Unboxing the Lenovo IdeaCentre Q100
We first reported on Lenovo’s IdeaCentre Q100 and Q110 nettops back in August, and now we have one from Lenovo to put through its paces. This Q100 is powered by a single core 1.6ghz Atom 230 processor paired with 1gb of RAM and a 160gb hard drive and comes in at $299 from Lenovo. Unlike its more powerful Nvidia Ion powered brother (the IdeaCentre Q110) the Q100 has graphics powered by SiS Mirage S3. The form factor of the IdeaCentre Q series is ultra-slim, only a little larger than a double CD case.
So, that’s all the technical stuff out of the way, click past the break to see what’s in the box and my first impressions.
IdeaCentre Q100 Box Contents (CD for scale)
The box for this nettop is suitably small, and not a lot is contained within. We have the Q100, with a cd on top for scale. A small-ish power brick, the Q100’s stand, and a pack of user manuals, warranty cards and software restore CD. That’s it. Short but sweet and you’ll need to supply your own keyboard, mouse and monitor cord.
Lenovo IdeaCentre ports and stand
My first impression – this is a tiny nettop! It feels more like a slim external DVD drive – although the Q100 does not have an optical drive. The outside finish is a glossy piano black which hopefully won’t get as greasy as its netbook counterparts. There’s a power button on the front, that doubles as a bright blue power LED and a small panel that flips open to reveal 2 usb ports.
IdeaCentre USB ports can get cramped
The back of the Q100, from the bottom up, has 3.5mm audio out, power input, 4 usb ports and a VGA out port. As you can see, the USB ports are spaced very close together, which can make plugging in your flash drive and wireless keyboard dongle challenging.
The Q100 connected to my 32" LCD
Up and running, I can really appreciate that this nettop is fanless – it’s completely silent. Only the bright blue LED gives away that it’s running at all. And that LED is bright! If I continue to use this as a HTPC, my first mod would be a piece of black electrical tape over this LED. Now, however, after being pleasantly surprised by its small size and lack of noise, comes my first real let down. There’s no integrated Wifi. Yes, I repeat, no WiFi included at all. I couldn’t realyl believe it, so I checked the hardware specs in ‘My Computer’ and yes, only the Gigabit LAN card is listed. So, for now, I’ll need to get back to you on this nettop’s performance until I can find a USB Wifi dongle.
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Jon
