T91 (1.33GHz Intel Atom, Intel GMA 950)	1,292 PCMarks

 

Video Playback Performance:

Video Resolution	CPU Usage	Playback Comments
480p	25%-35% (hyperthreading)	Plays flawlessly
720p	40%-50% (hyperthreading)	Plays flawlessly
1080p	60%-75% (hyperthreading)	Plays with severe stutter, and broken audio

HDTune for the hard drive performance:

Heat and Noise
The S12 has one small cooling fan which gently pushes lukewarm air out of an exhaust vent on the left side of the machine. The fan is on the majority of the time while in use. The fan is nearly silent – I had trouble hearing it when there was any background noise.

The surface of the S12 does not get warm at all – there are no noticeable hotspots on the bottom or top of the machine. The S12 is a very good choice for those wanting a quiet and cool machine.

Battery Life
At half brightness (5/10) while typing this review and surfing the Internet, the S12 managed five hours of battery life. Lenovo includes a custom power configuration utility with the S12, from which I used the second-most power conscious setting, Low Power. Lenovo claims the S12 can go for six hours, which I suppose could be reached using the Super Energy Saver profile, but it sets the screen brightness down to near zero and barely anything is visible on the screen. Under normal use, expect the S12 to be usable for at least four and a half hours. With a power-saving SSD instead of a mechanical hard drive, I imagine the battery life would be a bit longer.

Conclusion
The IdeaPad S12 is excellence in a small form factor at a low price. The overall design is very pleasing to the eyes and it has the best netbook keyboard I have used to date. Build quality is solid and the screen is beautiful. There is little complain about on the S12 – sure, the touchpad could be a bit larger and the screen could tilt back further, but other than that, if you are in the market for a netbook with a larger screen, it is difficult to go wrong with the Lenovo IdeaPad S12.

Pros:

• Pleasing design
• Solid build quality
• Excellent keyboard and screen
• Five hours of battery life

Cons:

• Touchpad could be a bit larger
• Screen could tilt back further
• Back of the lid could use a bit more protection

Related Articles:

• Lenovo IdeaPad S10-2 Review
• Lenovo IdeaPad S10 Review (Update)

[dietcokefiend]

Great review. I just wish one day Lenovo would come out with a ThinkPad netbook. Put a larger keyboard on it, paint it that rubbery black and it would be near perfection

[Xirurg]

+ thinklight

[Charles P. Jefferies]

Thanks for the compliments guys, I appreciate it. It is impressive what the Lenovo designers were able to do with a 12" chassis - that's not a whole lot of space to work with.

I attached some comparison pictures of the S12 next to some other laptops - an HP dv5t (15.4") and a Dell Precision M6400 (17"). Enjoy.

[Xirurg]

I remember you were saying that netbooks were too small and uncomfortable for you

And I think what will make this netbook even better is future ION platform+ dual core atom...can't wait!

[runtohell121]

too bad theres no ION in this one yet =/

[John Ratsey]

Thanks for this review. The alternative to this is the Samsung NC20 (review here) that has been around for a few months, but it is now looking over-priced at $499 with the Via CPU and no Express Card slot.

A 12.1" screen makes a netbook much more usable. In fact, it becomes an alternative to a small notebook for users with limited demands.

John

[Scrubjay]

Sure wish Lenovo or someone else would produce a 12" netbook with full size keyboard WITH a trackpoint in the keyboard.

[Ripfire]

Sure wish Lenovo or someone else would produce a 12" netbook with full size keyboard WITH a trackpoint in the keyboard.

Yes, I have an Lenovo S10, and would love to have a trackpoint. guess they can't fit it yet.

Nice review Chaz, and I agree about the touchpad, really tiny compared to the Toshiba netbook.

[Red_Dragon]

I remember you were saying that netbooks were too small and uncomfortable for you

And I think what will make this netbook even better is future ION platform+ dual core atom...can't wait!

I know, especially it'll be great to see what Ion eventually evolves into especially if they keep pushing the platform. Chaz you mention the speakers but do you think the speakers are better then most 10" netbooks?