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Medion’s Akoya Mini E1210 budget ultraportable had little to differentiate it from the rest of the crowded market on announcement, but perhaps some unboxing photos will make the little laptop more appealing. MSI-Wind.de have just brought one home, and they’ll be the ideal people to confirm whether, as predicted, the E1210 is really just an MSI Wind in a different chassis.
That means a 10-inch display, Intel Atom processor and 1.8-inch hard-drive. There’s also 1GB of RAM and two USB ports, a memory card reader, VGA-output, ethernet port and webcam. Medion claim it’ll be available in white as well as the “titanium grey” you can see here, but we’re yet to see the white version (perhaps it looks too much like press photos of the Wind?).
No word on how much MSI-Wind.de paid for their E1210; the original price always sounded a little high, certainly if you tried to translate it to a US figure: €399 in Europe, which works out to $638. However Medion still haven’t said whether the notebook will ever actually make it outside of Europe.
[via jkkmobile]
6 Responses to “Medion Akoya Mini E1210 unboxed”
Construction Blog July 1, 2008
looks a lot like msi wind to me
NeutralIngoal July 1, 2008
The price named there is correct, 399 Euros…and that isn’t out of the ordinary, after all everything is a bit more pricey over here (e.g. Apple products – cost US 299$ -> cost EU 299 €)…pretty sick, but what can you do…
NeutralTrin July 2, 2008
Prices in EU were mostly set when 1$ ws 1euro. the $ is now half that price but nothing much has changed. you can understand when retailers have bought quantities of the stuff at the old pices, but for a brand new product it is a real robbery. a huge grey/black market of US “suitcase” imports has sprung up here and you could buy a lot of the goodies at close to US prices. this of course means no service no warranty
aint life hell. on the bright side a trip in the states looks like a visit to eastern europe now. in fact its cheaper in NY or LA than in Prague ;)
sorry for straying form the MSIwind/medion akoya. this a neat toy, but i’ll wait for the white one. this grey plastic is awful.
NeutralDr. Dweeb August 28, 2008
Folks,
I picked up a white version at ALDI in Denmark the day it was released for DKK 2999 (USD593 at todays middle rate 8/28-08).
I went travelling for 2+ weeks that evening.
Here is the scoop.
Things are more expensive in Europe because we have VAT, not sales tax. VAT is 25% in Denmark and by law this amount is included in quoted prices (as distinct from sales tax which would normally not be in the price, added at purchase time).
The price ex-VAT is thus DKK 2400 (USD 475 at todays middle rate)
Sadly, this machine has a danish version of WinXP, so that is getting scratched asap. The lack of BT can be fixed by a BT mini-dongle which costs about USD3 in asia, which is so small it need never be removed from the USB port.
The actual difgferences between the MSI Wind and the Aldi version are exactly as mentioned on Wiki, and irrelevant for me.
The device has been used several hours a day for 2+ weeks and has performed flawlessly. It fits in my backpack easily and the 10″ screen is fine for my eyesight.
A 6 cell battery would be better, but I could not pick one up in Thailand last week since it is not released there yet. I guess I will need to wait for that or pay EU prices.
All in all, I am happy with my purchase.
There are YouTube videos showing Ubuntu Remix, OSX10.5, Ubuntu/Compuiz etc running on this machine, so WinXP is unlikely to be longterm OS I choose to run.
I hate paying the Microsloth tax, because I definitely do not want a danish version of the OS, but since I live in Denmark, the danish keyboard is useful.
Dr. Dweeb
NeutralStu September 8, 2008
I’ve got my hands on one of these in the UK for £279. Without the VAT it would have been £238. It came with XP sp3 but still needed to download 19 updates for windows.
NeutralI must say so far that I’m very pleased with it. I read the reports about it being the other PC in a different chassis but didn’t let it put me off.
Quite surprised at the speed it runs windows as I expected it to be slower. It came with Bullguard security software, Wordperfect etc.
So far so good. Like it says on the box, it works like a fully functioning PC – so far. Why spend a lot more on a flybook when this will do?
WaSaBi January 7, 2009
I have the last version of this netbook in Pearl Withe (so yes it does exsist): 160gb , 1gbRAM, bleutooth, fast wireless Lan, 3USB, multi cardreader, etc.
Indeed this is great value for money bought it for 369€, as a second netbook.
For the Americans, it will be costing 399$ in the US. You’re lucky that hardware is so cheap overthere.
I’m working on it for a little more then a month and untill now it does everything i want it to do without complaining, bugging or hanging.
I have the adobe suite installed (quite havy graphical use from time to time) and an office XP. It does it’s work perfect.
Hook it up to a big LCD TV (VGA exit and yep that’s a little bummer) and play your movies or watch online directly on the tv without any problem.
The build in mice and webcam, make internet calling really easy and the quality is more then acceptable.
BUT and yes there is always a but.
The battery life is just simply poor…
Overal i give it 8,5 out of 10!
If you where doubting, which budget friendly netbook to get?
NeutralHesitate no longer. After 3 months i spend comparing one to the other. I don’t regret my choice at all.