Nettop is the name given to a small, low wattage desktop whose primary purpose is to surf the internet and serve low end computing purposes. This genre of products is also very well suited to meet the entertainment needs of the customer. The Lenovo Ideacentre Q150 serves the purpose well and can be considered to be an ideal choice for the medium range Nettop segment.
The latest product in Lenovo’s Q series range of Nettop, the Q150 aims to make a mark in the home entertainment field. Small in size (it measures 0.8 by 6.8 by 6 inches), this Nettop comes with the benefit of fitting into most places. Few of its key features include the Intel Atom D410 1.60 GHz processor, 160 GB hard disk, up to 2 GB DDR2 RAM, Intel GMA 3150 graphics card and integrated 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi. Few of these features are upgradeable on request which is pretty decent for a basic Nettop.
As far as aesthetics is concerned, the Q150 is very well designed. It has a neat, glossy finish which makes it appropriate for a home theatre system while it fits well into an office atmosphere as well! The look of the Nettop is very contemporary and is more suitable for the newer generation. All the ports in the system are along the back which includes 4 USB ports, HDMI (Nvidia ION graphics only), VGA, headphone and microphone jacks, and Ethernet. These ports at the back give the whole system a clean and elegant look!
The Q150 comes with a number of optional features. For example you can choose to go for a USB keyboard and mouse, but then it is not favorable if you are buying it for home theatre purposes. You can even choose to purchase a hand-held keyboard with a trackball mouse and multimedia keys! One drawback of the Nettop is that it does not have a DVD or Blue-Ray drive. Most conventional Nettop, however, do not come with this feature. If you’re looking for an optical disk drive, the Apple Mac Mini at $599 is a good buy with its DVD drive. PCs such as this have a very small form factor making them suitable for such applications.
Priced at a mere $399, the Lenovo Q150 has an advantage in this segment. Nonetheless, competitors such as The Pollywell Giada ION-100, priced at $449 will give it stiff competition. The Q150 advertises itself as a miniature Home Theatre PC and lives up to the expectation of being one. It is ideal for storing all your digital media, if that’s what you’re looking at.
Lenovo has given good, affordable products to the market and has always been a favorite in the medium range segment. The Q150 treads the same path. It is a good looking and reasonably priced PC offering decent performance. But if you’re looking at high end applications, this is not the product you should be considering. In fact most Nettop are not built for such purposes, but are ideal for some fun and games!
