Hands-On With the Lenovo S10-3t Tablet
Posted in: lenovo, netbooks, Notebooks, tablets, Today's Chili, windows 7
LAS VEGAS — Rumor has it the much anticipated Apple tablet will be a blown-up iPhone with a 10-inch screen. While we wait for that fabled device (presumably in late January), take a gander at Lenovo’s S10-3t — a 10-inch part-time netbook, part-time tablet running Windows 7.
The “t” stands for tablet, and that’s because this 10-inch netbook (aka notbook) features a swivel touchscreen that can be rotated for use as a tablet. According to Lenovo, it’s the first convertible tablet using capacitive touchscreen — the same multitouch technology used on the iPhone.
Previous convertible tablets used resistive touchscreens, which required you to firmly press down on the screen or control it with a stylus. Those didn’t succeed in the mainstream. They suffered from a durability issue: The convertible tablet form factor had a weak spot vulnerable to firm presses. The S10-3t should eliminate that problem (unless you insist on jabbing the screen with a brutal amount of force.)
But I wouldn’t bet capacitive touch would redeem the convertible-tablet category. I had some hands-on time with the S10-3t, and I didn’t have very positive first impressions. During a video shoot demonstrating the tablet, the software was glitchy and required two reboots. (These are considered outtakes, so they won’t make it to the final cut of the video.) Particularly, the software — a Lenovo-modified version of Windows 7 — freaked out when I was rotating the touchscreen to use it as a tablet. But when I got it up and running, the touch sensitivity was certainly pleasant and sensitive like the iPhone (or Droid or whatever) experience.
Lenovo included its own custom software to navigate the device in tablet mode. However, you’d have to manually launch individual tablet-based apps in order to take advantage of the tablet UI. I wished that it would automatically detect when it was in tablet mode and launch the tablet-based UI immediately and seamlessly when it was rotated. A geek can dream, can’t he?
When used as a netbook, the S10-3t is solid. It has a nice, full-sized keyboard and a comfortable trackpad. And generally, I’m just loving the way Windows 7 looks and runs on new netbooks. It imbues these trendy devices with a more modern aesthetic and a snappier feel.
The S10-3t is shipping later this year with a $500 price tag. Good news if all you’re looking for is a netbook: A non-swivel-touchscreen version of the S10-3t, the S10-3, costs $330.
More photos below the jump, courtesy of Wired.com’s Jon Snyder.
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Photos: Jon Snyder/Wired.com
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