Lenovo IdeaPad A10 Android Laptop

Google Chromebooks had successfully captured almost 25% market share in the US for laptop priced at USD 300 (~RM950). The strong growth in Chromebooks has encouraged PC makers and Microsoft key partners such as HP and Lenovo to start selling Chromebooks. Following a leak of service manual and user guide of IdeaPad A10 on Lenovo's website, Lenovo has confirmed to take a bold move to launch the first laptop with pure Android OS.

Although the laptop is not yet officially launched, it was listed in Amazon Germany for €249 (~RM1068). From the price, the laptop is to be marketed as a mid-range touch device with basic features. Let's have a look at the spec:

Spec	IdeaPad A10
Processor	Rockchip RK3188 Cotex-A9 Quad Core 1.6GHz
Screen Size	10.1 inches Touch
Screen Resolution	1366 * 768 (HD)
OS	Android
Memory	1066MHz DDR3 SDRAM (PC2-8500)  DDR3L (Max Memory 1GB or 2GB)
Storage Capacity	eMMC 16GB, 32GB
Bluetooth	Only support BT & WIFI combo module
Camera	Front - 0.3 mega pixels
I/O Ports	Combo headphone jack Combo build in Microphone jack USB 2.0 × 2, Micro USB × 1 TF card (Micro-SD)
Audio	Audio Combo audio jack × 1 Speaker × 2 Built-in microphone
Video	HDMI port × 1
Touch pad	One piece touchpad
Battery	2 cells/ 22.6 Wh Polymer
AC adapter	5V Universal AC Adapter, 100-240V/50-60Hz, 10W with 5V DC output

The Android OS version preinstalled is not mentioned in the spec. One special feature for IdeaPad A10 is that the display should be able to rotate 360 degrees for viewing photos or playing videos. However, the keyboard is not detachable. The laptop recharges through the micro USB port just like HP Chromebook 11.

With the great popularity of Android in smartphone market, can Android also become the major player in laptops or we should go with Chrome OS that is specifically designed for laptops? Well, we just have to wait and see.

Trade In and Refresh Your PC with SNS Network

Do you have any old desktop, laptop or even netbook that is still functioning? If you have one and it's Intel inside, then you can consider to trade-in your old PC and gets a brand new PC powered by Intel processor at discounts of up to RM 500.

This trade in promotion is brought to you by SNS Network. However, its official website is not yet updated with the latest information as advertised on the newspaper. The participating brands are Acer, Dell, HP, Lenovo, Samsung and Sony. You can take a look at the specification of the selected models here.

The laptop prices are very attractive with the trade in promotion, starting from RM 699. The most affordable model comes with basic spec which is good enough for daily Internet surfing. You can choose the models depend on your usage pattern for the laptop.

All the models come with Windows 8. For better user experience, I would recommend you to go for those models with touch screen. This is because Windows 8 Modern User Interface (UI) is designed with tablets in mind. However, mouse and keyboard are still working great for Windows 8 as the shortcut keys are maintained and there are new features on the cursor.

Laptop Reliability

A PC management services company called Soluto had recently done a report on the best performing Windows laptops. The firm sampled data from 150000 laptops over a three month period from January to April, analyzing application crashes, application hangs, blue-screens-of-death, boot time and number of background processes to generate a comparison that shows a real user experience.

The ranking by brands and models are shown above. The lower the score, the higher the ranking. Surprisingly, Apple MacBook Pro 13 is rated as the best Windows laptop although not optimized for the operating system. One of the main reasons is that every Windows installation on it is clean, meaning that it is not loaded with crapware. Another thing to note, Dell has 5 models in the list while PC Giant HP has none.

This can be a good reference on which brand and model to choose if you are buying a laptop. I'll share with you another good report that was published in Year 2009 by SquareTrade, a company which provides extended warranties to eletronics gadgets.

The line graph above shows the failure rates over the number of months since a laptop purchase. This graph will help to answer question like "Do I need to buy extended warranty?" and "If yes, how many years do I need to buy?". Every 1 out of 3 laptops has a tendency to fail after 3 years. So you should get another extra 2 years warranty. Better be safe than sorry.

This is another interesting graph from the report that shows the laptop malfunction rates by Manufacturer. You can cross reference with the findings from Soruto. However, this graph might not be so accurate as it was done in Year 2009. Anyway, the report is still a great reference for us. You can get the full report here.

Get 5% Discount Dell Computer on MasterCard

E-commerce has been gaining steady momentum in the region with potential for further growth in Malaysia. As one of the pioneers of e-commerce, Dell Asia Pacific has forged partnership with MasterCard Worldwide to offer cardholders in Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore and Taiwan exclusive discounts, benefits and monthly specials.

Cardholders across the 10 participating countries can access dedicated MasterCard-Dell micro-sites from now till October 31 2013. In Malaysia, MasterCard credit and debit card cardholders will receive up to 5% discounts on selected Dell systems, with a minimum spend of RM 2500 when shop online at the dedicated micro-site.

When you enter the website, it will ask for the first 4 digits of your MasterCard number in order to proceed. Actually, the first 6 digits of a credit card number are known as the Issuer Identification Number (IIN). These identify the institution that issued the card to the card holder. For MasterCard, the card numbers start with the numbers 51 through 55. You may try to input any number starting from 51 through 55 and see.