Medion Akoya P8610

Medion's Akoya P8610 notebook, available directly from the maker's website, is designed for entertainment, but unlike most such computers, which concentrate on picture quality, this one focuses on sound.

It is certified with the Dolby Home Theater logo, and while sound through the large speaker bar at the top was impressive and quite loud, the presence of a subwoofer meant it was very bass-heavy for our tastes.

The screen is large at 18in, and widescreen, although its resolution, at 1,680x945 pixels, is not the highest we've seen. That does help with readability, it's true, because it means that text and icons are a little bigger on the Medion's screen. The screen was clear enough, although we did have a few problems using it under bright lights, having to put up with reflections.

It uses an Intel Core 2 Duo T5800 processor, not one of the faster ones, although that is backed with a huge 4GB of memory. The computer is loaded with the Windows Vista Home Premium operating system, but it's the 32-bit edition, which makes for much better compatibility with other software and hardware, but the computer can only access 3GB of the 4GB installed. Still, the difference in price between 3GB and 4GB is minimal so it's not a big deal.

Graphics are provided courtesy of an Nvidia Geforce 9600M GS graphics card with 512MB of its own memory. It's enough to deal with most of the graphics many users will require and even some recent games, with detail levels turned down a touch. In addition to the VGA output for connecting a monitor, there's an HDMI socket allowing it to connect to both flat-panel televisions and monitors with DVI ports (the latter requires an adapter that's not supplied).

We put a few high-definition movies through the computer both on the built-in screen and on an HDMI-connected flat panel, and while it was perfectly happy with most of them it struggled to cope with one which was at the very highest possible high-definition quality settings (1080p).

Otherwise it's easily capable of dealing with any office or internet tasks. The overall design is not particularly stylish but it's not too bulky either. The keyboard was a little shallow for our tastes and while the glossy trackpad was usable we found our fingers brushed against it too easily, making the mouse pointer shoot off all over the place while we were typing.

There are some nice touch-sensitive and lit-up media control buttons along one side of the keyboard, though, plus a memory card reader, Expresscard slot, webcam and microphone, three USB ports and the ability to connect to wired and wireless networks, including the fastest versions of each.

In all, it's a good performer, and the price justifies its impressive power when it comes to both home tasks and games.