The wife wanted a cheap laptop with a 1080p screen primarily to make photobooks and do light computing tasks. I found one recently on HUKD (also from Medion) for £229 but just as I was about order it, it flagged up as out-of-stock. Grrrr!
Anyway last week Medion dropped the price of their E4213 14" laptop from £249 to £179. It's pretty low spec; a Celeron CPU, small 32GB SSD, just 2GB of RAM and no HDD but it does have a 1080p matt screen.
So I took a chance and bought it. It arrived the next day (great considering it's free delivery). It's actually not a bad bit of kit; it's light, quick enough and the screen is fab. Plus you get a two year warranty. It also boots up into Windows 10 faster than my Asus which cost three times the price! There's also an empty HDD drive bay available so I bought a 500GB HDD off Amazon for £31, plopped it in and it works fine.
So I know this isn't everyone's idea of a laptop but if you're on a budget but still want a 1080p screen, this might be worth a look.
Top comments
3guesses
19 Jun 1614#24
Wow, she sounds like a cracker! Which website did you get her from?
8-)
SClub
19 Jun 164#30
Cool story bro.
All comments (61)
xela333
19 Jun 16#1
Heat, looks like an excellent deal to me.
miaomiaobaubau
19 Jun 16#2
is there an extra slot for the memory??? hot
Joe90_guy to miaomiaobaubau
19 Jun 161#5
I suspect you can get at the RAM slots to add more memory (this was my plan as I have a spare 2GB stick) but you will have to take the entire back of the laptop off to do so. There's no 'easy access' panel Iike I've had on other laptops. TBH, I'm surprised that the machine is as quick as it is with just 2GB of RAM. Maybe Windows 10 does a better job at handling resources. Wifey hasn't complained yet so I think I might leave put off any RAM addition until she does!
benjammin316
19 Jun 16#3
Great price for a fhd screen, perfect for browsing and odd jobs
ELVIS_THE_PELVIS to benjammin316
19 Jun 162#8
Odd jobs?
SClub
19 Jun 16#4
I have the aforementioned version of this laptop, which I'm assuming is the same (other then extra ram, disk and pentium processor). Build is fine and the IPS screen excellent with great viewing angles of course :smiley:
Joe90_guy to SClub
19 Jun 16#7
Hi again SClub! When you PM'd me a few weeks back recommending the E4213 (with the HDD and extra RAM) I got online with my credit card ready in hand to buy one only to see they had run out if stock. Very frustrating!! However the lesser version of the E4213 at £179 is still pretty good value. Again thanks for the recommendation...
sradmad
19 Jun 161#6
good find op, heat added
hcc27
19 Jun 16#9
Great price for a 1080p screen. Use an SD card or even better, stick one of those 30quid 128GB SSDs that have been doing the rounds here lately and you'll end up with a laptop suitable for most day to day tasks.
Heated.
Dave_dave69
19 Jun 16#10
That's interesting - usually if you have an SSD in a laptop you have to use the optical drive bay for another HD.
(I notice they describe it as memory but I think they mean storage)
RHodgett
19 Jun 162#11
Can the processor be upgraded?
nw104hh to RHodgett
19 Jun 16#12
No.
benjammin316
19 Jun 162#13
or jaws
Dave_dave69
19 Jun 162#14
I bet she really wanted an iPad :smiley:
ELVIS_THE_PELVIS
19 Jun 16#15
I was thinking that/ #cheapskate
RiverDragon8
19 Jun 161#16
This would fly if you put chrome OS on this..... just a thought. Whats the battery life on one of these?
SClub to RiverDragon8
19 Jun 16#19
Mine runs for about 3 hours IIRC. I think it's only a 3 cell battery, so no miracles I'm afraid. I must try Chromium OS on this at some point...
Joe90_guy
19 Jun 162#17
There's no DVD/Optical drive bay on this little machine. I think the 'SSD' on this thing is either a small factor, mSATA SSD or, more likely an eMMC, that slots into a port on the motherboard. I used the drive bay for an HDD but you could just as easily put a 2.5" 'proper' SSD in the bay. Wifey didn't want me to spend a lot on her behalf hence the minimalist approach.
SClub
19 Jun 16#18
Shame about the stock on the Pentium model, but the killer feature is really the screen anyway, so a great deal at this price! My only complaint really is that keys feel a bit cheap. Not a complaint at this price point though :wink:
Dave_dave69
19 Jun 16#20
OK :smiley:
RiverDragon8
19 Jun 16#21
Don't bother with chrome OS if you only get 3 hrs battery life. That's the beauty of chromebooks they are lightweight, portable and have long battery life.
Sunni
19 Jun 161#22
Actually not a bad spec. CPU benchmarks much better than Atom processors you usually get in laptops at this price point.
Joe90_guy
19 Jun 16#23
I don't know for sure but possibly maybe. There was a better specced 'sister' version of the E4213 (this was the one I originally wanted but missed out on). That one had a Pentium N3540 CPU. This one has the lesser Celeron N2950. This might suggest the CPU isn't soldered to the motherboard and can be swapped out for a more powerful CPU (but I'm not going to disassemble the laptop to check - sorry!).
