Archive for November 14th, 2009

This glossy black IdeaPad netbook from Lenovo made an appearance on the FCC late Friday in a filing by Intel.  The device, which is known as the FL5-B3, features a 10.1” screen with a 1024×600 resolution, 250 GB hard drive, and 2GB of RAM.

The most interesting part of this filing, however, is the FL5-B3’s processor.  Stickers on the back of the device list the processor as a 1.66GHz PineView from Intel.  The PineView is the next generation of Intel’s Atom, and features a built in DDR2 memory controller, integrated graphics and a Broadcom video decoding processor.

The PineView is expected to be formally announced in December 2009, with a release date in January 2010.  And, as far as I can tell, the FL5-B3 is the first netbook that has been confirmed to use the PineView processor.

Notes on the back of the FL5-B3 warn that the device has not yet received regulatory approval, so the netbook is not close to being launched at this point.  Given that the PineView will be formally released in January 2010, I wouldn’t expect the FL5-B3 until Q1 2010.

One more interesting tidbit on the FL5-B3 – I don’t see any left or right mouse buttons near the device’s trackpad (close-up below).  This suggests that the trackpad may have integrated left and right buttons like a MacBook.  If implemented well, this could be a great space-saving design choice that is perfect for the netbook category.

Overall, this is definitely a welcome addition to Lenovo’s netbook lineup.  The PineView, 250 GB of storage and 2 GB of RAM are nice spec bumps.  The only qualm I have at this point is the glossy finish – if FCC filings are any indication this device is a fingerprint magnet.