Well, ladies and gents, the revolution has started: the first Ion-based netbook has appeared, it comes from Lenovo and frankly it has some pretty sweet specs. Make sure you don't miss out on all the juicy details and keep on reading.

I can't remember when was the last time I was really excited about a netbook, so I won't try to. I will only say that this is the first one that I'm really looking forward to seeing: the IdeaPad S12. It is built around the Ion platform from NVIDIA, has a full-sized keyboard, is said to allow full 1080p video playback, weighs a little under 3 pounds, features a 1280 x 800 LED-backlit panel, a size of 12.1 inches and starts at about 449 USD.

It has options such as Ethernet, WiFi, Bluetooth, three USB 2.0 sockets, ExpressCard slot, VGA and HDMI connectivity, as well as a 4-in-1 card reader. As for storage size, there's a range of 160, 225 and 320 HDD options, plus an optional 6-cell battery. More mundane characteristics include the usual 1.6GHz Atom CPU and 1GB of DDR2 memory.

As Dion Weisler, vice president, Business Operations, Idea Product Group, Lenovo, put it, “We've heard from consumers loud and clear about the need for affordable and extremely portable computing devices, and we've responded by introducing our third netbook with a completely new form factor, making mini-computing more usable and redefining value in today's market. […] We are pioneering new territory in the developing netbook arena by being the first vendor to give customers high quality video and entertainment capabilities in a netbook with optional NVIDIA ION graphics.”

Rene Haas, general manager, Notebook GPUs, NVIDIA, had a few words to add, “NVIDIA ION graphics help deliver the same features found in premium PCs at lower price points and new form factors. […] With enhanced graphics, the Lenovo IdeaPad S12 netbook is perfect for watching movies, playing popular games like Spore, flipping through vacation pictures or enhancing family videos.”

There you go, my friends, the first brick has been laid, let us build!


We are just a few, but there are many of you, Softpedia users, out there. That's why we thought it would be a good idea to create an email address for you to help us a little in finding gadgets we missed. Interesting links are bound to be posted with recognition going mainly to those who submit. The address is .