Also she definitely didn't want an iPad. Some jobs you do really need a proper laptop to do...
3guesses
19 Jun 1614#24
Wow, she sounds like a cracker! Which website did you get her from?
8-)
Joe90_guy
19 Jun 16#25
BTW, this laptop comes with 30 day free versions of McAfee LiveSafe and Office 365. These got zapped straight away and replaced with Microsoft Defender (which is built in to Windows 10) and LibreOffice. There's also a permanent version of Cyberlink Media Suite which fortunately for the wife, includes photo editing software so this will probably stay on the machine.
Joe90_guy
19 Jun 161#26
Just in case anyone's tempted, here's a review of the Medion E4214 (which looks the same as the E4213) on YouTube. It's in German but it let's you see what the laptop looks like and importantly how the HDD bay is removed (don't forget you need to remove the locking screw as shown in the clip).
One memory slot that can take 8gb. You have to remove existing 2tv.
SmileyMan
19 Jun 162#33
Very poor single core performance. Worse than a 8 year old Pentium E5200
hcc27
19 Jun 16#34
Unless space was a concern, you could have picked up a 128GB SSD for the same price as the 500GB mechanical HDD you put in it. Significantly faster, better power consumption etc.
opaninkofi
19 Jun 16#35
if any of you don't mind the 1080p screen and wants a faster 14 inch laptop at a cheaper cost (£129.99) which can also be expanded with a 2.5 ssd/hdd then go for THIS DEAL (CLICK ME)
I am typing from mine now and it flies, CPU is Intel Pentium N3540 with a benchmark score of 1961. Battery life averages 5 hrs.
omgpleasespamme
20 Jun 16#36
In the same way a 747 does without seats or windows. I wouldn't want to fly in one of those though, especially if I've already paid for a better flight (a proper OS licence).
omgpleasespamme
20 Jun 161#37
Matte screen is a massive selling point for me. I didn't properly realise how much better matte is until after I'd specced my new laptop with a reflective screen for some reason I don't recall now.
3guesses
20 Jun 16#38
But the 1080p screen really is *THE* selling point here...
opaninkofi
20 Jun 16#39
Yes I know, I hotted this deal, that is why I said if anybody out there don't care about the 1080p screen
RiverDragon8
20 Jun 16#40
I think your totally missing my point. If this laptop could get 6 hours+ out of it's battery then it's worth installing chrome OS and turning this laptop into a chromebook because of it's FHD screen.
£179 for a 14'' FHD chromebook would be an excellent piece of kit for just web browsing, watching youtube videos etc.
zidnrfhwvbytk
20 Jun 16#41
Clearly not a gaming or heavy use laptop. But great machine for internet, youtube and word/exel at home.
Picard123
20 Jun 16#42
Build quality and reliability on these cheap Medions is appalling.
COLD.
Picard123
20 Jun 16#43
You're better off with a Chromebook.
2gb/32gb on a Windows machine is laughably bad. Like something out of the 1980s.
Joe90_guy
20 Jun 16#44
In my experience, this isn't the case. I bought a Medion P6624 laptop back in 2009. It still works just fine. I also bought a Medion S6415T laptop for my daughter (a superb HUKD bargain for £199!). Apart from the fact that she never, ever cleans it, it still works brilliantly. Contrast that with the Dell laptop I bought a few years back. It now sounds like a hovercraft with the constant sound from the fan and whilst it still works, it takes forever to boot up. Also can I add that Medion do honour their warranties. The P6624, which I got from Aldi, came with a free three year warranty. The screen backlight died at 2 years & 9 months. Medion picked it up from my house, fixed it and delivered in back in a couple off weeks. I wish all companies were this good!
Picard123
20 Jun 16#45
There are loads of these Medions that have malfunctioned and broken down in some way. Cheap plastic, cheap components, cheap manufacturing. I bought from one from one of the deals on here. The screen hinges broke after a year and that was after the keyboard started malfunctioning. The quality of the plastic surround where the hinges insert are terrible quality. Absolute garbage.
Joe90_guy
20 Jun 16#46
I did some of my best ever work on a Commodore PET with its lowly 8-bit CPU way back in in 1979! I also remember the days using PCs based on Intel 286 chips when we could but dream of Pentium power!!
espirit77
20 Jun 161#47
probably going to get crucified for this comment but shoulda bought a chromebook. I bought an Acer R11 chromebook (Yoga style) for £179.99 at Argos and I haven't missed Windows for a second. Although I had to look up where the power button was in the manual because the casing is cheap white plastic (not uncommon for Chromebooks). The keyboard is ok, and the screen is surprisingly good for viewing angles, and the volume is more than sufficient (had to turn it down while watching The Revenant last night :smiley:
olivermills6
20 Jun 16#48
£30 for a 500gb hdd seems pretty pricey to me now... great find though!
BubaMan
20 Jun 16#49
It's nice to see a 1080p screen at this price point but the rest of the specs are akin to HP Stream, et al.
I've had to return a few Medions due to build quality and their customer service isn't the best.
