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Unboxing the Lenovo IdeaCentre Q150

By on July 22, 2010 in Desktop PC Reviews, Reviews

On Tuesday, I got this package from FedEx.  Inside was little box containing a computer.  A small computer.  A *very* small computer.  One of those computers in that nettop category.  It was a Lenovo IdeaCentre Q150.  Before I plugged it in, I started to classify it as my next HTPC.  Why?

  • Intel Atom D510 64-bit Dual Core CPU
  • nVidia ION graphics
  • 2GB of ram
  • 500GB hard drive
  • HDMI port
  • Windows 7
  • and more!

Actually, before I wrote this up, I plugged the machine into my LG TV to get a glimpse of what I was in for.  1st impression?  Well, let me put it this way.  The drop-dead return date to send this item back to Lenovo is October 6th.  Without giving anything away, I might just have to take a looong time to finish this review.

Anyway, I’ve only had this for a day or so and I am far from being ready to start writing up a review.  Before I do get into the actual workings of the Q150 for a review, I thought you might want to take a quick look at the what you get with this device.

The Unboxing

Like I said, this is a small box.  15” x 8” x 4-3/4”.  Not exactly the brightest retail packaging in the world, but I’m more interested on what is inside anyway.

q1 thumb Unboxing the Lenovo IdeaCentre Q150q2 thumb Unboxing the Lenovo IdeaCentre Q150

As you can, there are a few hints of what awaits you

q3 thumb Unboxing the Lenovo IdeaCentre Q150q4 thumb Unboxing the Lenovo IdeaCentre Q150

as you move around the exterior sides.

q5 thumb Unboxing the Lenovo IdeaCentre Q150

Nice buzz words like Intel, HDMI, Windows 7, and the specs I noted above in fine print.

Upon opening the box,

q6 thumb Unboxing the Lenovo IdeaCentre Q150

you are greeted with a bit or more of paperwork.

q11 thumb Unboxing the Lenovo IdeaCentre Q150q12 thumb Unboxing the Lenovo IdeaCentre Q150

Digging past the prerequisite written words, we come to our first box containing this little item that looks more like a portable HD than the computer it actually is.

q7 thumb Unboxing the Lenovo IdeaCentre Q150

Setting that aside temporarily, we come to the next box which contains a wired keyboard.

q8 thumb Unboxing the Lenovo IdeaCentre Q150q9 thumb Unboxing the Lenovo IdeaCentre Q150

Finally, tucked away at the bottom of the main box are the supporting hardware: power cords, wired mouse, stand, and mounting bracket to install on the back of a TV.

q10 thumb Unboxing the Lenovo IdeaCentre Q150

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About Jim Clark

Hello. I’m from the heartland of the U.S. Lots of corn and beans, although Iowa is a lot more than just farmland. It also has a few computer enthusiasts (no, not me!). I’ve been around PCs since I got my 1st PC XT aloooong time ago. WGS is one of the first sites I found centered around WHS. And the best. Every once in awhile, I do get away from the KB and enjoy time with and my wife and our 4 kids. And I do have a day job.
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  • Billy_McSkintos

    I would be interested to see how this performs with 1080p MKV, Hulu etc etc.

    • http://www.creativehand.co.uk jody

      1080 mkv streamed through WMC7, while watching another movie on a different machine – how does it cope with that

    • http://intensedebate.com/people/Jim_Clark Jim_Clark

      I will try to get a sample of as many formats as I can. k? :)

      • http://www.creativehand.co.uk jody

        great, try a 10GB WMV file as well please

  • Daniel Wong

    Great preview. I've been looking for a review of this machine everywhere. I am also interested in the 1080p performance. And I'm particularly interested in whether there is a fan inside. If it's fanless and I can replace the HDD with a solid state, it would make a perfect silent htpc. Looking forward to pt 2.

    • http://intensedebate.com/people/Jim_Clark Jim_Clark

      No fan, and it runs very cool. And quiet as a mouse.

      • Brandon

        Hi Jim,
        This is very interesting, as comments on AVSforums and elsewhere suggested that this unit does have a fan. Not to question you, but are you absolutely certain there is no fan? I ask because I was considering the new Shuttle X350 because it is fanless, but if this is also, the I think i'll go with the lenovo.

        Thanks!

