Medion Erazer X6813 15.6″ Laptop Review

The machine is attractive, finished in a ‘brushed' metal chassis. It is supplied with a full resolution 1080p screen which is quite reflective, meaning it should be ideal for enhancing media playback. Sadly I wasn't impressed with the screen at all, finding it a little dull, even at the maximum setting. Colours seemed slightly oversaturated and out of balance, with weak contrast. Viewing angles were less than impressive.

The chiclet keyboard and trackpad are reasonably pleasant to use, although we have used better, even at the same price point. Medion have highlighted specific keys in red, those mainly used by the gaming audience. I was disappointed to see that there is only a single depth return key on the keyboard, which always gives me some typing problems.

The power button is positioned in the middle, underneath the screen. There is a backlight button just to the right which sadly doesn't mean the keyboard is backlit. This button activates two blue lights on the side of the chassis which glow … this was rather disappointing as I think a backlit keyboard is really beneficial. On a more positive note, we are pleased to see a num pad on the right.

The machine may be modestly priced but the appearance thankfully doesn't reflect this. We really like the thin panel and attractive styling. The ‘Medion' and ‘Erazer' logos are chromed and the surface doesn't attract fingerprints or mark easily. Always a bonus.

The ERAZER X6813 is one of the few machines we have reviewed this year that can open fully by 180 degrees, as shown above. The Lenovo ThinkPad X1 is the only other machine we have reviewed recently that can be used in a similar fashion.

Connectivity is quite impressive. On the left side of the X6813 you will find three USB ports, two of which are USB 3.0 capable. There is a SDHC memory card reader here. On the right side are four 3.5 mm audio jacks for full analogue surround sound and a microphone. There is a second USB 2.0 port here and a tray loading Blu-Ray drive for high definition multimedia playback.

On the back of the machine is a gigabit Ethernet port, VGA and HDMI 1.4 and an eSATA port for high speed storage backup. There is also Bluetooth and Wi-Fi N support.

The chassis contains stereo speakers and an integrated subwoofer for stronger low frequency depth. Sadly in real world terms it adds little to the overall experience and I could only class the audio as distinctly average. The sound also distorts at higher volume levels which is rather unpleasant.

The internal build raised no concerns, with all components securely held in position. They are using a high quality Intel SSD 320 80GB solid state drive for boot, with a larger 750GB model for storage. More on this later.

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