Verdict
No other gaming laptop crack as much quality and performance as the Medion Erazer Major X20 for so little money . The Intel Core i9 and RTX 4070 combination offer truly telling rush - for - sawhorse performance . myopic stamp battery life is the X20 ’s only error .
Key Features
Pros
Cons
Introduction
Once a bargain bucket brand only to be find in supermarkets , Medion is now establish itself as the purveyor of some very tasty but low-cost PCs . Our late critical review of theMedion Erazer Beast X40highlighted the progress Medion has made . The X40 now has a small 16 - in pal call the Medion Erazer Major X20 .
The new 16 - inch laptop computer also has such mellow - end feature as a mechanical keyboard and Nvidia ’s Advanced Optimus , along with a powerful Intel Core i9CPUand an Nvidia RTX 4070GPU . But , it cost less than £ 2000 .
To put that into context of use , Acer ’s broadly similarPredator Helios 16will limit you back £ 2,799 while theAsus ROG Scar Strix 16 , widely regarded as the state of the gaming laptop computer art , will cost you £ 3,399 . Both rival devices arrive with swank Mini light-emitting diode display but , for the extra cash , you ’d be forgiven for expect that they have plenty of feature and level of performance way beyond the new Medion but , honestly , they do n’t .
Design and Keyboard
Like the X40 , the X20 is based on aTongfang barebones manakin , in this compositor’s case , the IDX . That ’s why , again , like the X40 , the design is restrained and generic ; black , angulate and pretty routine . change by reversal off the LED lights and no one would ever do it it ’s a gambling laptop computer . At 357 x 269 x 33 mm and count just under 2.4 kg , it ’s utterly average for a 16 - column inch gaming machine .
A solidly - build up affair made from a compounding of aluminium and rubber - surface plastic , there ’s no undue flex in the lid and no give or creaks in the independent body . The underside arrive away well and once inside you have prosperous access to the twoRAMslots , the two PCIe 4SSDbays , the WLAN bill , the two lover and the electric battery .
Scattered around the position and back , you ’ll find a comprehensive selection of I / O with two USB - A 3.2 Gen 2 , one USB - A 3.2 Gen 1 , aThunderbolt 4 / Type - C port with DP Alt Mode , a 2.5GBps Ethernet port , an HDMI 2.1 video output , an SD placard lector and two 3.5 millimetre drudge , one jazz group , one mic - in .
The video outputs , the Ethernet port and the DC - in jackass are all at the back which helps keep your desk free of cable entanglements . Wireless coms are bang up to date with the Intel AX211 wireless visiting card supporting the latest6GHz Wi - Fi 6Eprotocol and Bluetooth 5.2 .
The 2022 Medion Erazer Major – the X10 – made do with a standard chiclet keyboard but for 2023 Medion has swapped that out in favour of a far superscript mechanically skillful keyboard . It uses eminent - qualityCherry MX switchesthat have a 1.8 millimetre travel and a clearly hearable and precise endpoint . meld that with a rigid deck of cards and you get an excellent typing smell and accurate feedback that piddle gaming a joyfulness .
The layout is impossible to fault and the full - sizing numeric keypad is a boon on a 16 - column inch laptop computer as are the full - sizing cursor samara . The power and functioning level buttons sit apart from the main body of the keyboard above the Pause / Del / End keys which is a perfect place to avoid inadvertent press .
The keys have an RGB backlight with four spirit level of brightness and you could choose from over a XII pre - set effects , one solid color or whatever per - fundamental illumination scheme you prefer . The control panel that ascertain the lighting effects , and indeed everything else on the X20 , is a manakin of simmpleness .
The multi - touch touchpad measures 116 x 72 mm and its politic Earth’s surface makes finger gliding easy . The click - activeness is idle but precise with a unmortgaged pressure compass point . A quick twofold - tap on the LED in the upper left over niche ferment the entire pad on or off which is a handy little feature .
Display and Sound
The showing is the weakest link in the X20 ’s armour but that ’s only because it ’s just plain good rather than in any way exceptional for the price . A received 2,560 x 1,600 IPS affair it has a good maximum luminance of 411nits and a secure demarcation proportion of 1,263:1 . As you could deduce from the resolution , this is a 16:10 display , a squarer layout than 16:9 and one better become to play or working than watching widescreen video , due to the thicker black bars that perforce fill up the space above and below the image .
Thecolour gamut coveragecould be better with 93.9 % of the sRGB gamut available , but only 68 % Adobe RGB and 70.8 % DCI - P3 . Though , that ’s distinctive of bet on laptops in this price bracket so not a stick to vex the X20 with .
The Medion command panel lease you mess around with the display colour options until the moo-cow come home but with the colour enhancement feature turned off , the panel recorded a Delta - tocopherol discrepancy against the sRGB visibility of 1.8 which is comfortably below the 2 at which a trained eye will start to detect color divagation and well below 3 at which the untrained eye will spot anything amiss .
move handling is again good rather than outstanding . Support forNvidia ’s G - Syncmeans that concealment lacrimation is never an exit and the 240Hz refresh rate think the action move along very smoothly . There is some motion fuzz to be ascertain in testing and there ’s no overdrive readiness to dial it down though I have to admit to not note it in literal gameplay .
You ’ll search in vain for any reading that the X20 is fitted withAdvanced Optimus , the Nvidia system that acts as an automatic multiplexer switch but it is there . That means you’re able to move in and out of the discrete GPU modality without the need to reboot Windows though there is the common 2 - 3 second video display freeze as the display system change between GPUs . If you choose , you’re able to put the X20 into permanent discrete GPU modality by using the MUX switch in the Medion control panel .
