Medion Akoya LS? Yep...

This looks like an ibook...... but dont be fooled!!

The ODM for this notebook is MSI.

http://www.msi.com.tw/program/produc...ng.php?UID=607


There is a AMD version out there as well, but as of yet, nobody is selling it in the US.

good call. the S260 by MSI will be out in Mid-May with a Dual DVD Burner and equipped with XP Pro. no prices yet. This one at bestbuy looks like the lower end version, but at that price it's still a good deal.

They're a German company. But that is a rebranded MSI notebook.

I saw this today at BestBuy and it looks very nice...but the sonoma might mean crappy battery life and I personally would like to have bluetooth in it...

Mini-review:
I purchased this laptop not long ago. I was really impressed with the specs for the price and small size. My previous laptop was an iBook, and as I am more of a PC guy, the Akoya seemed like a similar product for x86.
It's a very speedy pc and though it has shared memory graphics, I can play Quake3 or even Dungeon Siege at decent framrates... comparable to the GeForce2 with 32MB ram on an older pc of mine. For me this is acceptable as I'm not really doing much gaming with cutting edge graphics like Doom3.
one thing that struck me right off is that the HD is SUPER quiet, no clicking or ker-chunk noises or even spindle whine! It's a Samsung with a nice 8MB buffer and only 4200 RPM, though I never noticed having to wait long to copy files and XP boots up quickly. The CD-ROM has very nice read speed IF DMA is enabled. for some reason I could not get XP home to recognize it as anything but PIO mode, but after installing XP Pro, it showed up with DMA capability which in case you dont know makes a HUGE difference in optical drive performance. The XP Home that I got with the laptop is also nicely a REAL CD of OEM XP, not just a paper license! Kudos! Also there is Nero 6 SE that certainly prefered over other burning software, and includes utils to make VideoCD (or DVD if you have a DVD burner) from MPEG4 or the other way around!
The integrated graphics chip seems to take up much of the 512MB mem included, about 200 MB.... I'm not sure why so much is needed, but I didn't seem to be causing the HD to page even with many programs open.
The sound comes is acceptable for laptop speakers (far better than an iBook anyway!) and supports a nice EQ and surround options. Sadly there is no built in mic for conferencing so you may have to get a webcam with a decent mic builtin. I miss that from the ibook

The screen is the shiney high contrast type and has 1280x800 res. Nice and wide for web browsing if you have a bookmark window on the side. Though it seems a little too tight vertically that is to be expected with the wide screen ratio. This is nice for watching widescreen movies however and is not to much of a hassle for games, even running in non-native resolutions, the smoothing is not too bad.

Wifi can be set to disable on boot from bios and can be controled from a button above the keyboard. I did not have any problems connecting to my WAP. It supports WPA and other 802.1x security.

I have not tested the card reader, as I use CF cards so I have to get a PCMCIA adapter. There are three USB2 ports, two on the left and one on the right, which is convenient. I have not yet tested the firewire, but it is 4-pin type so it will not provide power to devices :P

On the flip side:

The verison I purchased included the 8-cell pack and this sticks out about a half-inch from the notebooks design form (this kinda kills whatever sexiness that the compactness of the laptop could have)... this was the first thing that dissapointed me as the battery life seems to be only about 3 hours even with this "extended pack." It's not to big a deal, as I generaly will plug in the laptop where I use it. Perhaps there will be some tweaks that improve batterly life or higher MAh in a smaller 4-cell pack... and I can have a nice form-factor :P

The keyboard layout is a bit cramped on the right side and because the right shift key is so small, it took time to train my little finger not to hit a false key nearby. The arrow keys are also very narrow. Other wise it is okay.

The instruction manual is very good for someone who has never used a computer but it is lacking for users who want to change the bios or internal hardware. No instructions are included for upgrading the ram, HD or CD-Rom.

Less than a week after buying it, the keyboard died :P I called Medion and they were very nice and are sending a box to ship it back for repairs. It comes standard with a one-year warranty. Hopefully it won't be gone long. Notebooks and other small devices seem to have a rough start. My iBook had a dead screen after it was booted up twice, so perhaps this kind of thing is not uncommon when you pack so much tech into a small space. I think that for the price it is a still a very good value.

Thanks Endert for the MSI tip, nice to know of another option for parts later on.
BTW the MSI instructions at least have bios explanations and hint that RAM and CPU can be accessed under the KB, tho no instructions on how to actually do it. No mention of HD replacement either. :P

OC

Someone put linux on this laptop. I could not get Ubuntu livecd to boot for some odd reason but I have not tried the install disk. Ubuntu is a very easy to use distro and seems to support this laptop ok:
http://www.fbihome.de/~glogow/md95600/
here are some more linux hints and the solution to the boot hang-up problem:
http://www.danisch.de/software/msi_s260.html


OC

Update:
i traded in my dead Akoya LS for an EX.

Though the EX is a little bigger, its still seems reasonable in size for everyday travel. But it really has some distinct advantages over the LS.

The keyboard is much less cramped and seems more responsive.

DVD +R and Dual-Layer Burning

DVI and VGA out ports

All screen/wifi/sound controls on the main KB function keys

Discrete update access panels - much easier to upgrade components.

There seems to be a built in mic but untested.

IR for connecting to cell phones - tested also works as modem this way too if you are really desperate for dialup connections! I can't seem to get remote control programs to work as the serial port seems to auto-deactivate when an IRDA cellphone or pda is not around. :P

I think it looks a bit more refined as well, but I wish the keys were not silver and chrome finish on accents is a bit out of style.

The bios seems a bit over simplified but otherwise behaves with linux. hardware seems Ubuntu friendly.

OC

OC

Akoya LS user

I got this laptop 2 weeks ago at Best Buy and have mixed feelings about it. the 915Gm chipset caught my eye. The battery on full charge says 4 hrs. The notebook has a large battery sticking out at the back but the system weight of 4.4# is not too bad for me, given the price and the specs.

I have yet to figure out how to upgrade the memory or hard drive. Wonder if it can take DDR2 memory (is there even such a thing yet for notebooks?)

My biggest complaint is that the keyboard isn't as responsive as my old laptop and its getting to be really annoying.

If it worked perfectly, I don't think you can get a better deal anywhere.

BTW, Medion made eMachines laptops. I don't know if MSI really made them or its the other way around (Medion makes, MSI gets a license and markets under its own brand).

I'd be interested to know if anyone else has encountered the keyboard issue.

Raul

Raul, I purchased the laptop a day ago and I am having trouble with the space bar, I have really hit it with pressure for it to respond, I think I will see if I can return it and get another one because it is really aggrevating