Lenovo's IdeaPad S9 / S10 shows up in FCC database

Hey, look -- another cart before the horse scenario! Long after coming to grips with the fact that Lenovo was indeed producing an IdeaPad S9 and S10, the netbook(s) have surfaced in the FCC's lair. Interestingly, the User Guide looks to tackle both machines in one fell swoop, suggesting that there's not enough difference to warrant the writing of two whole pamphlets that no one will read. There's not too much here that you didn't already know, but it's always a great sign to see a machine make it past this federal hurdle.

[KEROLiUKAS @ Aug 18th 2008 2:36AM]

Gimme!

[derX @ Aug 18th 2008 2:55AM]

You should've just written FIRST.

But you asked to be given something, so who am I to argue?

*gives [-]*

Enjoy and remember to share with your friends. Divide evenly.

[d00b @ Aug 18th 2008 3:50AM]

Points over the MSI Wind: Hard drive & RAM upgradable by opening a bottom panel, instead of tearing down the chassis and voiding the warranty. Can't imagine what MSI was thinking of when they designed the Wind.

Speaking of tear-downs, the "internal photos" provide an excellent guide to dissecting your toy. WiFi module is fairly accessible, allowing easy upgrade to 802.11n when that gets finalized.

Points lost: The glossy shell is going to be a yucky smudge magnet.

[derX @ Aug 18th 2008 2:59AM]

Okay, I am really looking forward to the S10. Of all the netbooks, I think the MSI Wind and the $450 S10 are the best. They offer the best compromise of portability, price, specs, and--which a lot of companies completely ignored because it's a low-cost device--AESTHETICS.

Any other favorites? I'm in the market for something cheap and durable (whoa...okay, I'm talking about netbooks).

[KEROLiUKAS @ Aug 18th 2008 3:07AM]

Yup, i've been watching this, the Wind seemed like the best choice until they raised their prices and the S10 came along, I am now going to go for the S10 instead.

[Ogo @ Aug 18th 2008 6:52AM]

Wind will lose my sale to Lenovo.

My decision was swayed by the touchpad spec change. If I can't turn off touch-click then I cannot buy the Wind.

Either you love a touch click or you hate it.... I hate it.

[kansir @ Aug 18th 2008 3:00AM]

information from newspaper in Hong Kong.
Lenovo accept order start from 20 Aug, the first 10 order will offer "buy-2-get-1-free". The price for S9 is HK$2899 with a 2B USB flash drive.

[dave @ Aug 18th 2008 4:00AM]

Thats USD$370.... WOW.... that's cheap!

Time to hock the EEE901 me thinks.

AGGGHHH.... To wait for the Dell E Slim 8.9 inch or not :-/ HALP!

[E. Leigh @ Aug 18th 2008 11:50AM]

@dave

I feel your pain. The Dell seems promising as well.

[Charlie @ Aug 18th 2008 3:33AM]

White keyboard on a black computer... Really?

[Jason @ Aug 18th 2008 11:01AM]

Actually looks grey to me - a sort of why not just go back to CompuAd beige sort of grey. Says Thinkpad fan, "Gross!"

[JamesM @ Aug 18th 2008 3:59AM]

A question for those who've looked at the photos: is the computer with the speakers on each side of the screen the S9, and the computer without the screen speakers the s10?

The speakers make the laptop look ugly and cheap. The s10 is much more attractive. Also, they must be about the same size.

[Mo_ @ Aug 18th 2008 4:01AM]

i think the link is broken? or is it me!

[JamesM @ Aug 18th 2008 4:10AM]

It's just you.

[Khoa Khuong @ Aug 18th 2008 4:03AM]

Interesting stuff, those FCC documents. Being so interested in the S10, I actually dug into most of the PDFs to see if I could glean some more info. Nothing too surprising, but I noted the following:

- The huge access panel on the bottom is described in the manual as a hard drive/RAM panel, so upgrades to these parts should be straightforward (confirmed by pics of the insides). Hear that, Acer?
- It uses a Broadcom WLAN card, but Linux users shouldn't be too worried about compatibility since Lenovo will be offering Linpus preloaded in some regions. (Unless they use two different cards...)
- As far as I can tell, there is only a single hardware switch (and duplicate Fn-key combo) to toggle both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth on and off simultaneously.
- (Not in the FCC papers, but learned elsewhere:) An SD card in the card reader will stick out a fair bit (more than all the other netbooks, I think), but this should not be a big problem if we're talking about 80GB/160GB hard drives. Use it to dump photos, instead.
- The OneKey Rescue System indeed consists of a hidden partition with an image of the original install; you can invoke it by pressing a button above the keyboard. There are no included rescue disks, however.
- You can pop off the palm rest for access to the trackpad without taking out the keyboard, but why you would want to do that is beyond me.
- The "production" models pictured are black, blue, and red, all with white batteries. The finish on the black one looks too glossy and fingerprint-ridden for my taste, and even worse, it has a white keyboard (with a black deck)! There are conflicting photos of the color combinations available, but I guess we'll find out soon.
- Oh, and the Wi-Fi antenna is rated at 2.2 dBi, if you want to know.