        • http://intensedebate.com/people/Jim_Clark Jim_Clark

          I will have to renege on the "no" fan. My bad. It does have one. I noticed some exhaust vents along the top when I first set things up. When I first turned it on, I could not hear anything. You literally have to put your ear on the vent area to hear anything more than a very faint whoosh. From a few feet away, you have to strain to hear it.

          • http://intensedebate.com/people/urmaster urmaster

            If you didn't notice the fan it’s a pretty unbiased testament to its performance ^_^

  • Scott

    Can't wait to hear how it performs. Looks like a sweet little device. Also please provide some information on the size of the wireless keyboard/mouse. Hard to get a true sense of the size by comparing with the table grain pattern.

    • Jim_Clark

      I know what you mean, and I am saving things like that for the review, lol! I will most likely take a pix next to a remote and a regular keyboard for perspective. Will that do?

      It is quite small and designed for the cell phone texting generation. Which is not me… Love the trackball, tho!

      • Scott

        That would be great. Thanks Jim.

    • Billy_McSkintos

      Its not very big at all. As you can see it has that "ergonimic" T shape, it is very light and in someways "plasticy", especially the trackball. You can hear plastic grinding against plastic. The keyboard is really only for thumb typing. Its probably 4-5" across. It functions really well though! I like mine for basic browsing etc but if I need to work on the machine I plug in a usb mouse and keyboard.

      • Scott

        Too bad to hear; sounds kind of cheap. If it too small, my old eyes and less than nimble fingers will probably not be able to use it too efficiently. That's what happens after you get over 40. :-)

        • http://intensedebate.com/people/Jim_Clark Jim_Clark

          I am in same boat as you, age-wise. Like I said above, it is quite small and designed for the cell phone texting generation. Altho I do like the trackball!

          FWIW, here is my scenario: Buy a cheap wireless KB/mouse and a MC remote (if you can find one of them). That way you are covered on the Q150 as both a nettop and an HTPC. It just all depends how you would use one.

          • Scott

            Thanks Jim. I was thinking the same thing about adding my one wireless KB, mouse, & remote. My son will want to utilize it for PC gaming, so it will be required.

  • Andrew rawlinson

    Just to get an idea where you review comes from, have you used a mac mini as a htpc?
    I only ask as I am looking at one for mine but don’t know if the lenevo would be better/same. It’s definatly cheaper.

  • Malcolm_Hegarty

    Jim, could you give the full spec please (all ports etc). Many thanks.

    • http://intensedebate.com/people/Jim_Clark Jim_Clark

      In my review!

  • Andy

    Nice preview. Would love to see how it compares to an Acer Revo as an HTPC. Would much prefer to buy Lenovo. Thanks!

  • Arnold

    Jim
    I'm thinking of getting a Panasonic video camera that can do 1920×1080 50p. My quad core with ATI 4870 graphics card can play back fine, but if you have the time, it would be really good to see if the atom with ION chipset is up to the task.
    Here's a link with some sample 50p and 60p clips straight from the camera http://hdcam.web-pda.info/
    I tested with the menton clip.
    Regards
    Arnold

  • http://intensedebate.com/people/Jim_Clark Jim_Clark

    Wow! Tell me which one (just one!) you want me to DL.

    • Arnold

      Hi Jim
      Thanks. I'd really appreciate that.
      The one I'm interested in is the menton clip – the direct URL is: http://hdcam.web-pda.info/menton%20-%20city%2050p…
      This one is 1920×1080 50p (I live in Australia so we follow the PAL standard)
      Cheers
      Arnold.

      • http://intensedebate.com/people/Jim_Clark Jim_Clark

        Got it!

        • Arnold

          Awesome. I really appreciate you trying going to the trouble of testing that out.

  • Brandon

    Hey Jim,

    One thing i've noticed in user review's of this is the inability to smoothly play Hulu (flash) at 1080p. Apparently, if you output at 720p, things are good. What might be really useful in your review would be:
    1) confirmation of this
    2) the current state of flash. Is 10.1 going to be updated for better ion integration, or is this as good as it will get with this hardware (as far as you know, of course….who know's what Adobe is really going to do)
    3) do you think the limitation, if it exists, could be overcome with a minor speed bump (should we wait for another 300 Mhz or so in CPU speed (tough one, i know, but i just have no idea how much would be needed for smooth 1080p playback.

