For the past couple of months we have been praising Medion for providing consumers with affordable yet well-specced notebooks. The notebooks, which are sold on Aldi, have been consistently cheap compared to big brands like Sony, Toshiba, Lenovo, HP, and Acer.
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Sure the Medion E6210 comes with a 16-inch screen that displays movies in widescreen format (16:9) and an 8-cell battery that makes it last longer than other notebooks in the market, but some things had to be sacrificed. Some of the features removed (compared to Medion’s MD96970) were: built-in webcamera and microphone, multimedia keys, fingerprint reader, and Nvidia graphics card.
Specifications-wise, the E6210 utilises Intel’s Dual Core T3400 processor running at 2.16Ghz, has 3GB of RAM, 250GB of storage space, and uses Intel’s Graphics Media Accelerator 4500MHD. While this chipset is good for playing videos, it won’t be able to handle graphic-intensive games. This move may force potential buyers to look elsewhere.
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The E6210 sports a piano-black lid and a stylish brushed aluminium interior. Inside, users can find a keyboard with a dedicated number pad, with the speakers and power button placed right above it. The trackpad is slightly lined to the left while the battery, caps lock, num lock, wireless, and trackpad icons are on the lower-left edge.
Besides Windows Vista Home Premium (with Service Pack 1) installed on the system, Medion has also included Microsoft Works 9, Google Desktop, Google Earth, Microsoft Office 2007 (with 60-day trial), Nero Essentials (Burning ROM 8, Recode 3, Express 8, Vision 5), Corel Draw Essentials Edition 3, Corel Media One, and Bullguard Internet Security software.
The 16-inch screen has a matte finish to it and has a maximum resolution of 1366 x 768. This screen size allowed us to enjoy movies in widescreen format and even watch it from an angle. The speakers were ‘okay’ in a sense that it sounds just like any other notebook out there.
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The E6210 got a score of 1680 in our 3DMark03 test, which just means that this is not built for gaming. Blame this abysmal score on the integrated graphics chip.
The unit lasted 142 minutes in our battery test, which is satisfactory for a notebook this size. Switching to power saving mode will most definitely extend battery life, so better switch it to that mode while you are out and about.
We are finding it hard to recommend this 16-inch notebook from Medion. If given a chance, we’d go with Medion’s 15.4-inch offering (Medion MD96970) just because it has a dedicated video card and offers more in terms of hardware. The Medion E6210 is available now for $999.
See page over for product specifications and final rating.
Medion E6210 Product Specifications:
Processor: Intel Pentium Dual-core processor T3400 (2.16Ghz, 1MB L2 Cache, 667MHz FSB)
Graphics: Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 4500MHD
Storage: 250GB
RAM: 3GB
Screen: 16-inch TFT widescreen display in 16:9 format (1366 x 768)
Wireless: Wireless LAN 802.11b/g/n
Ports: eSATA, HDMI, 4-in-1 card reader, D-Sub, 3 x USB, Expresscard
Medion Akoya E6210 | $999 | 
| www.aldi.com.au
For: Widescreen format; Matte finish screen; Aluminium interior; Price
Against: No dedicated video card; No multimedia keys; No remote; No webcam or microphone
Conclusion: A good unit for watching movies.
