Power city medion lapper

clint_silver

Power city.ie click on their online deals. Today only. 350 down to 250

15" screen. 4gb ram. 1tb hdd, celeron processor

I've had several medion laptops from aldi, not sure why hey stopped doing them but haven't seen them in there in a while. Anyway they all died of old age so thumbs up here. Pc only doing 1 yr guarantee.

The_Conductor

They also have a Toshiba C50 (similar specs) for the same price- if you'd rather buy a Toshiba.

stimpson

I would not buy a Toshiba laptop. The build quality is awful.

The_Conductor

stimpson wrote: »

I would not buy a Toshiba laptop. The build quality is awful.

It probable comes off the same assembly line- with a different badge and windows image on it.........

I've never had any trouble with one- and I have a small graveyard of laptops here- featuring mostly Apples and Dells (with a few Lenovos for good measure).

The components in these laptops are cheap as chips- what do you expect at this price. The most expensive thing in the laptop- is the software licence to Microsoft for the copy of Windows- everything else is pennies. You get what you pay for. If you want something built like a brick that will survive virtually anything- you can get it- but you will pay for it. My Panasonic toughbook- originally cost over 2k- over 10 years ago- and has fallen out a 4th floor window on an unfinished building, had someone but it in an unprotected boot etc- with no reprecussions. All I've ever done with it- was upgrade its wifi, change to an SSD and add more RAM.

If you spend 250 on a laptop- you are getting the lowest possible priced components- irrespective of who the manufacturer are. If you imagine otherwise- you're deluded.

daithi55

243 euro in harvey norman for the toshiba c50 http://www.harveynorman.ie/computing/laptops/toshiba-15.6-laptop-c50-b-14z.html

stimpson

The_Conductor wrote: »

It probable comes off the same assembly line- with a different badge and windows image on it.........

I've never had any trouble with one- and I have a small graveyard of laptops here- featuring mostly Apples and Dells (with a few Lenovos for good measure).

The components in these laptops are cheap as chips- what do you expect at this price. The most expensive thing in the laptop- is the software licence to Microsoft for the copy of Windows- everything else is pennies. You get what you pay for. If you want something built like a brick that will survive virtually anything- you can get it- but you will pay for it. My Panasonic toughbook- originally cost over 2k- over 10 years ago- and has fallen out a 4th floor window on an unfinished building, had someone but it in an unprotected boot etc- with no reprecussions. All I've ever done with it- was upgrade its wifi, change to an SSD and add more RAM.

If you spend 250 on a laptop- you are getting the lowest possible priced components- irrespective of who the manufacturer are. If you imagine otherwise- you're deluded.

They are budget laptops, so you get what you pay for, that goes without saying. But that's even more reason to avoid Toshiba. I've fixed (or attempted to fix) a couple of Toshs in my time and I would not recommend. Crappy driver support, crappy keyboard, crappy screen, crappy build quality. At least with Medion you're not paying for the name.

clint_silver

The_Conductor wrote: »

It probable comes off the same assembly line- with a different badge and windows image on it.........

I've never had any trouble with one- and I have a small graveyard of laptops here- featuring mostly Apples and Dells (with a few Lenovos for good measure).

The components in these laptops are cheap as chips- what do you expect at this price. The most expensive thing in the laptop- is the software licence to Microsoft for the copy of Windows- everything else is pennies. You get what you pay for. If you want something built like a brick that will survive virtually anything- you can get it- but you will pay for it. My Panasonic toughbook- originally cost over 2k- over 10 years ago- and has fallen out a 4th floor window on an unfinished building, had someone but it in an unprotected boot etc- with no reprecussions. All I've ever done with it- was upgrade its wifi, change to an SSD and add more RAM.

If you spend 250 on a laptop- you are getting the lowest possible priced components- irrespective of who the manufacturer are. If you imagine otherwise- you're deluded.

I've 4 kids under the age of 10. It's for them. I know exactly what I'm buying. If you have other requirements like being in a position where I might be throwing out a 4 story window, then this would not be the lapper for me. But as a cheap ass lapper for the small people, it's perfect.

clint_silver

That toshiba has 500gb hdd, medion is 1tb. If space is your thing.

