Lenovo S12 Netbook announced: It packs heavy-duty Ion graphics

HDMI Netbooks are landing: The S12

(Credit: Lenovo)

Just when we were ready to accept the stuttery nature of our Netbook HD video playback, along come Nvidia and Lenovo at long last to change our expectations. The IdeaPad S12, arriving in August, will be the first Netbook sporting discrete graphics from the Nvidia Ion processor. With power similar to the 9400M chipset already in Apple's 13-inch MacBooks, IonNetbooks promise full-HD video output and actual gaming performance--not that we'd want to try Crysis on it anytime soon. However, according to Nvidia, Spore, Call of Duty 4, Portal, and World of Warcraft will all be very playable indeed.

The price is right, too--$499 for the Ion-packing S12, with a 12.1-inch, 1,280x800 screen and Atom N270 processor. For 50 dollars less, an Ion-free S12 can also be yours (though we don't know why you'd possibly want that). The Ion claims a 10x performance boost on existing Netbook integrated graphics with "nearly identical" power consumption. HD H264, VC-1 and MPEG-2 "won't be a problem," say Nvidia. Do we dare believe?

Available in white or black, the 1.14-inch-thick, 3.7-pound S12 has a six-cell battery, 1 GB of DDR2 RAM, a 160 GB HDD, XP Home, a 1.3-megapixel Webcam (stop us if this sounds familiar), and 802.11 b/g wireless.

Other notables: an Express Card slot, 3 USB 2.0 ports, a multitouch trackpad, HDMI port with the Ion model, a full-size keyboard, and Lenovo's Quick Start, VeriFace, and OneKey Rescue System for making backups.

For the price and the size, is this an ideal gaming Netbook? Or is it, in fact, just a variation on 12-inch notebooks? We're not even sure it matters, because for the price, it sounds like an excellent proposition indeed.

Lenovo IdeaPad S12

[cbruner]

I really like the speciifcations of the ION S12 from Lenovo, except for one item. Where is the 802.11n?!

I want a full size keyboard in the smallest package possible, that I can connect to the net anywhere. Why no "N" Lenovo? This is a mistake. In fact, let me be very clear. I want "N", that works on both 2.4Ghz and 5 Ghz, with drivers that don't require NDISwrapper.

To borrow a phrase "It's a NETbook stupid". Make it easily connectable.

[C433Z]

I know right? While I was reading this I was thinking "yes, yes, yes, WHAT?!, no 'N'?!"

My only other concern is battery life. Hopefully it'll get around that 5 hour battery life in Cnet tests.

[Spanwite]

Now we talking, that's it what I'm looking for! Finally some Graphic punch.
Later free upgrade to Win7?

[Mr. Dee]

I like the black S12, looks really slick. Seriously though, with specs like that, they could load it up with Vista Home Premium instead of XP Home.

[U. Tripps]

Hmm... Maybe the discrete graphics card could handle Aero's needs, but it's hard to believe you could have a good Vista experience with 1GB of RAM.

[monkeyfun14]

@Tripps

Just pop in another gig and it would run fine =]

[pithenumber]

@Mr.Dee
not enough RAM to do it smoothly and if they went with Vista, I'd go with business instead
@Tripps
9400M isn't discrete, its an integrated chip

[flipmatthew]

For vista they would need another gig of ram, and an N280 ( 1.66 Ghz AND a 667 Mhz FSB instead of 533 Mhz

[U. Tripps]

They've got to get this up to 2GB. My wife has the S10 with 1GB, and it is sloooowww! Discrete graphics would help a lot, but that is not the only performance barrier on these things.

[JordyKun]

Why can't they put in the N280 processor, I mean it's out, why not use it? Especially for a "gaming netbook". Just doesn't make sense to me.

[flipmatthew]

i agree 100%, it needs a N280 processor and 2gb's of ram.

[TrackSmart]

The N280 is only marginally faster than the N270. You'd probably gain 0.5 frames-per-second (if anything) in actual usage. Ion paired with Atom will allow you to barely play some newer games on the lowest possible settings. That's a huge improvement, but to call it a 'gaming netbook' is a massive overstatement.

Check out the reviews of recent "nettop" all-in-one computers that have this combination. And keep your expectations low...

[peco412]

It's the 1,280x800 screen resolution that interests me. I use a 1920x1080 display and can't stand the 1,024x600 screen resolution of most netbooks. A netbook should fully resolve most web pages at its native screen resolution, whatever the size of the display.

I am looking for a Netbook to connect my 55" HDTV to the internet specifically to stream HD operas from the Metropolitan Opera "MetPlayer" HD streaming service. If this can handle full HD (1920X1080) and has a good HDMI output, it will work fine. Otherwise, I'll need a bigger laptop with more memory and a faster processor..

[tipoo_]

Heavy duty Ion graphics is almost an oxymoron. The Ion platform is great, no doubt, and much better than Intel's IGP's, but please dont call it heavy duty.

[TechnoMan475392]

Speed is relative, young grasshopper.

[eekitsericc]

haha

[play7]

Dont you know the rah rah people stil say these are IBM maded? smart people know they not. But Dan the great Cnet /Second life reporter ( cough ) still dpes their best VR BS spin.

add Linux to this ,cut the windows you would have a notebook that would last 6 to 10 years

[hetzbh]

cburner, I think that the "no N" is due to the chipset. It's using the nVidia's chipset which IIRC does not supports the N standard yet, but it's easily solvable: you can by a cheap expresscard 802.11N card, stick it in, and you're ready to go ...

One issue that I do see as a problem is that there is no bluetooth, and those bluetooth dongle sucks since they're lost quite frequently..

[ajnauron]

Looks like my new fav netbook but I'm hesitating because new netbooks are being announced every other day, I need to see some benchmarks, and I'm waiting for them to get a little bit more powerful, dual-core at least.

[gastlind]

Full hd on a 1280x800 screen is just plain silly :( Sad for those who don't know that full hd is 1920x1080... Won't have a chance to fit on screen.

[ypark22]

well.. they're saying that it can run 1080p.. so if you hook it up to a bigger monitor it'll play without a hitch? maybe? lol

[ThEdifer]

its been pushed back to oct., likely to be launched with windows 7. this will run win 7 with 1gb maybe 2gb with aero enabled.

[bhavik2810]

I would suggest everyone to go with Lenovo Idea Pad S12 Netbook because The graphical portion of the Idea Pad is "made in" Intel. Do not expect to play anything other than minesweeper or Track mania at lower resolution. The Lenovo Idea Pad S12 netbook is raising the bar for higher levels of netbook computing with choices of the Intel Atom processor with Intel integrated graphics or the Intel Atom processor with NVIDIA ION graphics. Also, for the first time on a netbook with NVIDIA?s ION graphics platform, users will be able to enjoy brilliant 1080p high definition video with silky smooth playback. Read this article for more details http://www.techarena.in/review/9854-lenovo-ideapad-s12-netbook.htm

[bhavik2810]

I would suggest everyone to go with Lenovo Idea Pad S12 Netbook because The graphical portion of the Idea Pad is "made in" Intel. Do not expect to play anything other than minesweeper or Track mania at lower resolution. The Lenovo Idea Pad S12 netbook is raising the bar for higher levels of netbook computing with choices of the Intel Atom processor with Intel integrated graphics or the Intel Atom processor with NVIDIA ION graphics. Also, for the first time on a netbook with NVIDIA?s ION graphics platform, users will be able to enjoy brilliant 1080p high definition video with silky smooth playback. Read this article for more details http://www.techarena.in/review/9854-lenovo-ideapad-s12-netbook.htm