Medion Akoya P6624 review

Medion is a brand more commonly associated with reasonably priced products rather than high performance ones, but that could be set to change with its newest Akoya laptop. The P6624 packs in some impressively powerful components, but won’t break the bank either.

Running at 2.53GHz, the Intel Core i5-460m processor can easily handle most everyday tasks. Turbo Boost can increase the clock speed up to 2.8Ghz for even greater performance, while its Hyper-threading can provide a boost to multi-threaded applications. Scoring an impressive 96 overall in our multimedia benchmarks, almost every program should run smoothly. To make the most of the 4GB of installed memory, you’ll need to use the recovery CDs to install the 64-bit version of Windows; the 32-bit version is installed by default and can only use just over 3GB.

Surprisingly for a mid-range laptop, the Akoya P6624 is capable of gaming at reasonable levels of detail. Our Call of Duty test proved no problem for its dedicated Nvidia GeForce 425m graphics chipset, managing an impressive 30.8fps. With a few tweaks, we even managed to get the ultra-demanding Crysis up to a playable frame-rate. Of course it’s capable of playing high definition video, either in 720p on the laptop itself or in 1080p on an external display using the HDMI port.

At 2.7kg it’s not particularly lightweight, but as it managed five hours in our light-use battery test using it on the move shouldn’t be ruled out completely. Nvidia’s Optimus is put to good effect, disabling the dedicated graphics when they aren’t being used to extend battery life. When away from the mains and running light tasks, the Akoya was very quiet, but after an hour of running intensive applications it got warm to the touch and the fan spun up to an audible level.