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An impressive laptop for the price
The P6618, on sale 30 April at Aldi, is pitched firmly at the middle ground of PC buyers. The Intel Core 2 Duo T6600 processor is in the middle of Intel’s line-up (although it’s powerful enough for most home users) but the computer has 4GB of memory.
It comes with the 32-bit version of the Windows Vista Home Premium operating system and 4GB is more than that can handle. That’s not a problem Windows will just recognise the first 3GB of memory and get on with its work.
Memory is very cheap at the moment, and Medion has included the 64-bit version of Windows on a DVD so it’s possible to install that to access the full 4GB. The higher-end 64-bit version will not work with some software and hardware, so it’s only really for advanced users.
The Nvidia Geforce 9600M GS graphics card, like the processor, is in the middle of the range. It’s certainly powerful enough for older games and even for video editing, but new games will struggle unless you turn the quality settings down.
Externally, the Akoya P6618 uses Medion’s current black plastic styling. The 16in screen is large, but the resolution is fairly low at 1,366x768 pixels – we’d have expected more from a 16in screen, the upshot being that text and images appear quite large on screen. That’s good for the visually impaired but others may find it annoying. The keyboard is also large and, while not the best we’ve seen, it’s comfortable and has a numeric keypad.
There’s an impressive 500GB hard disk, access to wired and wireless networks, a DVD writer, webcam, HDMI output for flat-panel TVs, eSata port for new external hard disks, USB ports and a small but not particularly impressive USB mouse.
It comes with Microsoft Works for office tasks, Nero for disc creation and a three-year warranty.
The P6618 is an impressive computer for the price – just make sure you get it from Aldi before stocks run out.
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Our verdict
A decent PC at a good price Good points Decent power; large keyboard; good value Bad points Average keyboard quality ; screen resolution too low
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Nice laptop not much to fault.
I was looking round dell and such for a laptop to use around the house and couldnt find one I found suitable for such budget. Went to Aldi quite randomly one day and saw this beauty sat on the shelf. It was £599 but my dad paid half so that wasnt much of a problem =). The laptop is relatively light but because of the screen width its still a little awkward to carry around but hell its better than carrying a desktop round. The computer loaded (after vista had finished doing its "stuff") in about 9 seconds which is very repectable, but it was a clean install with not much on. The laptop has Bullguard 90 free trial, microsoft office 2007 60 day free trial (not too interesting mind I put openoffice on it straight off) and some other fairly useful stuff for a pre-loaded PC. I played with it and after a while got bored and installed the 64-bit version of vista is supplied and (until you start playing games) there really is no difference. BE WARNED installing 64-bit vista gives compatability issues with the drivers (which are handily installed on a partioned off D drive thats 25GB in size) but the 64-bit compatible versions are normally automatically downloaded by Windows anyway. The processor usage sits at around 14% when I'm using the laptop for stuff like internet browsing and word processing (measured using rainmeter) and ram usage is at about 28%. When you start playing games mind the graphics card temperature bursts into a frantic mess and at one point peaked at 91 degrees celcius (measured by speedfan). That doesnt matter too much because the fans kick in on 100% at 85 and it soon lowered back to 60. Typing is easy and you can tell when you have actually pushed the keys in, unlike on some laptops when you cant really tell because there so "loose". The screen is good viewing and relatively easy on the eyes with a 60Hz refresh rate. The only real fault with this is the built in speakers are quite pathetic and at full volume spit out alot of noice and ruin "OK go on the treadmills", evil speakers. Apart from the speakers its a fantastic buy that I'm very happy with. Go buy one it its in your budget range!!!
Posted by Ben, 19 May 2009