ScouseMouse

Im typing this on a Toshiba Satellite p300 I got in a Toshiba outlet in Cheshire Oaks. Its about 8 years old and I have only every added RAM. It has Harmon Kardon speakers and I absolutely love it. I have a Medion from Aldi and an HP office laptop. They do not compare in ANY way. The Toshiba wins hands down.

I am out and about today and am looking for a Toshiba S50. They are biggish money and would have no hesitation buying another one.

peckerhead

Powercity.ie seems to be down...?

Ghost Train

Processor is probably the weak point. If it's going to be somebody's main laptop for a few years stretching to core i3 might be worth it in the long run. But for for light stuff or web browsing might be okay

The_Conductor

peckerhead wrote: »

Powercity.ie seems to be down...?

Its been like that for the last day or two- its almost like someone is DOS'ing it- if you keep trying the pages will load- but its painful........

Marhay70

I bought that Toshiba in the summer, big mistake. It is by far the slowest, least responsive, most frustrating, piece of s*it I've ever owned.

The_Conductor

Ghost Train wrote: »

Processor is probably the weak point. If it's going to be somebody's main laptop for a few years stretching to core i3 might be worth it in the long run. But for for light stuff or web browsing might be okay

Big time.
It really depends on who its for- and what they intend to do with it.
If its a kid- you might consider- they might be trying to load up Minecraft and other games (even the Lego Creative games- for ages 5-7 will max out this- its quite remarkable the heat a kid get one of these to generate!)

You don't have to be a 'gamer' to max out the likes of this.........

The_Conductor

Marhay70 wrote: »

I bought that Toshiba in the summer, big mistake. It is by far the slowest, least responsive, most frustrating, piece of s*it I've ever owned.

What have you been trying to use it for?
Did you use PC Decrapifier or similar on it?
The junk that comes pre-installed on most of these- will choke the crap out of them...... You need to clean the junk off it- before you ever use it. If you've been using it for a few months- its also probably littered in junk too- and needs cleaning.

Ardennes1944

The_Conductor wrote: »

What have you been trying to use it for?
Did you use PC Decrapifier or similar on it?
The junk that comes pre-installed on most of these- will choke the crap out of them...... You need to clean the junk off it- before you ever use it. If you've been using it for a few months- its also probably littered in junk too- and needs cleaning.

I have an Asus x54c that Ive given to my parents but its gone pretty slow of late, is the Decrapifier the best for the job?

Its an i3 with 6gb ram so shouldnt be slow, when I installed Win 8 on it a year again it booted in less than 10 seconds, now its much slower.

Marhay70

The_Conductor wrote: »

What have you been trying to use it for?
Did you use PC Decrapifier or similar on it?
The junk that comes pre-installed on most of these- will choke the crap out of them...... You need to clean the junk off it- before you ever use it. If you've been using it for a few months- its also probably littered in junk too- and needs cleaning.

I only use it for browsing and e-mail. I've used CCleaner on it.
I didn't really expect much from anything in that price bracket but it doesn't even live up to my low expectations.

The_Conductor

Ardennes1944 wrote: »

I have an Asus x54c that Ive given to my parents but its gone pretty slow of late, is the Decrapifier the best for the job?

Its an i3 with 6gb ram so shouldnt be slow, when I installed Win 8 on it a year again it booted in less than 10 seconds, now its much slower.

CC Cleaner- uninstall any junkware, registry clean and a defrag.......?
You'd be surprised......

The_Conductor

Marhay70 wrote: »

I only use it for browsing and e-mail. I've used CCleaner on it.
I didn't really expect much from anything in that price bracket but it doesn't even live up to my low expectations.

For general use- it shouldn't be that slow- how about run Revo uninstaller on it- see whats installed- and do a deep uninstall of any crap on it? Then a defrag.

Kaizersoze81

clint_silver wrote: »

I've 4 kids under the age of 10. It's for them. I know exactly what I'm buying. If you have other requirements like being in a position where I might be throwing out a 4 story window, then this would not be the lapper for me. But as a cheap ass lapper for the small people, it's perfect.

