It is rare to find a notebook on the market that is cheap while also offering a good level of performance. Based simply on its specifications, the Medion Akoya P7612, should be a much more expensive machine but coming in at under $1000, this 17.3 inch notebook is a bargain.

In the past, Medion have always offered reasonable prices for their notebooks. Medion has made sure that the P7612 runs cool even after hours of operation, which is a good thing as heat has always been an issue with some of the notebooks around.

The battery life is also rather good too.  The standard eight cell battery lasted 2 hours 47minutes during our run down test.  This test is designed to be a “worst case” scenario example of usage by running a DVD full screen with display brightness turned way up.

We ran quite a few programs including office productivity and multimedia creation tools.  The system held up well, even with the video editing software.  It runs an Intel Core 2 Duo T6500 processor (2.16Ghz) and 4GB of RAM. The graphics chip is a 256MB nVidia GeForce G210M.

We tested gaming performance by running the recent title, “Ghostbusters”. Keep in mind, this notebook isn’t intended for gaming, as such, but it ran it fairly well at moderate settings. The frame rate was fairly low and the texture detail wasn’t great but it was playable. Older games should run at fairly high frame rates with a good level of detail.

We were extremely impressed with the speakers on the Akoya.  They are vastly superior to the standard speakers you find on most notebooks and avoided sounding tinny or distant.  They were able to produce a good level of volume without distortion and sounded fairly good.  There is also a subwoofer on the base of the machine which allows for a little more bass making it ideal for watching movies.

 



The P7612 has three USB 2.0 slots, a multi-card reader, an e-sata port, an ExpressCard slot and HDMI out. There is no D-Sub VGA out port but there is a DisplayPort. However, the cable required to use this port is not included. If you want to connect the notebook to an external monitor you will need to buy the cable or connect via HDMI.

The unit also has a 1.3 Megapixel webcam and comes with a 320GB hard drive.  Networking options include a LAN port and draft-n Wi-Fi but there is no Bluetooth.

The design is a little dull compared to other fancier looking notebooks on the market.  The touchpad is finished in the same gloss that the entire base has making it a little hard to use, a matte finish would have been a better option.  

However, a mouse in included in the sales package so that isn’t a massive issue. The keyboard is responsive and comfortable to use and has a full number pad.  The unit is quite heavy and would be considered a desktop replacement but it is build rather solidly as well.  The display looks good and has a maximum resolution of 1600×900 but there is a little backlight bleeding at the very bottom of the screen.

It is good to see something so cheap still offer a good level of performance.  It isn’t the flashiest notebook around but it is definitely excellent for those on a budget.

The Medion Akoya P7612 is available starting this Thursday, September 10, for $999.