Lenovo has been a bit slow to get their fingers in the netbook pie, but have eventually entered the market with the S10e. We’re quite the Lenovo fans here in the TechSmart office, but the S10e left us a bit underwhelmed.

This might sound strange but the biggest problem we had with the S10e was the undersized right Shift key. When typing on the S10e we constantly found ourselves hitting the Up arrow directly next to it. This meant ending up typing in the line directly above, and having to delete and go back to the correct place. It’s a time consuming process, especially if you’re in a hurry.

The usual netbook faire is on offer, with the S10e running on an Intel Atom 1.60 GHz processor with 1 GB of RAM, Windows XP and a good 160 GB of hard disk space. It also comes with an Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950. The netbook feels solid and as far as build quality is concerned we can’t complain.

Lenovo incorporates Quick Start, a software platform that allows access to music, Skype, the web and photos without having to enter Windows. We didn’t use it that much seeing that it was quite slow and the track pad became ultra-sensitive in Quick Start making it difficult to use.

WiFi is included on the S10e, but not 3G connectivity via SIM card, although you have a built-in ExpressCard slot. On the side you will find 2x USB ports and a 4-in-1 card reader. We enjoyed the 10.1" screen, and if you use Skype a lot you’ll love the onboard 1.3 megapixel camera.

The Lenovo S10e offers pretty much the same as most other netbooks. We wanted to like it more than we did, but the undersized Shift key and a lack of really stand-out features did not help. RRP is R4399, including VAT. For retailer details call Lenovo on 011-911-2000.