This unit was ordered for one of the Buddhist Monks that's part of my recent project. For ref: viewtopic.php?f=2&t=2925
Burlesque Show - Unboxing
The box design has changed. No more pretty colors...
Simple flap reveals the treasures inside
Here we have a box for the battery and power cables, Manuals and Docs, The Unit itself
Power cables, Battery in the smaller box.
The unit top-side. The new pattern on the case is visible.
Also, the logo on the lid is no longer made of foil. It is just a simple paint job.
Too bad, I liked the foil.
Screen protection film. The newly designed keyboard is now visible.
Closed with the battery. It came with a 6-cell fatness by default. I had no choice for a 3-cell.
It's ALIVE!!!
A picture of my camera. It would have been a good picture, if it wasn't for this netbook in the way.
Also ordered the sleeve. Got two of them in fact. It's pink on the outside, but you can flip it over.
Details and Comparison - The apple didn't fall too far from the tree
So far the most noticeable difference between the S10-2 and its predecessor are the æsthetics. Spec wise, they are nearly identical. So why the reboot? It seems to me like Lenovo's engineers are finally answering some of the our loudest complaints concerning the S10 with the S10-2. There are mostly improvements.
USB
I have an old external 2.5" drive that requires 2 USB ports to function. One for data, and one for power. So the cable has two USB plugs on it. With the S10, this was impossible to use, as there were only 1 USB port on each side. The cable's splitting USB plugs were too short to wrap around the body. This is no longer an issue as there are 3 USB ports on the S10-2. Two of which can be found on the same, right side of the main body.
Wifi
This is just a nice feature. Many of us had some issues with enabling/disabling Wifi via the button on top of the S10 or by the Fn keys. This is now a non-issue as there is a toggle for Wifi. Very handy indeed. No need to fuss around with Fn keys.
Screen
It maybe hard to tell in the photo below, but the S10-2 has a warmer color tone than the S10. It is reminiscent of what Apple did with the introduction of iPhone 3G. http://gizmodo.com/5024703/apple-yellow ... -by-design
While warmer on the eyes, it is a bit off in terms of accuracy. According to my Spyder Pro 3, the color map on the S10-2 is a little bit more off than the S10. There is a slight bit of more Magenta than the S10 originally had. Since I am a photographer and graphics designer, this bothers me in ways only chinese water torture can explain to the rest of you. But again, this netbook wasn't built for graphics work, nor was it aimed at Photogs in general. In short, minor issue.
Design changes
They have made numerous changes to the design of the unit in general. Here are the pics detailing the changes.
The power button now lights up. Looks pretty nice too.
Finally, a proper Shift key.
The status lights are now more to the top of the body than on the front
Re-designed Quick-Start button. I still think that what this button needs is a Quick-Death. And a replacement with a restore CD
New camera housing. Very nice.
No more green and red for the Audio in/out. I'm calling this one a step back.
One more thing...
The biggest improvement/change I've noticed has to be the extra Mini PCI-e slot I've found on the bottom. Incredible.
Just WOW. The logical thing to stick in there would be a more powerful PCI-e GPU.
In homer's voice: Mmmmmmm. G P U.
Profile
Definitely thinner without the battery.
In short
So far pretty good hardware wise. Software wise it's a completely different story. I'm sorry... What I meant to say was that Software side of things, the S10-2 is a land-fill, covered with yellow goo you get from a bad infection on your elbow.
I mean... The moment I turn it on, it is COVERED with offers to Protection plans, Anti Virus this and that, and Bundled crapware. It took me about 20 minutes to get rid of all this garbage. It wasn't nearly as bad with the S10.
First, I was bombarded with a "Lenovo, Get connected" wizard that tried to insist that Net Zero was the way to go. No JOKE. Then, It tried to sell me MS Office, Diskeeper 2008 Home edition. Then a survey.
And after that was finished, I was told that I "chose" ID Vault as one of the services. No joke. You can't even de-select "ID Vault." (Face-palm)
Then starts the "Lenovo Decision Center." NOT making that name up. It is the DECISION CENTER. Sweet Jesus.
Anyways... The hardware is really nice. After a format with a vengeance, the entire thing can then be enjoyed.
9 out of 10 from me, considering I've encountered no issues as of this writing. And since I've formatted this beast, the software bazaar doesn't count.
