Best website for buying laptop?

[Batty]

Any ideas? Local shops in Udon dont have much choice so looking online. Any tips on a good website to browse trustworthy and quick delivery?

[tomazbodner]

Advice.co.th, bnn.in.th, jib.co.th, official shops in Shopee and Lazada, powerbuy.co.th...

[baansgr]

Lazada...but always check OS loaded is original

[dddave]

Lazada OK if a mainline brand such as Asus, Acer, Lenovo, Dell, ect.  There are some actually very good Chinese brands with decent specs for the money but if anything goes wrong, warranty's are useless.  Local repair shops have difficulty repairing them because the manufacturers take a lot of shortcuts, integrating components on the main boards.

 

Lazada usually gives a week to return an item.  Make sure you determine if it comes with genuine Windows, factory installed.  There is usually a dialog box in product listings where you can ask questions directly to the seller.

I've had good buying experiences with both "Advice" and "JIB", recommended by other posters.

 

If you are willing to pay a slight premium for a always reliable and responsive seller, then I highly recommend "www.invadeit.com    The owner: Thomas, goes out of his way to take care of his customers.  This site would be my number one recommendation.

Edited August 27, 2020 by dddave

[Jai Dee]

11 minutes ago, dddave said:

If you are willing to pay a slight premium for a always reliable and responsive seller, then I highly recommend "www.invadeit.com    The owner: Thomas, goes out of his way to take care of his customers.  This site would be my number one recommendation.

 

Seconded. 

 

Thomas also provides good advice and clarification if you are unsure of anything.

[steve187]

these seem to have a good choice, a little cheaper than the main online suppliers, have not used myself, but been looking

[JoePai]

I went direct to Lenovo (on line) easy and help if any problems. Don't get me wrong I use Lazada a lot but if problems with a 3rd party seller laptop then good luck sorting it out

[Eindhoven]

1 hour ago, JoePai said:

I went direct to Lenovo (on line) easy and help if any problems. Don't get me wrong I use Lazada a lot but if problems with a 3rd party seller laptop then good luck sorting it out

 

Should make no difference, as you can register the warranty directly with Lenovo anyway. I bought a laptop that was 'as new'. An unwanted return that could not be sold as new.

 

It still was within it's original warranty period; so I went to the Lenovo website, registered it and chose to extend the warranty to a three year on-site warranty for the equivalent of an extra 2000 baht.  No need to buy from Lenovo directly. The warranty process is still the same.

[lamyai3]

What are the best of the entry level laptops on the market right now? Pricing around 10k, 14" screen, it would just be for zoom meetings and general Internet stuff (maybe use it to run kodi etc).

 

Options around this price in Powerbuy and other stores are the Acer Aspire A314, Lenovo Ideapad 3 14ADA etc, also HP models. 

Edited September 3, 2020 by lamyai3

[Eindhoven]

32 minutes ago, lamyai3 said:

What are the best of the entry level laptops on the market right now? Pricing around 10k, 14" screen, it would just be for zoom meetings and general Internet stuff (maybe use it to run kodi etc).

 

Options around this price in Powerbuy and other stores are the Acer Aspire A314, Lenovo Ideapad 3 14ADA etc, also HP models. 

 

If it does not utilise a Solid State Drive for storage, but a Hard Disk Drive or eMMC storage, eliminate it.

Similarly if it does not have a Full HD screen.

 

Check the webcam; 0.3 MP is not acceptable. 1 MP upwards

 

Finally the CPU. You can post here for advice once you have narrowed down your choices, according to the guidelines I have posted above.

 

 

[Eindhoven]

To expand on the webcam issue, since it is central to your buying the laptop;

 

https://webcamtests.com/resolution

 

You need at least a 1 MP webcam to achieve HD resolution: 1280p × 720p

 

1.024MP to fill the screen of the old style laptops with HD screens.

 

2.074MP for a Full HD resolution.

 

So a minimum of 1 MP is needed. 2 MP unlikely within your budget.

[lamyai3]

45 minutes ago, Eindhoven said:

If it does not utilise a Solid State Drive for storage, but a Hard Disk Drive or eMMC storage, eliminate it.

Similarly if it does not have a Full HD screen.

 

Check the webcam; 0.3 MP is not acceptable. 1 MP upwards

Thanks. The Acer and the Lenovo are SSD 256GB, but built-in webcams are only 0.3 MP. 

[Eindhoven]

5 hours ago, lamyai3 said:

Thanks. The Acer and the Lenovo are SSD 256GB, but built-in webcams are only 0.3 MP. 

 

Yes. Very poor quality. They make the headlines specs look good. But the webcam is pitiful. Same quality as the webcam on my thirteen year old laptop. Which is ridiculous when you think about it. VGA and 0.3 MP are the same.

 

That being said, you might be happy with the video quality.

 

Take a look: 

 

 

You can see that the picture is already blurred even at it's native size. Expand the YouTube video to full screen to see how it looks that way too.

 

Other examples:

 

 

 

[lamyai3]

1 hour ago, Eindhoven said:

Yes. Very poor quality. They make the headlines specs look good. But the webcam is pitiful. Same quality as the webcam on my thirteen year old laptop. Which is ridiculous when you think about it. VGA and 0.3 MP are the same.

I guess I'd be unlikely to find anything much better than the 0.3 MP cameras at this price range. I tried making a video recently on my old iPad mini (1st gen) which also has a VGA front camera, and the quality is indeed poor. This has got me thinking however that a new full size iPad (or Android equivalent) might be a better solution. The entry level machines now come with around 1.2 MP, and there's also the portability and battery advantage, it might actually work much better for zoom.

[Eindhoven]

1 hour ago, lamyai3 said:

I guess I'd be unlikely to find anything much better than the 0.3 MP cameras at this price range. I tried making a video recently on my old iPad mini (1st gen) which also has a VGA front camera, and the quality is indeed poor. This has got me thinking however that a new full size iPad (or Android equivalent) might be a better solution. The entry level machines now come with around 1.2 MP, and there's also the portability and battery advantage, it might actually work much better for zoom.

If you were in the UK, 5000 baht equivalent would do it; https://www.blackmoreit.com/lenovothinkpad-10atomx74g128g20e3refurb-lenovo-thinkpad-10-model-20e3-x7-z8700-128gb-4gb-ram-wi-fi-4.html

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Lenovo-ThinkPad-10-Model-20E3-X7-Z8700-128GB-4GB-RAM-Wi-Fi-4G-Black-Windows-10/303629592902 

 

https://cdn.cnetcontent.com/a1/62/a162d891-ef70-47b6-b730-a78ba376f069.pdf

Edited September 3, 2020 by Eindhoven

[lamyai3]

17 hours ago, Eindhoven said:

If you were in the UK, 5000 baht equivalent would do

That's too bad - amazing price. In any event I'm strongly leaning towards a tablet now - more portability, no problem with cables, better front camera, mic and speaker than the entry level laptops. Aside from being well suited to zoom stuff, I could find many more uses for a tablet than a laptop right now.