Medion, which employs around 1,000 people, creates everything from wooden toys for kids to high end gaming laptops, and a slew of products not usually associated with computers. When we spoke to Peter Hortenius earlier this year, he mentioned that Lenovo used Medion, the German company it got several years ago, as some sort of laboratory to research the European market.

Medion is part of Lenovo, it could’ve tapped into the extensive R&D and production resources of its parent company to present something different. The Medion Akoya S3401 looks a lot, like the 13.3-inch MacBook Air. Some say that imitation is the best form of flattery but this may be a bit too close for comfort.

The profile of S3401 isn’t as tapered as its MacBook Air alter ego but everything else seems to be in place. It measures 32.5 x 21.9 x 1.8-cm, making it slightly bigger than an A4 sheet of paper but smaller than its Apple rival.

It weighs little more though 1.46-kg compared to 1.35-kg. And there is no flex on the keyboard or the display and a decent keyboard action. Ditto for the trackpad it is as responsive as can be expected from a good laptop.

The 13.3-inch display is an IPS model with a full HD res and an option for a QHD+ display 3200 x 1800 pixels, similar to the Lenovo Yoga 3 Pro. Note that it is non-touchscreen though, and therefore does not suffer from much glare.

The rest of the specs contain an Intel 802.11ac wireless radio with Bluetooth 4.0, a 4-cell battery that can drive the laptop for up to seven hours, Dolby Audio Premium speakers and the ability to upgrade to a Skylake-based Intel Core i7 processor.

This machine has an SD card reader, a USB Type-C (Gen 1) connector, a USB 3.0 and USB 2.0 port, HDMI out, but no display port and an audio connector. There is no Ethernet port either.

Conclusion

This is one great looking laptop and it’ll not be as expensive as many of its contenders.