Medion Akoya S3401 Preview – High-end laptop from a budget manufacturer
Almost everyone who is familiar with the computer brand Medion will associate it with the supermarket chain Aldi. The German wholesaler has been selling Medion computers and other electronics for years at very competitive prices. The two brands fit well together, because both do not go for fuss and luxury, but for basics and low prices.
Medion now wants to get rid of that image somewhat. The company, which has since been taken over by Lenovo, is certainly not saying goodbye to the budget market, but it wants to see if it can expand its portfolio. And not with a new product group, as it has done so many times in recent years, but with more luxurious products. The first step in this is the Medion Akoya S3401, a luxury notebook, completely made of aluminum, with everything you can expect from a high-end laptop.
Medion emphasizes that the Akoya S3401 is a Medion product through and through; Lenovo therefore had nothing to do with it and the laptop was developed entirely in-house. It is a 13.3″ notebook with a wedge-shaped design that is quite similar to Apple’s Macbook Air. This is partly due to the use of aluminum, but also due to the black keys, the large touchpad and the lip in the bottom edge that to make opening the laptop easier.
The housing is 18mm thick at its thickest point and weighs 1.46kg. There you may see that Medion is still new in making these types of laptops, because competitors have already succeeded in making laptops of the same size that weigh significantly less. But still, we wouldn’t call a weight of 1.46 kg heavy.
The model on display at Medion was one of two prototypes made so far. Still by hand. That may be part of the reason we weren’t immediately impressed with the laptop. Despite the use of aluminum, the laptop does not feel very high-end and seams here and there do not fit nicely. However, it is mainly the texture of the aluminum that is disappointing. Medion assures us that it is really aluminum, but it feels more like plastic with an aluminum look.
Fortunately, the keyboard makes a somewhat more solid impression. For example, we could detect little flex , something you sometimes see with cheaper laptops. The keyboard is nicely backlit and the keys have a nice touch. The touchpad is nice and large, comes from the Elan factories and has support for the various multi-touch gestures that Windows 10 has built into it.
The version we were able to view had a full HD IPS screen with a matte finish. A glossy screen looks nicer, but we prefer the lack of reflections that a matte screen entails. Medion is also working on a variant with a quad-HD+ screen, or a screen with a resolution of 3200×1800 pixels. This fits in nicely with what the high-end ultrabooks from other manufacturers offer.
Medion does not have to be ashamed of the rest of the hardware either. It is not yet known exactly which models will be released, but variants will in any case be made with Core i3, Core i5 and Core i7 CPUs of the new Skylake generation. Furthermore, up to 8GB of RAM can be built in.
As far as storage is concerned, Medion opts for a flexible layout. There is both an m2 and a normal SATA connection. The cheapest model, which will be sold for 699 euros and will get an i3, will probably get a regular hard drive. However, there is a good chance that the m2 slot is simply present on every motherboard and users can therefore add an SSD themselves. For the slightly more expensive models, Medion is considering combining a small SSD with a large 1TB hard drive. The top version will probably only get a large SSD, but users can theoretically add a hard drive themselves.
That seems to be an easy job, because the bottom is attached to the rest of the laptop with clearly visible Phillips screws. There are no less than twelve in the prototype, perhaps the final model will bring that back a bit. It was also noticeable here that it was a prototype, because not all screws were tightened equally well.
In addition to two USB ports, an HDMI output and a card reader, the Akoya S3401 also has a small USB-C connection. We saw the small, reversible plug at the IFA make an appearance with more manufacturers and we think that’s a good thing. With this, Medion shows that it not only wants to ‘participate’, but also really wants to support the latest technologies. We do not know whether a USB 3.0 or new USB 3.1 controller is hidden behind the USB port.
Finally
It’s always nice to see a brand try something new and that’s why we encourage Medion’s attempt to enter the high-end segment. Whether it will be successful is another matter. It seems to have the hardware in order; with Skylake CPUs, enough memory, SSDs, the option for an extra hard drive, high-resolution screens and support for new techniques such as USB-C, it has nothing to be ashamed of in that area.
However, if we look at the housing itself, we are not really excited yet. Perhaps it has only to do with the fact that it was a prototype, but the S3401 should be available within a few months via the online Medion shop and we would be surprised if more luxurious material was suddenly chosen at the last minute, or if the weight drops significantly.
The S3401 gets an entry-level price of 699 euros for the model with i3 CPU and full HD screen. The variant with qhd + screen and probably also faster hardware should yield at least 899 euros. Those are fairly competitive prices, but other manufacturers have not been idle. An Asus UX305 , for example, comes pretty close.
Perhaps the biggest challenge will be convincing the consumer that Medion is not just a budget brand, and that you should consider it if you want to spend more money and go for quality. The S3401 is a first step in the right direction, but based on our first impression, Medion still has some way to go before it can really compete with the high-end brands.