Netbook Madness Game 9: Lenovo S10E vs. Samsung NC10

Here we are, the official start of the second round in the LAPTOP Netbook Madness tournament. Can’t you just feel the excitement? To paraphrase one Richard Vitale, it’s awe-inspiring, young child! In the final game of the first round, the ASUS N10J-A2 defeated the Acer Aspire One AOD150, taking a sizable 80 percent of the votes. Today, we have the Samsung NC10 versus the Lenovo S10E. The S10E, if you’ll recall, knocked out HP from the tournament. Fans were apparently  impressed with its Quick Start  instant-on Splashtop environment and slick aesthetics. As we mentioned, the Ideapad S10e was the second mini-notebook to come out of Lenovo; the original S10 debuted in September. The S10e, which comes with a six-cell battery, lasted 4:48 on our LAPTOP Battery test. While that’s longer than the Mini 1000, it’s almost an hour shorter of the netbook average for six-cell batteries. Since our initial review, the S10e’s price has gone down, and its specs have gone up; Instead of $429 for an 80GB hard drive, Lenovo now sells the S10e with a six-cell battery and a 160GB, 5,400 rpm drive for $349. But how does it stack up against the Samsung NC10? In the first game of the tournament, it handily beat the Asus EeePC 1002HA. The NC10, which has a 1.6GHz Intel Atom N270 processor, 1GB of RAM, Windows XP, and a 160GB hard drive, lasted a near-record 6:34. Still, the NC10 is more expensive. When we reviewed the system, its list price was $449 (now $439); you can now find it in the $425 price range from online retailers. So, which will it be? the S10e and its instant-on environment, or the NC10, and its super-long battery life? UPDATE: The Samsung NC10 wins and advances to the next round. Stay tuned for today’s exciting matchup between the Asus EeePC S101 and the MSI Wind U100.