Lenovo IdeaPad S205 user reviews

Pros Size. This small computer can almost fit in any bag
Light weight. Around 2 lbs makes this computer easy to hold and carry. Not as light as Macbook Air, but close for thr price.
HDMI. Nice to hook right up to a TV or LCD monitor.
Windows 7 64. Great opp

Cons Speed. Has dual-core AMD 1.3, but feels like cell phone power.
No optical drive. The need to buy a DVD drive adds another $80-$100.
Small keys. Not really a big con, but don't spend too much time typing.

Summary Overall, this is a much better choice than netbooks found in the 10" range. Having a large 500 gb hard drive is nice, but I don't expect to come close to using all that room. Can use for hours (2.5) without needing charge, which is a bing change when using larger 15" notebooks. I don't know if the 4 gigs of memory help. Sounds very cool when buying, but doesn't help with speed. I purchased from Lenovo and saved $150 off sale price. Wouldn't pay the $600 MSRP. Add an optic drive at no additional cost and this would be a better notebook.

Pros Surprisingly fast, in Windows at least
Great keyboard
Nice feeling touchpad
Nice case design
Decent battery life
Ample ports (3xUSB, VGA, HDMI, SD reader)

Cons Wireless adapter constantly turning itself off in Win7
Unit occasionally switches itself off entirely in Win7
Win XP suffers serious power management/crash issues
Ubuntu mysteriously slow
RAM upgrade requires removal of entire back panel

Summary I bought this laptop in March 2012 for about £220 as a refurbished model without operating system - the spec of mine was an AMD E300 Fusion APU (2x1.3Ghz) with 2GB DDR3 RAM and 320GB HDD. I actually really like this laptop for the way it looks and feels - the keyboard is a great size and the keys are responsive, and the screen is fairly bright and colourful, albeit quite reflective. However, I've had so many problems with it that I felt like writing a review, to warn anyone considering buying one of the potential pitfalls.

When I first got the machine I had a copy of XP to install on it and I assumed I would be able to install Ubuntu side by side, as I have done on 2 other systems without too many problems. In the event, I couldn't actually use the laptop for the first week I owned it, as I was struggling with installing Ubuntu from a USB stick and getting it to dual-boot with XP, or to boot at all.

Eventually I gave up on Ubuntu and settled on XP only, which worked pretty well except the system used to (and still does) wake itself up from Standby state a propos of nothing, usually within a couple of minutes of being put to sleep. Besides this, it booted up fairly quick and remained mostly stable. It is faster than I expected - I've used this laptop for playing games including Portal 2 and Spec Ops (both very playable), as well as some light 3D CAD work. For general internet browsing and music and video playback it is pretty fast.

A couple of months ago I acquired a copy of Windows 7 so I decided to have another go at getting a dual- or triple-boot system going, and boy has that been an exercise in futility! After a lot of trial and error and searching for related posts in forums, I discovered that the only version of Ubuntu that works reliably (i.e. boots and the wireless adapter works) is 12.04, which runs rather slower than I was hoping, and slower than Windows. This may be because it is the 32-bit version, not installed in AHCI mode, but that's because...

The wireless adapter only works in Windows 7 when Win7 is installed in IDE (legacy) mode. Even now the adapter turn itself off frequently, sometimes to a point where it is fixable by Windows but often requiring a full restart, also often causing the system to crash thus requiring a hard reset. Googling this topic, as well as all the other problems I've had with this machine, reveals that they are common problems. Earlier today, the machine turned itself off completely in Win7, and I have no idea why this was. Haven't experienced this in either of the other 2 OSes. Besides these complaints, Windows 7 whips along at a good pace, especially with 4GB instead of 2GB RAM.

The triple-boot using GRUB works, so I now have Ubuntu 12.04, Win7 and Win XP SP3 all bootable. However, as mentioned above Win7 is not reliable for internet use, so I usually use XP. But in XP, I have to contend with another well-documeted problem with the power management: no matter how I have the Power settings arranged, whenever I close the lid of the machine and reopen it I am presented with a frozen desktop, and although the cursor moves normally I can't affect anything so I am forced to hard-reset. Interestingly, this was not a problem before I did the triple-boot reinstall recently.

A while ago I bought another 2GB RAM module, but in trying to upgrade the memory - a process which requires you to remove the ENTIRE back panel - I stripped one of the cheap-feeling screws, effectively sealing the box. Again, forums told me I was not alone in doing this. I took it to a Lenovo shop near while I live (in Prague) and the guy there managed to fit the second module just by bending the body of the laptop out of the way while he fitted it. I was terrified something was going to snap, so I would recommend anyone planning to upgrade this laptop to pay a bit more and have it done professionally. That way at least you're covered if the same thing happens as happened to me.

In summary, although I do like this laptop, I struggle to recommend it because of all the problems I've had and continue to have. From what other people have written on forums it seems that buying one with Win7 pre-installed and never messing around with other operating systems is the only way to ensure decent functionality, but of course this will include all of Lenovo's awful bloatware. I think it is something of a scandal that the drivers provided on Lenovo's support site for XP and 7 both leave you with a not-entirely-functional product, and Linux use is not really a viable alternative in terms of speed.

Pros Small, lightweight, beautifully designed, and well specified for its price and size.

Cons Charger has stopped working after a week. Replaced it with an alternate plug cable (same adapter) and it worked again for a few days, only to stop working again. I can only assume it has blown the fuse on both plugs.

Summary A lovely piece of kit, but clearly there are issues with the power supply, and Lenovo support is woefully inadequate. All in all this has been a disappointment. Purchased for my daughter just 3 weeks ago, it is currently unusable as it won't charge. Back to the shop we go...