Lenovo Launches 10-inch S10e Ideapad Netbook With XP Pro

Lenovo is betting on its IBM legacy to make of its latest Netbook a roaring success and has even dropped down its price compared to the previous S10 that was launched back in August.

The new Netbook comes with a 10.1-inch LED backlit screen (capable of displaying 1024x600 pixels), an ATOM processor, a webcam and either a 4GB SSD (ed: that's too small) or a huge 160GB hard disk drive (ed: that's better).

The S10e, which is squarely targeting business users (although the "e" suffix stands for Education) , comes with an Intel Atom CPU, will be available in white, red and black and supports up to 1.5GB system memory.

The Lenovo S10e will come either with Windows XP Pro (that's a first), Windows XP Home or Novell SUSE Linux Entreprise Desktop 10, rather than other Open Source operating systems.

In addition, the netbook, which weighs only 1.2kg, will include an Instant On1 feature that allows users to quickly check email and do other basic taks without having to fully boot the operating system, in a similar to Asus' Expressgate.

Connectivity options include an Ethernet port, an Expresscard 34 slot, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth; the netbook will be available from Lenovo partners for as little as £299 including VAT from the end of this month.