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Medion Akoya E3211 review

Our Rating :
Price when reviewed : £500
inc VAT

The Akoya E3211 is light and easy to carry around, but with a single-core processor it's also low-powered, and there are better alternatives.

Specifications

13.3 in 1,366×768 display, 1.8kg, 1.3GHz Intel Pentium SU2700, 4.00GB RAM, 320GB disk, Windows Vista Home Premium

Medion

If you’re on a tight budget and want an ultra-portable you can carry everywhere with you, Medion’s Akoya E3211 looks an attractive proposition. For just £500, you get a 13.3in widescreen laptop that weighs just 1.8kg.

Unfortunately, the budget nature of this laptop shines through. For starters, opening the lid reveals an uninspiring silver-and-black design that makes the Akoya look cheap.

Inside, things aren’t that much better. The 1.3GHz Intel Pentium SU2700 processor is one of the slowest models you can buy, and meant that this laptop was very slow in our benchmarks, scoring 21 overall, despite its 4GB of RAM. At this speed, the Akoya’s fine for basic office tasks, but editing large image files or videos will be more of a struggle.

Games are also out of the question. The onboard Intel GMA4500M graphics chip managed only 4.4fps in our Call of Duty 4 test.

The keyboard’s not very good, either. The keys are a decent size, but they’re very spongy and make typing at speed inaccurate. We found the tiny cursor keys hard to use, while the touchpad’s sunken buttons are difficult to hit accurately.

Viewing angles aren’t brilliant on the 13.3in 1,366×768 screen, but it’s fine for one person. The screen is bright and colours look fine. Thankfully, there’s a DVD drive built in – which many budget ultra-portables don’t have – so you can watch movies on the go.

One thing we expect from an ultra-portable is fantastic battery life. At nearly four-and-a-half hours, the Akoya can be used for a fair time away from a power socket, but we’ve seen budget ultra-portables, such as Acer’s Aspire Timeline 5810GT, last longer.

It’s not all bad news, though. The 320GB hard disk is generous for the price, and gives you plenty of space for all of your documents.

The Akoya 3211 is a compact laptop with good battery life, but the single-core processor holds back performance and the keyboard is uncomfortable. Samsung’s Q320 costs a little more, but has far better performance and similar battery life. It’s a much better choice.

Basic Specifications

Rating ***
Processor Intel Pentium SU2700
Processor clock speed 1.3GHz
Memory 4.00GB
Memory slots 2
Memory slots free 0
Maximum memory 4GB
Size 33x332x222
Weight 1.8kg
Sound Realtek High Definition Audio
Pointing device touchpad
Power consumption standby 2W
Power consumption idle 14W
Power consumption active 22W

Display

Viewable size 13.3 in
Native resolution 1,366×768
Graphics Processor Intel GMA 4500M
Graphics/video ports VGA
Graphics Memory 128MB

Storage

Total storage capacity 320GB
Optical drive model TSST SN-S083B
Optical drive type DVD+/-RW +/-DL

Ports and Expansion

USB ports 3
Bluetooth no
Wired network ports 1x 10/100/1000
Wireless networking support 802.11n
PC Card slots 1x ExpressCard/34
Modem No
Supported memory cards SDHC, MMC, Memory Stick Pro/Duo
Other ports none

Miscellaneous

Carrying case No
Operating system Windows Vista Home Premium
Operating system restore option restore partition, restore disc
Software included Microsoft Works 9, Nero Burning Rom 8 Essentials, Nero Recode 3 SE
Optional extras none

Buying Information

Warranty one year collect and return
Price £500
Details www.medion.co.uk

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