Everything is easier when you are first in the queue! I was waiting outside the supermarket at 0730 this morning wondering whether I had the right time and the right place but thanks to the second person in the queue who knew the people working at the shop, we found out that there were Akoya Mini’s awaiting. By opening-time there were about 10 people waiting and four of us went straight to the cash desk to buy the Mini. I had a look at their ’stock’ which was piled up at the cashiers feet. In total, about 6 devices on two cash desks. That looked to be about it! Despite that, it looks like many thousands of people across Germany, Austria and Holland got their hands on their first netbook this morning.
I was home 15 minutes later and of course, have done some unboxing photos for you. I’ll leave the first impressions and video until later today as I’m supposed to be on holiday and we’re visiting Baden Baden today. I doubt I’ll get much time until this evening.
Enjoy the photo set until then and if you need to ask questions, add them to the comments below and i’ll do everything I can to answer them over the next few days. I won’t be back at the home office until Sat evening (live video session anyone?) but i’ll do my best.
The full gallery is here. (Full res pics later)
July 3rd, 2008 at 1:21 pm
Live session tonight?
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July 3rd, 2008 at 3:23 pm
Hi Steve, pictures look great. Just a few questions too.
How is the keyboard quality, size, feel, key travel, clickity-clickness, and your typing speed opinion on it? Is the LED backlit screen color saturation pretty good and how is the max brightness to max low-lightness settings? I like it when I can turn the screen brightness nearly all the way down to off when ebook reading. Other reviews say Atom is speedy and cool too so do you concur on that?
Is the card reader SD or SDHC compatible? What’s the quality of the carry bag that accompanied the Akoya and the touchpad and mouse buttons? Did they really remove the overclocking function on this version like they did on the MSI Wind?
Have a superb holiday.
Cheers, Jerry
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July 3rd, 2008 at 3:24 pm
When you say Supermarket, you don’t really mean where you buy eggs and milk do you?
Have fun - that looks really sweet!
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July 3rd, 2008 at 3:28 pm
Live video session please.
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July 3rd, 2008 at 3:46 pm
@Jonathan:
That’s exactly what he means.
The Medion Akoya is predominantly sold by Aldi.
If you should live in one of the few remote places of the world that Aldi has not reached yet: Aldi is the biggest food discounter in Germany (Europe /globally?) with presences in many European countries, Australia, the US, …
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July 3rd, 2008 at 3:54 pm
@Jerry
The keyboard is great. Ok, no comparison to the keyboard of a thinkpad… But very solid and a nice, reassuring sound.
Key size is something like 95% of a normal keyboard. Only keys for +#-., and cursor keys are smaller and take some time getting used to. And the fact that the FN-key and ctrl-key are switched may also cause some irritation. But you get accustomed quite quickly.
Screen is quite bright and can be turned down quite a bit (personally I don`t thin that I will ever use the lowest setting. Perhaps in complete darkness).
Speed is ok but no overclocking. Device stays quite cool and the fan is really quiet.
The carry bag is ok, but nothing special. It reminds me of the carry bag that dell gave me with my xps m1330. Scratch protection, nothing more, nothing less.
Touchpad is ok, the mouse button about the only thing I completely dislike (up to now). Just one button and it just doesn`t feel right - there they copied the eee a bit too much.
But otherwise a great device. For me it replaces a jvc mp-xp731. It feels a bit faster, more solid, doesn`t get as warm and the keyboard also is better.
@ Jonathan Greene
Yes, you can get eggs and milk there.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aldi
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July 3rd, 2008 at 6:02 pm
so ur on the edge of the black forest and u play with a netbook. that surely tells something about ur passion
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July 3rd, 2008 at 6:05 pm
Yeah let’s do a live session soon…
i have a whole bunch of new netbooks right now and if we can do it on let’s say monday next week, i should be able to have:
MSI Wind U100 - got shipped
Medion Akoya - arrived
Eee PC 1000H - arrived at the customs
HP 2133 - arrived
One A450 - should be shipped tomorrow
And a bunch of other Eee PCs
lets do it
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July 3rd, 2008 at 6:15 pm
one a450 is Aspire one?
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July 3rd, 2008 at 6:35 pm
hi there, I arrived a the 1st aldi and to my dismay it was sold out at 8.10am. I then went to another nearby aldi which opened at 8.30 and I got one!!!!! It’s really cute, and trying to figure it out, my problem is I don’t speak a word of german, hence the manual is a problem, any idea where I can get to to read the instructions in eng, I will have to get used to XP in german however on the laptop itself…
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July 3rd, 2008 at 6:35 pm
So is this thing exactly the same as the MSI Wind? Is it manufactured by MSI and just put out under another name, or is completely different?
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July 3rd, 2008 at 6:39 pm
Oh yeah and specs?
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July 3rd, 2008 at 7:18 pm
It doesn`t seems that mini to me.Its more like regular notebook.So:to be or not to be umpc!?That is the question!
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July 3rd, 2008 at 7:58 pm
I want to hear Sascha talk about all the new EeePC’s.
Aldi stores are not in my (The Great Pacific Northwest)neck of the woods. Their US web site looks to be more grocery oriented.
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July 3rd, 2008 at 8:12 pm
Gonna return mine tomorrow.
Turned it on and discovered a pixel error. It`s always red and in the middle of the screen and getting on my nerves. I`m pretty sure that it wasn`t there when I first turned it on this morning (I can`t have overseen it).
Normally they take their products back without a problem - ‘Doesn`t live up to my expectations’ should be enough justification.
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July 3rd, 2008 at 8:56 pm
I hope that Aldi here in Ireland will have this soon. They’re usually about a month behind the Aldi in Germany when they have computers.
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July 3rd, 2008 at 9:33 pm
I have one and only one question: how hot (or cold) and noisy (or quiet) it runs?
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July 7th, 2008 at 12:23 pm
400€ isn’t super cheap, considering that the OLPC is 120€. But hey, it’s certainly cheaper then other subnotebooks.
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July 26th, 2008 at 4:41 pm
hi, good jobs!
nice blog and design.
Visit me, ya …
Fresh and Free
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