It's not a cold deal but it's a pass from me :innocent:
Sunni
20 Jun 16#50
While I completely agree Chromebooks offer great performance for the price, I'd disagree that the R11 is a better option than this. The vast majority of sub £200 Chromebooks have slow benchmarking processors.
I've used lots of Chromebooks, and until you've tried a faster processor ones, you haven't really experienced ChromeOS buttery smooth.
If I were to buy this laptop, I'd stick Neverware or an ArnoldTheBat build on it, and it would perform much better than an R11. (And infinitely better than Windows!)
espirit77
20 Jun 16#51
What's interesting is I bought a refurb cb11 - and browsing was lightening fast, but it had to go back because of the poor screen and keyboard quality. On the r11, video in web page does seem to cause it to jam up. So now I just avoid sites like Huffpo that tend to auto run video on the page. However, netflix and amazon video viewing is very enjoyable (and I'm fussy). One major downside is no NowTV. I'm thinking of getting a stream with my student discount as a windows based back up. I guess this Medion would do but I'm over "traditional" laptops - at least for now.
sabrinahgr21
20 Jun 16#52
Is 2GB enough??
I ask because I recently bought a 2GB lightweight small laptop and it doesn't run very well with windows 10 - even after tuning it up. Lots of frozen screens. I did a complete reinstall of the software but that didn't help. I also tried linux which was ok ish but I had problems with the wifi dropping out and couldn't resolve those issues even with help from the linux forums.
Eventually gave up and went back to 10. But I regret not buying a laptop that I could upgrade to 4GB.
Will give it a go, thanks. Have used Arnold the Bat's universal install previously.
jimmycox
20 Jun 16#56
Goes to a product not found page. Does this laptop actually exist?
retrend
20 Jun 16#57
It's an IPS screen?
Joe90_guy
20 Jun 16#58
Okay, it looks like this laptop has now gone out of stock so I'll expire the deal. To anyone who bought the E4213, I sincerely hope you like it. If you don't do, remember you can return it, no questions asked, up to 14 days after purchase and if it conks out in the next two years, Medion will fix it for you. Thanks to all the people that contributed to this tread. It's now the second hottest deal of the day so my best HUKD deal so far!
Joe90_guy
20 Jun 161#59
Oh, and I meant to add that the £35 Moto E that I ordered for my wife arrived today. Electronically speaking, she's now one happy lady!!
![Fresh Breakfast Meat Box (Using code) @ Campbells Meat [Haggis / Lorne Sausage / Bacon / Black Pudding & More]](/images/topics/208684_1.jpg)
![[Xbox One] Q. u. b. e: Director's Cut on Deals with Gold](/images/topics/208716_1.jpg)
Opening post
Anyway last week Medion dropped the price of their E4213 14" laptop from £249 to £179. It's pretty low spec; a Celeron CPU, small 32GB SSD, just 2GB of RAM and no HDD but it does have a 1080p matt screen.
So I took a chance and bought it. It arrived the next day (great considering it's free delivery). It's actually not a bad bit of kit; it's light, quick enough and the screen is fab. Plus you get a two year warranty. It also boots up into Windows 10 faster than my Asus which cost three times the price! There's also an empty HDD drive bay available so I bought a 500GB HDD off Amazon for £31, plopped it in and it works fine.
So I know this isn't everyone's idea of a laptop but if you're on a budget but still want a 1080p screen, this might be worth a look.
Top comments
8-)
All comments (61)
Heated.
(I notice they describe it as memory but I think they mean storage)
Also she definitely didn't want an iPad. Some jobs you do really need a proper laptop to do...
8-)
https://youtu.be/QBq_00YFR-k
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B00NOIAVPY/ref=mp_s_a_1_4?qid=1466370821&sr=8-4&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_FMwebp_QL65&keywords=hdd+2.5+inch+500gb&dpPl=1&dpID=41EKJ96xKNL&ref=plSrch
I am typing from mine now and it flies, CPU is Intel Pentium N3540 with a benchmark score of 1961. Battery life averages 5 hrs.
£179 for a 14'' FHD chromebook would be an excellent piece of kit for just web browsing, watching youtube videos etc.
COLD.
2gb/32gb on a Windows machine is laughably bad. Like something out of the 1980s.
I've had to return a few Medions due to build quality and their customer service isn't the best.
It's not a cold deal but it's a pass from me :innocent:
I've used lots of Chromebooks, and until you've tried a faster processor ones, you haven't really experienced ChromeOS buttery smooth.
If I were to buy this laptop, I'd stick Neverware or an ArnoldTheBat build on it, and it would perform much better than an R11. (And infinitely better than Windows!)
I ask because I recently bought a 2GB lightweight small laptop and it doesn't run very well with windows 10 - even after tuning it up. Lots of frozen screens. I did a complete reinstall of the software but that didn't help. I also tried linux which was ok ish but I had problems with the wifi dropping out and couldn't resolve those issues even with help from the linux forums.
Eventually gave up and went back to 10. But I regret not buying a laptop that I could upgrade to 4GB.