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12-inch netbook could be on its way from Lenovo
by Cyril Kowaliski — 9:34 AM on February 17, 2009

With the exception of Dell's Inspiron Mini 12, the vast majority of netbooks stick to 10" and 8.9" form factors right now. DigiTimes says there's a good reason for that: Intel offers preferential pricing to companies that use those display sizes. However, the site also reports that Lenovo is about to follow in Dell's footsteps and add a 12" netbook to its lineup.

Unlike the Inspiron Mini 12, which features Silverthorne Atom chips aimed at more compact mobile Internet devices, the IdeaPad S20 will include the latest and greatest 1.66GHz Atom N280—the same CPU that's popped up in Asus' Eee PC 1000HE. Since Lenovo will break the screen size limit, DigiTimes claims the firm will need to buy Atom CPUs "at Intel's officially announced price, which is around US$10 higher than typical quotes to vendors of Lenovo's size."

With Windows XP and a GN40 chipset, this IdeaPad S20 will supposedly cost around $20,000 TWD in Taiwan. That works out to around $580 in greenbacks, though actual U.S. pricing might end up lower. (For what it's worth, Lenovo's 10" IdeaPad S10 starts at $349 in the U.S. and $15,900 TWD, or $459, in Taiwan.)