[d00b @ Aug 18th 2008 4:24AM]

Cha`o anh,

Removal of the palm rest allows access to the WiFi & BT modules, much simpler than opening up the rest of the chassis.

WiFi antenna is standard Thinkpad part. My Thinkpads have always had good reception. It's too bad Lenovo wouldn't just copy the Thinkpad X layout and use the Trackpoint instead of the pad, freeing up space to stretch the keyboard vertically. As it is, it's a bit squished.

The Rescue stuff is IMO a waste of HD space for a techie. SOP is typically a disk wipe, followed by a fresh OS install and an imaging of the install. That stuff is best on a bootable USB key.

[Mario @ Aug 18th 2008 6:39AM]

One of the labels in the "Label format and location" pdf states that "This product contains a lamp which contains mercury". Does that mean the LCD backlight is CCFL rather than LED?

[waiownsyou @ Aug 18th 2008 4:53AM]

....so the Foleo was ahead of its time...

[Mario @ Aug 18th 2008 6:46AM]

As I understand it, the Foleo was just too underpowered and too expensive.

416MHz processor, 128MB RAM, 256MB Flash memory, for $500-$600. Its nice 10" display and five-hour battery-life couldn't rescue it.

Close but no cigar, Palm.

[waiownsyou @ Aug 18th 2008 1:50PM]

Yeah but that was 2007 and was conceptual. I'm sure if it was released now, it'd be similarly price with modern specs for a "netbook".

[Hellios @ Aug 18th 2008 5:09AM]

This looks awesome, like a fairly priced Wind, I just hope that price translates well into the European region.

[Hellios @ Aug 18th 2008 5:09AM]

This looks awesome, like a fairly priced Wind, I just hope that price translates well into the European region.

[ipporek @ Aug 18th 2008 6:09AM]

Why couldn't they have just made it entirely black... so hard to find a good and nice looking netbook fully in black...

[m @ Aug 18th 2008 4:56PM]

they do.

[gpdrummr @ Aug 19th 2008 2:52AM]

press shots: http://www.lenovo.com/shop/americas/content/img_lib/productphotos/S10_black.jpg

http://www.engadget.com/photos/lenovo-goes-netbook-with-ideapad-s10/958087/

there gonna make it in black. fyi.

[Rick @ Aug 18th 2008 9:14AM]

Black, schmack, who cares what color it is if they can just deliver them to buyers.

[bugbot42 @ Aug 18th 2008 10:22AM]

I looked through the manual, and it doesn't mention anything about multi-touch. Anyone know why that is? I read in a previous Engadget article that it did have multi-touch, but the manual just doesn't seem to give any indication that it does.

[Weeze-dog @ Aug 18th 2008 10:27AM]

Ok some important things to note. The SSD is soldiered onto the motherboard beneath the RAM. That has to be the SSD, as there was no pictures of a hard drive or caddy in the documents, so it is the SSD model. This will disappoint users looking to upgrade the SSD, though you could plugin a SATA SSD and use that. Also you could use the built in SSD for OS and a regular hard drive for storage.
Also due to its location under the RAM, you might only be able to use single-sided memory modules. It's hard to tell how close the so-dimm is to the SSD chips, but I guess that a double-sided so-dimm would be too thick to use. Otherwise a good design. The lenovo is 2nd on my list of netbooks, behind the 2133 (once the CPU is upgraded in the 2133). If it takes HP too long to ship a upgraded 2133, I will buy the lenovo S10. But I prefer the aluminum chassis, 1280x768 resolution, and powerful speakers of the HP more and am willing to pay for it. I would like a 10" screen with 1280x768 though, 8.9" seems a little too small.

[Weeze-dog @ Aug 18th 2008 10:34AM]

Also speaking of speakers, I don't actually see any in the S9. They should be next to the screen, but I don't see anything there. And I didn't see them in by the wrist rest, or anywhere else, unless I am missing them. Does anyone see any speakers?

[Weeze-dog @ Aug 18th 2008 10:37AM]

No wait, I found the speakers at the very front of the laptop. So why is there speaker grills by the screen....

[loop @ Aug 18th 2008 12:02PM]

one big flaw with this machine..only has one ram slot according to the pics and that means only 1gb of ram max with the current 945 chipset for the atom...unless those 2 hynix chips are soldered on memory...or does that phison chip mean some kind of ssd onboard with the hynix and a instant on os or hard drive?

[Turk182 @ Aug 19th 2008 4:23AM]

Hey guys you can order one right now at the Lenovo site!! Black White & Red colors Only problem is ships within 2-3 weeks lol

[ipporek @ Aug 19th 2008 5:17AM]

Seriously 1GB RAM max???

[Luke Seubert @ Aug 25th 2008 8:24PM]

Where is the User Manual? I have carefully looked at all seven documents listed in the link to the FCC site, and the user manual does not appear there. Apparently a confidentiality request was filed, and the User Guide, photos, etc. were pulled off the site until October 10.

Does anybody have a copy of the User Guide? I would really like to read it over to get a better idea of the specs on this machine.

Thanks,
Luke