Medion makes no business leader yield claims for the speaker organization but the X20 is every bit as loud as other laptops in this category , including some be much more . The effectual quality is good with plenty of punchy bass and clear detail and no distortion even at maximal volume degree .
Performance
You are unbelievable to be disappointed by any system built around an Intel Core i9 - 13900H CPU , Nvidia RTX 4070 GPU with a TGP of 140W and 8 GB ofvRAMand 32 GB of quad - channel system RAM . As little as 6 month ago the public presentation the X20 is open of would have been unthinkable in a laptop net ball alone one with a sub-£2,000 price tag .
Many mass , myself included , consider the RTX 4070 as the sweet spot in the latest Nvidia GPU batting order . Cheaper than the RTX 4090 and 4080 but with importantly more cores than the RTX 4060 ( 4,608 vs 3,072 ) , it ’s a soundly competent second of kit .
Here are the frame rates from some Triple - A games played at 2,560 x 1,600 at the highest detail levels , irradiation tracingset to the maximal and no upscaling technical school pursue : Returnal scored 55fps , Metro : Exodus come in at 39fps , Cyberpunk 2077 managed 46fps and , last , Borderlands 3 at 79fps .
There ’s plenty of headroom to up the material body pace on really demanding titles ; cast the resolution to FullHD and alternate DLSS to balanced and Metro : Exodus jump to 75fps and Cyberpunk 2077 to 84fps . Laptops running on Nvidia ’s RTX 4080 and 4090 GPUs can do better but in my opinion , not by enough to justify their extra cost .
deform to the synthetic benchmarks you ’ll see that the X20 gives nothing out to the Asus ROG Scar Strix 16 , a laptop be £ 1,400 more .
In the Cinebench R23 test the X20 in reality beat the Asus by 25,321 to 25,152 while in the PCMark 10 and Geekbench 5 tests , the Asus only scraped a victory by 8,609 points to 8,359 in the former and 19,266 to 19,001 in the latter . In everyday use , the X20 is every bit as fast as the Scar Strix 16 and I can think of no higher accolade .
Medion boasts that the X20 features a “ melted metal caloric chemical compound for C.P.U. and graphics carte du jour ” . Whatever that really entails it certainly puzzle out because thermic direction is very salutary with small external heat render , no throttling and less fan noise than you ’d anticipate from a laptop with this level of performance . When the fans execute at full gallop the speech sound they yield is more of a swoosh than a hollo .
My review sample came with a 1 TB Phison SSD which returned successive read speeds of 7.0GB / sec and write velocity of 5.0GB / sec . That ’s pretty darned quick for a laptop computer with this terms rag .
Battery life
As soon as I saw the capability of the X20 ’s battery my heart sank . 62.3Wh is a pitifully low capability for a play laptop or , indeed , any laptop with such power - athirst components . The PCMark 10 Office test managed to drain the assault and battery in 1 hour 45 , which is really down in the mouth . If you fire up a biz , you could reduce that figure to less than 30 minute . Turn the display brightness right down and switch off everything non - essential , you could just about eke out 3 hours from a charge but that ’s it .
It ’s dissatisfactory but this is a laptop computer with high - remnant gaming prioritised above all else so , if you ’re spending £ 2,000 on this machine , know that it ’s made for being plugged into power almost all of the time to get the good out of its components .
Latest deals
Should you buy it?
At the endangerment of repeating myself , the performance that the Medion Erazer Major X20 delivers for the toll is undischarged . When it total to productiveness , the X20 can match the far more expensive Asus ROG Strix Scar 16 and , even though , the Asus has an edge in play prowess , thanks to its RTX 4080 GPU , I ’d argue that the conflict is in no means proportional to the difference in cost .
There are only two reasons not to bribe the X20 . Firstly the battery animation is poor even for a gaming laptop so if you desire something to utilize away from a major power supply then it ’s not the laptop for you . The other ground is the brand . Just as some people will never buy a Skoda Octavia over a more expensive Audi A3 or VW Golf despite them being in many way of life the same , some folk will always pay a premium for the Alienware or ROG badge .
Final Thoughts
If anyone come up to me and ask me to commend a gamy - destruction play laptop the Medion Erazer Major X20 is now what I ’d suggest . Performance is extremely telling regardless of the price and the keyboard and verbalizer organization can hold their own against the in effect on the market .
If you consider other good 16 - inch gaming laptop computer like Acer’sPredator Helios 16and the AsusROG Scar Strix 16they offer carrying into action advantage that are fringy at good and neither has a keyboard that can touch the Medion . Yes , they have Mini guide display but I ’ve yet to be win over that this is a must - have feature article on a gambling laptop computer that commands a price premium .
As a value - for - money proposal , the Medion Erazer Major X20 has no equal and , battery lifetime apart , no weaknesses or faults worth mentioning . If I had £ 3,000 to expend on a gaming laptop , I ’d spend £ 2,000 on the Medion and take a vacation to somewhere exotic with the variety .
Trusted Score
How we test
Every laptop we review goes through a series of uniform checks plan to gauge key thing admit build character , performance , screen quality and assault and battery living .
These admit formal synthetic bench mark and written tests , plus a serial of real - world balk , such as how well it runs pop apps .
FAQs
It is now . Once upon a time in the UK Medion was make out for its first appearance - stage laptop computer that were often sold in supermarkets but in late years it has start to move away from that bargain - basement food market and is now bringing the more expensive microcomputer that it deal in Germany into the UK . The 2023 X20 and X40 models are the good examples of this change in securities industry positioning .
Though a German - registered society Medion is a whole have subordinate of Lenovo , one of the worldly concern ’s premiere PC makers . Lenovo fill out the takeover of Medion in June 2011 and it was the Chinese OEM ’s biggest takeover since it buy IBM ’s PC business organisation 6 years earlier .
Test Data
Full Specs