    Thanks!

    • http://intensedebate.com/people/Jim_Clark Jim_Clark

      1. On my list. FWIW, I've always heard that 1080p is only really useful for TVs larger then ~50". Fact or fiction?
      2. That is definitely a question for Adobe. And I doubt they are talking. ;)
      3. That is tough. What is the limitation, CPU, GPU, network, etc? I wish I had the abiltiy (hardware) to mix and match various components to pinpoint the weak componetry. I don't. :(

  • Mark

    Few Questions

    Am I seeing that right… the SPDIF connector is on the front of the device… so to get 5.1 audio out of this device I'd have to wrap the optical cable out the front?

    Is that wireless keyboard IR, RF, or Bluetooth? (Wondering if I can hide the device away or if it needs line of sight)

    +1 for a test on the performance of playing back a 1080P MKV.. from your windows home server. To be very specific I'd love to see if it could handle playing back a video file that's 1920×1080 with up to 5 Reference Frames… (1920 x 1080 at 5 reference frames is the maximum that the WDTV can handle… debating whether I should upgrade to the WDTV Live, the Popcorn Hour, or a Net Top like this one)

    • Jim_Clark

      Yes, the SPDIF is on the front. I am using HDMI, which carries both video and sound. I have this unit mounted out front, due to it being used for this review. If it were mine, I would tuck it away out of sight, which would for me translate to there being no front/back orientation to the unit.

      wireless: 2.4GHz RF, 10 meter reach, no line of sight needed.

      The device plays any DVD I have thrown at it over my powerline adapter (Netgear). There just is not enough bandwidth to play BD's over a powerline. I will pull out my 50 foot cable and do some checking, but I would prefer to keep video tests local to the machine. Otherwise, I would be checking the network capabilities also, not just the Q150.

  • Romo

    I have a similar box (zotac zbox hd-id11), it has similar specs than the Q150 (same processor and same nvidia graphics). I also got the same Lenovo keyboard (it's ok only problem is that it's not iluminated and it's hard to type at night). I also set it up with an intel SSD to guarantee a fast operation.

    I use it to stream media (Bluray , DVD, & music) from a whs. Overall the ion2 platforms seems to works very well. Only major hiccup is around playing HD 1080p videos with flash (ie. youtube and HULU). Even though nvidia already released drivers with hardware acceleration for flash, it seems that ion falls short to play 1080p flash videos.

    The good side is that my setup plays Bluray stored in a WHS perfectly. Sound outputs through HDMI.

  • Markus

    @Daniel Wong
    Yes, there is a fan inside. A tiny one but there is one. In idle it can barely be noticed. It gets louder while the load increases but stays always below the noise level of an Asrock 330. I currently don't have any other devices for comparison.

    @Mark
    Yes, optical connector is at the front only. Just below two additional USB plugs. On the rear there are two more USB plugs VGA, HMDI, Line-Out, Mic-In, Power and Ethernet.

  • rrighteous

    I'm thinking about picking one of these up in the next couple weeks. I'd really like to see how it does with a USB tuner. I'm thinking about getting the Happauge WinTV-HVR1950 to go with mostly because of the Hardware MPEG-2 encoder which should help with performance. Anyone out there try a similar combo to this yet? I really want to get rid of my satellite and I'm thinking the clear QAM signal off my cable (for my cable modem) and online content should keep us pretty happy.

  • http://www.attorneylombardo.com Dave

    Hi, I just purchased a pair of these from NewEgg for $219 – a great deal, despite being the older version. Performance is good, especially with the 1GB or RAM. But reports of the fan noise are true – it's louder than my Dell 9300 laptop and my Thinkpad. It's not overly obtrusive, it's probably no louder than a desktop, but it's certainly louder than most laptops. Will it get in they way of home entertainment? Unlikely, as this will be tucked away somewhere. Still, if you can't tuck it away, you can think of the fan as pleasant white noise. Which is what it sounds like after a few minutes. In my opinion, however, I would have preferred silence.

    Best,

    Dave

  • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2ytCZjnzfE Audria Amadio

    hey there this is a wonderful blog, would you consider being a invitee author on my web log?

  • Rick

    Will this thing receive a 5ghz wireless signal?