lenovo ideapad s12 crunchgear

The Lenovo IdeaPad S12 laptop is available with a choice of an Intel Atom or VIA Nano processor. And while Lenovo plans to make a third option, with an NVIDIA ION chipset that combines the Atom CPU with an NVIDIA GPU available, right not it looks like if you want HD video performance, you’re better off going with the VIA Nano version… which also happens to be about $70 cheaper.

I reviewed the Intel Atom-based version of the S12 recently, and while the 12 inch, 1280 x 800 pixel display is great for displaying web pages and images, the Atom processor isn’t really up to the task of pumping out HD video or high quality Flash video on that screen.

CrunchGear, on the other hand, discovered that the version with a 1.3GHz VIA Nano CPU can handle 720p video in WMV, DivX, XviD, Quicktime, and MP4 formats. The laptop still has issues playing HD Flash video in full-screen mode. But it can reportedly handle standard definition Hulu content.

On the down side, the VIA Nano CPU uses more energy than an Intel Atom processor. And while I was able to get about 5 hours of run time from the Atom powered version of the laptop, the VIA Nano model tops out at about 4 hours.

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6 replies on “Lenovo IdeaPad S12 handles HD video better with VIA Nano CPU”

  1. I agree with the above post. This is a pretty relevant issue considering a nano/chrome setup is 200 dollars cheaper than an atom/ion setup. Especially when one considers a nano/ion setup is right around the corner. nano/chrome performance definitively compared 1-to-1 to atom/ion is a nescessity. The s12 is the only platform that has the capability for this testing at the moment…so lets see it SOMEWHERE. My guess is that mighty intel/nvidia do not want people to see it, and therefore hardware sites would not like to conduct such testing as it would hurt their access to test gear or information from these giants.

  2. Hey,

    I seriously doubt that you will even read this comment, much less pay any attention to it, but…

    you can NOT go by some other site’s fuzzy numbers to compare to yours, unless you both use the same benchmark! so test the freaking intel atom S12 yourself, so you can directly compare battery times to your via NANO. And crunchgear should step up to the plate and they should test an atom version against their via version. THEN, THE BOTH OF YOU COULD SHARE YOUR RESULTS, AND WE COULD COMPARE METHODS.

    how you tested the battery in your NANO S12 is NOWHERE TO BE FOUND.

    so please do proper testing and compare the via nano S12 to the intel atom S12 with the same methods!!!

    1. Send me a IdeaPad S12 with a Nano CPU and I’d be happy to run the
      tests. The model that Lenovo was kind enough to send me had an Atom
      processor and I don’t exactly have the budget to go out and buy every
      single laptop model I would like to test out of pocket.

      And I read and pay attention to every comment.

Comments are closed.