The Lenovo IdeaPad S10-3t is now available with an Intel Atom N470

The 10.1” convertible tablet PC is available from Lenovo.com for $649.00

Lenovo has been selling its new 10.1” convertible tablet PC, the IdeaPad S10-3t, directly from its online store for some time, however it's now available with Intel's new processor, the Atom N470. The CPU has a maximum power consumption of 6.5W, which is higher than that of the N450 (5.5W), but it contains Intel's GMA 3150 GPU and an integrated memory controller inside one package. Therefore an N470-based S10-3t should make good use of the 4 cell battery supplied with the machine, although an option to upgrade this to at least a 6 cell battery would be useful.

Lenovo.com doesn't have a page to customise the specifications of the S10-3t before purchase at the moment, but hopefully this facility will appear soon. Please take a look at our dedicated N470 page to find out more about Intel's Pineview processors. The Intel GMA 3150 GPU is unlikely to be able to handle any HD content, which is a shame considering that HD video is becoming an increasingly common feature on many webpages. However, the S10-3t may be a suitable alternative to Apple's tablet PC, the iPad, which doesn't support flash, multitasking and of course is not as flexible as a normal PC in terms of the different kind of applications it can use.

A distinctive feature of the S10-3t is that can be converted into a netbook by flipping the 10.1”, multi-touch display 180 degrees, and according to Lenovo it is the first of its kind to use a capacitive touchscreen. Wired.com managed to perform a hands-on review of the S10-3t at this year's CES, and stated that the display was as sensitive to touch as an iPhone or Droid, and it performed well as a netbook. The website also mentioned the S10-3t's comfortable keyboard and trackpad, but one downside was its inability to detect when it had been changed from netbook mode to tablet mode, therefore requiring the user to load relevant applications to use the touch-based UI.

Lenovo's current price is $649.00, although it won't ship for at least four weeks, in which case it's probably better to wait and see if Lenovo.com releases more information about its new tablet PC before ordering, and possibly have a look at the competition first. Here are the specifications as listed on Lenovo.com:-