I originally bought the tiny Asus eee PC for a good friend, basically as an “upgraded thumb drive with a screen” capable of web browsing. Needless to say, with Linux, a 4 gb “drive…” wi-fi, web cam and not much else, it was pretty sad and limited - but at the same time, it clearly showed some potential. But let me be perfectly clear: DON’T buy one of these…. It’s basically a quirky toy. I can’t tell you about the newer models.

I decided to pick up an Acer Aspire One for myself and overall, I was extremely pleased. With the familiar XP interface and a 160gb drive, a noticeably better web cam and far better performance via the extra 512 memory even running XP. It felt substantial, the monitor was gorgeous, keyboard far better than the baby Asus, battery life was good - but not great. The only rub came when it was time to upgrade the memory. The Aspire One came with one gb on board with the potential to add only an additional 512 memory chip. Still, every bit helps on the small netbooks.

And there’s when you find the nightmare. The Aspire One is an absolute NIGHTMARE to upgrade memory OR replace a hard drive. It involves removing the keyboard, the mainboard, numerous levels of wires, screws and connectors. There are “how to videos” on YouTube - but they are not for the faint of heart.

While I could have gone on being generally happy with the Acer, I was really disappointed in the absolutely and uncharacteristically WRONGHEADEDNESS (for Acer especially) of this consumer unfriendly design flaw - especially since there is an easy access door on the bottom that only leads to an empty compartment for a possible future LAN card upgrade which many, if not most, users will never use. Then there was a growing amount of consumer complaints concerning overheating, thermal shutdowns, defective fans and more. Two more of my friends has bought Aspires after seeing and playing with my machine and one friend nearly immediately had thermal problems. Not a good average.

The final “temptation” to switch came when Lenovo managed to release it’s S10 model with the 10.2 inch screen earlier than expected. Among the most prominent kudos in almost every review was the absolute EASE OF CONSUMER UPGRADE. One panel on the bottom accesses BOTH your *hard drive and memory slot. You can upgrade *either or both easily in under five minutes. I had the extra half gig in and running with virtually no effort nor silliness and the little extra punch made the already speedy little machine feel even quicker. Definitely worth the time and small price.

The unit feels light but sturdy, much like the Aspire. The monitor is simply spectacular! Bright and crisp!

*Note: Among Lenovo’s more interesting features is a “one button restore” feature which enables the user to restore the hard drive back to the original factory computer configuration with all original programs and drivers intact and ready to go should something turn the drive into an unrecoverable basket case. (Of course this is why God invented ACRONIS TRUE IMAGE and made it so easy to use…)

BE WARNED: IF YOU PHYSICALLY REPLACE YOUR EXISTING HARD DRIVE, LENOVO’S MANUAL SAYS THAT THE ONE BUTTON RESTORE FEATURE WILL NO LONGER WORK. So far, I have not been able to get a clear answer as to whether another drive cloned with Acronis WILL work or not as the restore function seems to depend on files already stored on the original drive and not some physical recognition scheme. I can’t help but believe that a clone, even one of a different sized hard drive SHOULD be recognized, but I’m not going to risk the restore feature just to experiment right now. I’ll just save an identical sized clone drive for down the road.

Strangely - VERY strangely - probably the biggest reason I switched came from the difference in the 10.2 in screen. I’m a newspaper reporter and I frequently have to do photos and graphics modifications on site. You will be absolutely amazed in the jump from 8.9″ to 10.2″. ESPECIALLY when you are doing something that you have ABSOLUTELY NO BUSINESS DOING on a netbook… RE: Graphics mods and retouching.

So all in all, it’s really close. I’ve had great luck with Acer products over the years, but this time the LENOVO S10 just had a “LITTLE” too much of an extra edge to ignore.

BTW, regardless of which netbook anyone finally decides on, I should share that I was able to find one of the new Total Micro Technologies flat Power Station batteries [...] and these things are nothing short of AMAZING! They generally run over 0 each but I was able to find a gentleman who overstocked for a major project and bought two brand new for each. Long story short: They will power the LENOVO with FULL POWER, NORMAL TO HIGH VOLUME, FULL SCREEN BRIGHTNESS, EXTERNAL USB DRIVE AND DVD for WELL OVER SEVEN CONTINUOUS HOURS. Try a little searching on Amazon or Ebay. It just might pay off for you as well.