After much testing, my review of the Lenovo Q110 is now up at Brighthub.
It is, on the whole, and interesting product with many high points, but it isn’t perfect. First impressions are good. I own a Lenovo laptop, and and my mother bought one on my recommendation. Both have outstanding build quality, and in spite of its low price the Q110 is also much more solidly built then its competitors. The MSI Wind Box in particular has always felt cheap to me, but the Q110 is a lovely piece of kit to look at.
The performance fires on all cylinders, as well. The Ion chipset isn’t the graphical equivalent of Jesus, as some hardware websites have previously suggested. It isn’t going to turn the Q110 or any other nettop into a gaming machine, nor does it make certain that you’ll be able to play a particular bit of high-definition goodness. It does make many things that would not run smoothly before go quicker. On a typical nettop, almost any 3D game is hopeless, but the Ion at least lets you break out some Civilization 4 or World of Warcraft – so long as you don’t get crazy with the detail sliders.
My only real concern is the price. $399 is a lot to ask for an Ion nettop when a similarly equipped Acer AspireRevo is sitting pretty with a price tag of $329.99 . What does the extra $70 dollars get you? Nothing, in terms of performance. Yet the Acer AspireRevo doesn’t feel as good to use. Is that intangible enough for you?
To be truthful, though, I think the verdict is still out on all these Ion products. They’re fast enough to do somethings, but not really fast enough to please me, the enthusiast. And at the same time, they’re not significantly if at all cheaper then basic notebooks and desktops. I like the Q110 a lot, but I wouldn’t buy one. I therefor have to think about the theoretical person. Who is this for? I’m not entirely sure.
In any case, go read my review. And if you decide you want a Q110, let me know. I’d like to meet this theoretical person I’m pondering.
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