Please stop calling it a lapper

Marhay70

The_Conductor wrote: »

For general use- it shouldn't be that slow- how about run Revo uninstaller on it- see whats installed- and do a deep uninstall of any crap on it? Then a defrag.

Yeah I'll have another go but I don't hold out much hope.
I thought defragging wasn't recommended after Windows 7.

iPink

Marhay70 wrote:

I bought that Toshiba in the summer, big mistake. It is by far the slowest, least responsive, most frustrating, piece of s*it I've ever owned.

I bought 3 of these during sept, oct & Nov. .. One from tesco which I brought straight back & 2 from argos which went back within a few days/weeks. .. worst pieces of crap ever!!
I was told by a few people that Toshiba were a very reliable brand when it came to technology & laptops... so wrong!!
I kept thinking I just had a bad one lol
gave up finally & went back to using my old 10 year old Vaio... which was better!!

iPink

The_Conductor wrote:

CC Cleaner- uninstall any junkware, registry clean and a defrag.......? You'd be surprised......

does cc cleaner uninstall junkware & registry clean?

moleyv

iPink wrote:

I bought 3 of these during sept, oct & Nov. .. One from tesco which I brought straight back & 2 from argos which went back within a few days/weeks. .. worst pieces of crap ever!! I was told by a few people that Toshiba were a very reliable brand when it came to technology & laptops... so wrong!! I kept thinking I just had a bad one lol gave up finally & went back to using my old 10 year old Vaio... which was better!!

I used to always get Toshiba, they were always a bit more utilitarian and bulky, but very reliable.

I only use HP or Asus for laptops now. Lenovo are a good bet too.

Toshiba seem to have gone wayward in attempting to compete with budget options. But even their top end Quosimo gaming laptops look like they were designed by a 9 year old. Remind me of neon slot machines.

beauf

I think most brands even ones like Toshiba, Asus, Lenovo, at least at the low end are building machines much cheaper, so the build quality isn't comparable to their older more expensive machines.

You really need to compare specs but also go in and look at the screen qualify and the keyboard. They are the two things which usually suffer on cheaper laptops.

podgeandrodge

Marhay70 wrote: »

I bought that Toshiba in the summer, big mistake. It is by far the slowest, least responsive, most frustrating, piece of s*it I've ever owned.

I've just purchased it for an elderly relative. Harveys in store wanted to charge €257 but accepted the online price of €243.

Am setting it up now so will report back on how bad it is (or isn't hopefully!).

But at €243 I think expectations have to be reasonable!

podgeandrodge

podgeandrodge wrote: »

I've just purchased it for an elderly relative. Harveys in store wanted to charge €257 but accepted the online price of €243.

Am setting it up now so will report back on how bad it is (or isn't hopefully!).

But at €243 I think expectations have to be reasonable!

Have finished set up and removed some junk.
Seems fine, more than responsive enough (at the moment anyway) for ordinary basic usage.

Seems great value to me esp. with 4gigs of ram, Bluetooth, hdmi and usb3 port.

The_Conductor

iPink wrote: »

does cc cleaner uninstall junkware & registry clean?

Mostly- but I prefer to use Revo for a deep uninstall (it removes all remnants- and registry entries)- and afterwards do a CC on it. I don't bother with over-writing reclaimed space (I'm not that paranoid)- but I do run a defrag every few months (the free version of Auslogics Disk Defrag does a great job).

Its all about maintenance- your computer is like your car- it needs to be checked up every so often- and then once a year or after x number of miles- get additional care........

podgeandrodge

podgeandrodge wrote: »

Have finished set up and removed some junk.
Seems fine, more than responsive enough (at the moment anyway) for ordinary basic usage.

Seems great value to me esp. with 4gigs of ram, Bluetooth, hdmi and usb3 port.

And I have just noticed that there is no optical drive :rolleyes:

Not a biggy anymore for me, but can't believe I purchased without even noticing, just assumed there was one.

(The medion from the OP does have a drive)