Medion Akoya E1210
Written by Lee
Since the arrival of the Asus Eee PCs in the market at the end of the year 2008, the whole world went crazy over the ‘mini-notebook’ series. The Medion Akoya E1210 has surfaced as yet another brand offering the same note-book features but in a different style. Medion Akoya E1210 is a petite, sturdy and nevertheless a useful addition to the Medion Mini notebook series as you would find during the course of this review.
Design Built and Colour
Available in crispy white and enigmatic black colours, the Medion Akoya E1210 is a small notebook, easy to carry due to its light weight. Having the dimensions of 260 x 180 x 19 mm, it has a small keyboard and screen. Little area given to the keys also effect the Mouse buttons since only a single mouse button is provided; click the right and left side for right and left-click respectively. This takes some time for the user to adjust to the strange setting, however, the track pad works well. Weighing around 1.25kg, it may be a little over weight but is still quiet portable.
Screen
A 10.2 inch wide TFT screen gives sharp and vibrant images at a resolution of 1024 x 600 pixels. It is on the smaller side too but is a smart feature added to the netbook. Reflection of light and image visibility being affected in bright light are the usual complaints one would make, otherwise the screen is good.
Operating System
The CPU of E1210 consists of the Intel A Atom Processor N270 (1.6GHz) and is supported by DDR2 SDRAM with a capacity of 1GB. The hard drive available has a space of 80GB and the laptop can allow additional memory cards such as SD, MMC and MS.
The performance of Medion Akoya E1210 is no different from that of the MS1 Wind or Advent 4211 as it can easily run the Office program and allow net browsing simultaneously, however, if you plan on running more than two programs at a time, then you would face hindrance. The Software programs such as WordPerfect Office, Microsoft Windows XP Home and OEM versions (either preinstalled or available on recovery CD/ DVD) are provided for the routine work. With Medion’s technical support, the E1210 model is a user friendly laptop and is definitely better than the Asus series.
Battery Life
The notebook is powered by a Li-ion Battery. Though Medion has upgraded version of Akoya E1210 in the pipeline, for the time being we would have to bear the battery life of only 2 and a half hours and that too with lowered screen brightness and the Wi-Fi switched off. The battery life is the same as that offered by the MS1 Wind and Advent 4211 but not up to the mark of the brand leader Asus Eee 901. Nonetheless, you can still take it on short trips provided there is a battery upgrade to extend the working hours.
Price and Warranty
Medion Akoya E1210 is available at a price of around £279.99 matching that of Advent 4211 but lower than the MS1 Wind. You are also bestowed with a warranty of 1 year for the package which is fair enough for the offered deal.
Medion Akoya E1210 Notebook Specifications
Dimensions: 260 x 180 x 19 mm (W x D X H)
Weight: 1.25kg
Display: 10? TFT widescreen display, 1024×600 pixels resolution
Operating System: Intel A Atom Processor N270 (1.6GHz)
Graphics:Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator 950 based on PCI – Express technology
Softwares: Microsoft® Windows® XP Home Edition (SP3)
Memory: 80GB hard disk
RAM: 1GB DDR2 SDRAM
Connectivity Features: Integrated webcam and microphone
Integrated loudspeakers
Multi-format memory card reader (SD, MMC, MS)
Wireless LAN 801.11b/g Draft-N up to 300 mbit/s and
802.11b/g compatibility
Fast Ethernet LAN port (10/100Mbit/s)
External AC adapter
3x USB 2.0
