Sitting in Sbux in Castro (not my usual hangout, but I had dinner with Sizzle at Pizzeria Delfina and this was the nearest late-night place while I'm waiting for my next meeting), writing this on the coolest little laptop ever.
The Lenovo S10 (http://shop.lenovo.com/us/notebooks/ideapad/s-series) rocks. I use it in conjunction with a T500 (effectively a 15" T62 with a new name, ~$1500 loaded), which weighs 6.6lbs but will outperform most desktops--great for dev work--and an HP workstation with 4 monitors (82" total screen real-estate), and Foldershare + Exchange + Evernote to sync everything back and forth. Whenever I travel--even for my current 3wk couch-surfing expedition--I grab the S10, and it will do almost everything I need. Flying 100k miles a year carrying 6+lbs gets old really fast, but compromising to one laptop (my previous one was a 3lb 12" X61) is also sub-optimal, since you lose both the power & screen for serious dev work, but you're paying more (~$2500 loaded) and not getting as portable of a package.
About the only thing I'd really like to add to my travel kit is a flyweight projector (I'm not sure they exist yet...I want something smaller than my laptop) to get a bigger screen when I'm fixed in a hotel room, etc.
Pros
- It weighs just over 2lbs, a little more with the extended-life battery, but I can get almost 8 hours from it (max; 6hrs isn't unusual with a normal workload).
- The keyboard is (IIRC) 92% sized, which isn't terrible...I can touch-type easily, most of the keys are in the right places (a couple require getting used to), and it almost has the classic Thinkpad feel (not quite as good but close)
- The Atom proc is fast enough to handle Outlook, Firefox, and Putty, which is all I really need on the road. I've also got VS Express, Evernote, MindManager, iTunes, etc. installed, but don't find myself using them all that often...it gets slow but not unusable even with VS.
Cons
- The fan powers on unnecessarily, and it's loud. This seems to be a known issue on the boards, so I'd expect to see it patched soon, but no promises.
- The power system is annoying. It's not immediately compatible with either the old (T40 series) or the new (T60 series) Thinkpads (yes, I realize the S10 is technically an Ideapad, not a Thinkpad, but still...lame), and it's a three-pronged plug on the end, making it incompatible with many extension cords (like the one next to my couch) and older outlets. Not a huge deal, but just unnecessary. Come on, Lenovo!
Overall, totally worth it...for about $400, it's worth every penny.
