Medion's E6215 has one of Intel's faster Core i3 mobile processors, the 350M, rather than the entry-level 330M. At 2.27GHz, it's a little faster than the 330M and this gave it a significant edge in our benchmarks, where the E6215 achieved a healthy overall score of 82. Despite that, it can't rival the performance we saw from entry-level Core i5 laptops for the same price. It's also slightly annoying that, while there's 4GB of memory, the 32-bit version of Windows is installed, so only 3GB can be used.

At least there's a generous 500GB hard disk and, while there's no dedicated graphics processor, the Core i3's integrated GPU can handle HD video playback. The latest 3D games are unlikely to run smoothly, though. We saw 10.5fps in our usual Call of Duty 4 test so the latest and most demanding 3D games are out of the question, even at reduced resolutions, but older titles should fare reasonably well.

The 15.6in screen has a resolution of 1,366x768, but you can output higher resolutions through its HDMI port. It has LEDs rather the traditional fluorescent tubes, but has a matt screen, rather than the more typical glossy display. Although they generally aren't as bright or as intense as their glossy counterparts, we tend to prefer matt screens, as they suffer from fewer reflections under bright office lighting or natural sunlight.

The display looks good from most angles, with even colour and visibility. Colours were natural, but small fonts on high-contrast backgrounds were hard to read at some angles and we noticed a pink tinge to pale images at lower brightness settings. Sound from the built-in speakers isn't hugely loud but is surprisingly well balanced, with a more powerful bass than many laptops.

The case is simple, shiny, black and quite solidly built. Inside, there's more shiny black plastic on the wrist rest, which is comfortably broad. The keyboard is springy and responsive. Most of the flat keys are full-sized and the layout is traditional, making it easy to type accurately and fast as soon as you start using it. The cursor keys and numeric keypad, positioned to the right, are smaller, but large enough to use comfortably. They're also sufficiently well positioned to ensure that we didn't hit them by accident at any point. We had no problems with recessed touchpad below the space bar, either.

The E6215 has three USB ports and one dedicated eSATA port, as opposed to the combined eSATA/USB ports we've become used to seeing. There's also an ExpressCard/32 slot for adding upgrades like USB3 ports. Network connectivity includes the usual 802.11n and Gigabit Ethernet. VGA and HDMI outputs allow you to connect to external monitors, TVs and projectors.

Battery life was a solid three hours, 39 minutes - not remarkable, but good enough to allow you to keep working through most commutes. Overall, the Akoya E6215 is a well-built laptop with a good specification, but it's performance is limited by the choice of 32-bit Windows. For only a little more money, you could buy the faster Acer Aspire 5741 .