Good laptop?

HI

Do you have a link to the full specs as Medion are down the budge range of computing, and I would want to see what the CPU is?

Also what would you want to be using the laptop for as thats the biggest hurdle for laptops, if just surfing and a little bit of word processing then budget ones are fine, but and any gaming or photo manipulation to than the not IMHO.

But the full specs and what you want to use it for may help us answer you much better.

 

HI Mark

I think higher up the range then they are same as HP, DELL etc and if your happy with the brand then that's all that matters, we all have fav brands.

With what you have described, then that model will do general work as in Office type stuff and surfing and downloading as the downloading side is covered by the speed of your internet.

HDD wise I think 500GB is really good as if you need more just get a portable external HDD, can get 1TB ones for £50 these days.

The CPU is a lower end one, but fine for what you mention, plus the actual Pro point is its a low wattage one so is good for battery life, the next model up which has a Intel i3 is MEDION AKOYA E6241 Laptop (MD98892) and its speed ration with the Pentium one MEDION AKOYA E6239 Laptop (MD98718) is https://www.cpubenchmark.net/compare.php?cmp[]=2278&cmp[]=2410

Other specs are good, USB3.0 always handy now with USB external devices easily found and fairly cheap, HDMI out is nice, I would imaging via your company you get full version MS Office over needing to buy it past the 30 day trial.

for £209 its not bad at all and better spec than I've found in many


EDIT: must have been typing as you added info and I agree, best bang for your £ working budget,
As for others makers I have had good experiences with ACER, HP and DELL, but always will be bad ones too, I kinda thing we shy away from the not so well known brands from outside the UK, kinda like we do with goods from Lidl and Aldi, some going to be better or no worse than M&S, ASDA,Tescos, but some not so good, but if your experiences with this brand are positive then go with that, hardware wise for the cost its good IMO

 

Hi Mark

I've had 3 ACER laptops and all great (ok one did, but I have to say once I gave it away was launched down my sisters stairs by one of my nieces, so did end up with some damage), I know what you mean on professional finish, even if the materials are not the best case, but the finish looks good and it doesn't bend too much then its the finger test on touch ability that is key.

Not all are going to have the touch-ability of say and Apple, or high end aluminum cased laptop, but good feel on the keys, ok finish on the case and no rough edges and that's ok./

On external ports, then its a crap shoot at times as expensive models may not have as many ports and low/mid range, less places to shoehorn stuff in due to larger components, but think of some pros and cons, so what are you going to plug in at once in the case of USB, would you be hooking a HDMI TV or monitor to it etc

A review from Australia on the Medion http://www.pcworld.idg.com.au/review/medion/akoya_e6228_md98980_laptop/422923/ it is the Intel i3 version but besides the CPU the rest gets a good opinion. The battery life in the Pentium one you listed is a 7w so will use less battery than this i3.

Dont think ASDA have display models you can test as in just reboot and see how quick it starts, to how quick IE or Office opens, to opening Word and starting to type, is it laggy (another tech term) as I think its for the user to test, kind of like a car, no good me testing one for you to buy.

I love technical terms

Thought so on Office, and as for anti-malware I agree and thats a pitfall of OEM is that you do get apps you dont need so a bit of cleaning up and uninstalling takes up a fair chunk of the first day you use it, but worth it.

Worst thing is ASDA websites doesn't list Electricals a lot, especially if they have offers on some as its a "as soon as they re sold out they are gone thing"

If the ACER is like this one in Tesco's HERE and they tend to mirror offers, then I'd go for the Medion, on CPU.
The price for what you get in the spec list is good, cannot fault that.

 

Hi Mark

Both the same in terms of CPU, RAM etc but the pro that the ACER has is an optical drive the Toshiba does not.

Difficult one, all would for me come down to how they felt, opening closing the lid, to the keyboard, trackpad feel, to how quick they booted and opened IE and Word, and allowed you to type. If both stores are close to you I'd go and play with them a little, but speed and power wise they are similar with the edge on battery life being the ACER, but then makes claims are always suspect (like MPG).

Let me know what you choose.

 

Hi Mark

I think at times we all read a bad review or on a forum someone's bad experience and it sticks in the back of our minds, but like you I have an old ACER still going strong, its a Aspire 5630 which I gave to my mum and as she said it was a little slow I popped in and old SSD and added Tech Preview of Win 10 for her, adds a little more life to it, CPU is still slow and slower than the ones you are looking at.

Also remember you will get an free upgrade to Windows 10 once its released with you having a Win 8.1 machine (also Win7 users get the same, upgrade is valid for one year from release of Win10)

One thing also I forgot to mention is I also dont just look at the machine specs, price and build, but how easy their site is to find support updates and drivers, and ACER has always been good.

 

Let me know how you get on and how which one you choose, works, but one of the first things is to remove the junk that they add, as many of these slow startup a bit.

http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/pc_de_crapifier.html good app for this.

 

Hi Mark

To get an nVidia or Ati card your looking at laptops that will be £100/200+ more, the latest generation Intel HD Graphics are not too bad TBH, for what you are using the laptop for I'd stick with the Intel.

 

I have Intel HD graphics in my Surface Pro tablet and its fine, plays HD movies really well, plus some games.

 

If you can have a test of one that then seals the deal, as nothing better to kick the tires so to speak.

I do have to add my Surface Pro is an Intel i5 with 4GB ram and an SSD, so it is quicker than many desktops, but the Intel HD Graphics is good quality pic and runs good in games.

 

Label on the bottom of a laptop gives all the info as well as the Serial number to reinstall Windows.
Right it down because the heat and wear and tear of a laptop will obscure some of the information and you'll regret not writing it down when the laptop was new and the info was readable.

 

I meant Write instead of right but you got the idea. :-o