Lenovo's Ion-powered IdeaPad S12 shows HD prowess on video

Lenovo did itself a solid by beating the likes of Acer and ASUS with its Ion-infused IdeaPad S12, and now we're beginning to see a few more details on what performance will be like. We still wish the machine had something a bit more powerful than a 1.6GHz Intel Atom N270, but despite the fact that it's hobbling along on an aged CPU, the machine seems to handle 3D gaming and 1080p content with poise. The crew over at Notebooks managed to spend a little quiet time with a pre-production version of the S12, and it even managed to host up a few videos while the machine was kicking out content that would make the typical netbook buckle. Feel free to hit the read link to have a look yourself, and be sure to mind the three American SKUs. Here's a preview: the Ion-powered version (read: the one you want) will run $499.99 and include 1GB of RAM, a 6-cell battery and a 160GB hard drive.

[Via GottaBeMobile]

[Mitch Posted May 25th 2009 4:48PM]

Those computers will also be running Vista. Xp can't be put on a netbook with a dual core proceessor or one with more than 1GB of ram.

Or we wait till Win 7 starts shipping in which case hopefully home premium will rock on most netbooks.

[nielsandersen Posted May 25th 2009 6:50PM]

Why did you lose the nice classic matte look on the body, Lenovo? What could have been a perfect budget ultraportable now looks like ass simply because you had to go and put texture and high gloss finish on it. How hard can it be to take a look at what your bloody own Thinkpad division is doing? They manage to actually make laptops look timeless and classy and not like some shit plastic toy.

/nerd rage

[brothaa Posted May 25th 2009 7:29PM]

that is pretty sweet

now stick that into a Thinkpad X200 v2, which has a 2.4 dual core centrino and we got ourselves a deal.

[looselycoupled Posted May 25th 2009 7:41PM]

Man, this thing is almost PERFECT for a netbook (big plus for the 12" screen and Expresscard slot). I just can't bring myself to buy a single-core Atom.

I know the Atoms are cheap, but man all these netbook manufacturers should really offer an option of at least an Intel
Celeron M ULV 723 (1.2Ghz stripped down Core 2 Solo ULV). or the new dual-core Celeron ULV 743. Even better would be an optional dual-core Intel CULV or dual-core AMD NEO!

Come on Lenovo lets see it!

[taciturnforsale Posted May 25th 2009 8:46PM]

give me the ion platform on a ten inch screen and at a three hundred dollar price point.

[Lazarpandar Posted May 25th 2009 9:24PM]

You're gonna be waiting a while

[Inzain Posted May 26th 2009 1:33AM]

12"? Bah, that's not a netbook. My 12" Thinkpad would nuke this in performance.

What I want is a 10" screen on the Ion platform! ASUS/Samsung/Lenovo, are you listening?

[robamb2002 Posted May 27th 2009 11:32AM]

My dream netbook:

no larger than 10" 720p screen (touch screen optional)
Dual core Atom/Neo/CULV (even a dual core Via would be better than whats out there now)
NVIDIA ION
2 Gb DDR2 667 (or higher)
64 Gig SSD (or larger)
WiFi "N", Bluetooth, and optional 3G
6-9 Cell Li-Ion battery
Windows 7

Gimme that for under a grand, and I will send the check tomorrow. the tech is out there, we just need someone to put it all into one machine.

I'm not looking for bottomfeeder prices, I want a portable machine I can do light gaming on while on break at work, during long car rides and out at family and friends. I'm tired of my power lame EEE901 and don't want to cart around my 17" gamming laptop everywhere I go for 1/2 hr of fun.

I'm not alone, this is what we want. PLEASE SOMEONE HEAR US!!!

[(Unverified) Posted May 27th 2009 1:31PM]

gutted the euro version will not be ion :(

[(Unverified) Posted Aug 21st 2009 2:35PM]

What is the video (which is @40Mbps) on the second video? How its called?

[(Unverified) Posted Aug 21st 2009 2:36PM]

What is the video (which is @40Mbps) on the second video? How its called?