Medion Akoya P7615 review

The keyboard is a reasonable size, although the number pad feels squeezed in. Most of the keys are full size, but they are closely grouped which led to the occasional typo. There’s a small amount of flex in the keyboard tray and there’s a lot of unused space around it that could have been used to make it larger.

The touchpad was responsive during normal use, but the multi-touch gestures were frustrating. It’s too easy to accidentally activate them, even with one finger. The buttons are another source of frustration as they’re oddly small and there’s a large gap between them.

The large 17.3in display is a good size for a desktop replacement laptop. The 1,600×900 screen resolution is large enough to comfortably display two documents side-by-side, even if it can’t show Full HD video pixel for pixel. Image quality was reasonable, with accurate colour reproduction and decent contrast. Viewing angles are quite limited, but there’s plenty of tilt. In addition to the usually stereo speakers, there’s a small ‘subwoofer’ next to the battery compartment. Sound quality was better than average but volume was low, even at the highest setting.

The Akoya has decent performance and impressive battery life for such a large laptop, but the keyboard and annoying touchpad hamper usability. Although connectivity is very good, the similarly priced Dell XPS 17 looks classier and is a pleasure to use.