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Go back to school with a new computer
This laptop from Medion is being pitched as a back-to-school special, one that would be good for students and pupils for the new term. It’s an Aldi in-store product that goes on sale on Sunday 9 August.
It has a 16in widescreen display, which makes it large enough for reading text and for watching movies, but makes the overall size of the laptop too large for easy portability: most schoolchildren are likely to be using the Akoya P6620 solely at home.
However, the big screen has its advantages – it’s clear and bright and the relatively low resolution of 1,366x768 pixels means that text and icons appear quite large on the screen.
The other advantage of the big design is the large keyboard, which stretches the whole width of the case. The keys are quite close together, though, which meant we made a lot of mistakes until we got used to it. Medion has included a numeric keypad to the left of the letter keys – it would have been better off removing this and providing larger, better-spaced keys.
The trackpad below was large but unresponsive – it also felt unpleasantly slippery. Both of these problems can be solved by attaching an external mouse and keyboard. A small mouse is supplied.
The Intel Core 2 Duo T6500 processor and 4GB of memory provide enough power for work and internet tasks. There’s a graphics card to supply gaming power, although it’s still not up to the level of a dedicated gaming computer.
The 320GB hard disk is fair for a laptop and there’s a DVD burner on one side.
Windows Vista Home Premium is installed, and the computer comes with a voucher for a Windows 7 upgrade when that operating system is released in October.
There are three USB ports and a combined USB/eSata port, VGA connection for a monitor, HDMI for a flat-panel TV, Expresscard and memory card slots, and it can connect to wired and wireless networks.
There’s also a good selection of software: Microsoft Works for office tasks, Corel Wordperfect Office, Coreldraw and Painter for drawing and picture-editing, and Nero software for disc burning.
With a three-year warranty, the P6620 is a good choice for pupils, students and other home users who want a general-purpose computer. Just don’t expect to be able to carry it to school or the office.
Read more reviews
Our verdict
An impressive deal, although the Medion Akoya P6620 is not a computer without flaws – notably in the keyboard and trackpad Good points Good-quality large screen; good software supplied; three-year warranty Bad points Poor trackpad; may sell out quickly at Aldi shops
£500
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Does exactly what says on tin!
I managed to get hold of one yesterday. Was up and running just the way i wanted it within 1hr. Tested BBC iPlayer in HD, full screen was better than watching in the browser, tested youtube normal and HD, managed to handle both fine. Impress with screen so far. Kept its cool throughout testing which i loved, also noise level was bliss. Look forward to testing more intense like photoshop and indesign and other media playback.
Posted by Anoop Patel, 10 Aug 2009
Good machine...
Originally went grocery shopping to save money rather than spending it all at Tesco... Came out with this laptop for my eight year old... Having now tested it for over the last week and still not finding bug bears or flaws, I'm going to hand my 'old' Sony VIAO to my eight year old and use this instead!! Keyboard is great and full num pad is very handy. The layout, screen size is more than adequate and no relections!. Single HDMI out with nvidia geforce cuda was expecting sluggish performance but again pleasantly surprised at the picture quality. Only thing missing is no built in bluetooth, so added a mini usb one for a tenner and this machine is now a very good general purpose work horse. At this price, expect it sell out...
Posted by Rax, 16 Aug 2009
Medion Akoya P6620
I got one 2 days ago and so far i think its of but the touch pad has let it down, The screen is perfect i too tested it with bbc iplayer and sky player as well as you xl and it seems to cope effetely. But hey for £499 who can complain for what you get i persnoally give this 8 out of 10 :-)
Posted by Gareth Rees, 22 Aug 2009
hmmmmm
weight: for the size it's pretty light. design: looks decent. materials used: cheap, plastic. spec: very good, the screen is one of those tft hd screens, where you have tokeep moving the screen to get a good look. 4gig ram and graphics card very good for games..tested farcy 2 works perfect. The biggest let down on this laptop is the keyboard..WHY WHY its so cheap and tackey each time a type a key a want to throw it out the widnow, it gets quite uncomfortable..after a whole days use, typing away the keys have been moved slightly..the keypad is a letdown. speakers: fairly good. touchpad: very nice finsih, works well. Battery life, 4 hours out of a full charge. not excellent dual layer drive, not really tested it much but runs dvds fine. The system itself runs smoothly as expected, overall a good little laptop, but they give the 3 year waranty for a reason. seems durable but its GERMAN so expect some things to mash up like the tacky keyboard. overall a good buy for students, no way will you find the same specs in a laptop for £500..
Posted by jimmy, 29 Aug 2009
p6620
i got one played rome total war on it works ok, for the money it is good, i will put xp on it, it has the drivers on hdd has fat32 on d drive. it has service pack 2 as well 32bit or 64bit two cd
Posted by kill, 30 Aug 2009
p6620
yes i have one, play rome total war iclone daz3 etc, i had xp on mine, i found it all right,for £499 good deal.
Posted by max, 28 Oct 2009
Medion P6620
bought mine recently to replace laptop. much too large to take around with me. and the case not very robust for anything other than on a desk or home use. other than that a great deal for a recent computer. got mine for £349,99 at ALDI. not too sure about the Vista though urgh!!
Posted by D Jackson, 30 Nov 2009