2009 · Hardware

The Lenovo IdeaPad S10e: the netbook built for schools

Last reviewed 5 November 2026

In early 2009 Lenovo relaunched its popular IdeaPad S10 netbook as the S10e, aimed at schools, with a 10.1-inch screen, a six-cell battery option and an instant-on Quick Start system. It was one of the best-reviewed netbooks of the boom.

From S10 to S10e

Lenovo’s first netbook, the IdeaPad S10, went on sale in October 2008, in the middle of a boom set off by the Asus Eee PC. It was a well-built, inexpensive 10-inch laptop with the standard netbook recipe of the time: an Intel Atom processor, 1 GB of memory, a hard drive and Windows XP.

In early 2009 Lenovo relaunched it as the IdeaPad S10e. The “e” stood for education. Lenovo pitched the new model at schools buying one laptop per pupil, as well as at ordinary buyers. The changes were modest but practical: a slightly smaller 10.1-inch screen, an optional six-cell battery for a full school day and an instant-on Quick Start mode.

What it offered

The S10e used a 1.6 GHz Intel Atom N270 processor, 1 GB of DDR2 memory and a hard drive of up to 160 GB. Its 10.1-inch glossy, LED-backlit screen had a resolution of 1024 by 576, a wide 16:9 shape that showed a little less of a web page than the 1024 by 600 screens on many rivals. It weighed about 1.3 kg.

It had two USB ports, VGA output, Ethernet, a memory card reader, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. Unusually for a netbook it also had an ExpressCard/34 slot, which could take a mobile broadband card that sat flush with the case instead of sticking out of a USB port. It ran Windows XP Home, and testers found Linux distributions such as Ubuntu installed easily.

Prices started at about US$379 in the United States. In the UK The Register reviewed it at £249.

Quick Start

Quick Start was Lenovo’s version of Splashtop, a small Linux-based system from DeviceVM stored on the laptop’s own chips. Pressing the power button gave a short countdown: let it run and Quick Start loaded a web browser, chat, a music player and a photo viewer in well under half a minute, without starting Windows at all. Reviewers measured about 20 to 30 seconds to a working browser.

Instant-on systems like this were a brief fashion on netbooks and laptops in 2008 and 2009, when Windows XP could take a minute or more to start. They faded as later versions of Windows started faster, and as smartphones and tablets became the devices people reached for when they wanted to check something quickly.

How it was received

Reviews were mostly positive. LAPTOP Magazine called it a good netbook and measured 4 hours 48 minutes of continuous web browsing on the six-cell battery, although it disliked the awkwardly placed right Shift key, a noisy hard drive and having only two USB ports. The Register called it “a great netbook”, while finding Quick Start limited and battery life with the smaller battery disappointing. The review aggregator Notebookcheck put its average score at about 82%.

Reviewers liked its keyboard, build quality and long battery option. The screen’s lower resolution and the limited power of the Atom chip were the usual complaints, as with most netbooks of the time.

Successors and legacy

Lenovo moved quickly. In May 2009 it introduced the S10-2, which dropped the ExpressCard slot, added a third USB port and switched to a 1024 by 600 screen, and it added the larger 12.1-inch IdeaPad S12. The S10-3 family followed in 2010.

The S10e was a snapshot of the netbook at its peak: cheap, light and good enough for the web, email and school work. Within a few years tablets and thin, light laptops took over that role. The idea of a low-cost laptop for schools lives on most clearly in Chromebooks, which took over much of the education market in the following decade.