Top

ION-based Lenovo Ideapad S12 NOT hitting Europe

May 25, 2009 at 4:36 pm


Lenovo Ideapad S12Okay, I know this is the fourth post today regarding the Lenovo Ideapad S12, but I see this launch as quite important given that it will be the first netbook to come with the ION-platform. However, I have some very disappointing news for us Europeans. The ION-based Ideapad S12 SKU will NOT be coming to Europe.

This has been confirmed to us by Adrian Horne, who deals with Lenovo’s media relations across the EMEA region. I find this news quite perplexing. A lot of the buzz today has surrounded the emergence of ION inside a netbook and the (hopefully) genuine improvement we’ll see over the typical Intel Atom platform. I’m sure there are a number of people that are genuinely excited by this release and will associate the S12 as the ‘ION netbook’. When it does launch here it may cause a lot of confusion with people expecting ION under the hood.

The reasons he gave as to why we won’t see an ION netbook in Europe is that they are looking to simplify their current offering , given the wide number of netbooks on the market. He did say that Europe will be getting an ION-based netbook at some point, but didn’t elaborate further. “Lenovo’s objective is to have a simple and easy to manage netbook portfolio,” Horne said.

The only SKU that will be available in Western Europe is the Atom-based one. This will be priced at £349 in the UK and €379 across Western Europe. Eastern Europe will be getting the VIA Nano SKU, but pricing hasn’t been confirmed in that region. The European Ideapad S12 will launch in late July.

Pricing certainly seems to be competitive and cheaper than the 11.6-inch Acer Aspire One 751 and 12-inch Samsung NC20. Even without ION, the S12 should sell very well at that price point. However, I can’t help feeling that Lenovo may have missed a trick here regarding its European customers.

Comments

279 Responses to “ION-based Lenovo Ideapad S12 NOT hitting Europe”

  1. Sam Michel said:
    June 17th, 2009 11:38 AM

    Lenovo launches it’s new 12-inch gaming netbook, Lenovo IdeaPad S12. It is compatible with Window Xp and built-in 1.3 mp webcam, netbook consists of a six-cell battery.

  2. Angel G. said:
    June 21st, 2009 8:43 PM

    Well, they just want to leave EU buyers to the other companies like asus/msi/acer (if some of them decide to put ION w atom Z530 in a netbook).
    They used an outdated Nxxx Atom instead of the new Zxxx series, which is not a good decision for my european taste.

  3. Dizzy said:
    August 7th, 2009 5:17 PM

    Thats just sad… I was looking forward for the Lenovo S12 with the Nvidia Chipset. But I guess i have to go with the Samsung N510, which is also an Nvidia Ion based Ideapad (but its screen it just somewhat smaller). and it is a little more expensive than the S12, but they are basically the same.

Bottom