Good Deals On Laptops?

[Aplin]

Going to BKK in a week and I know there are literally thousands of deals flying about, but I was wondering if someone has purchased one recently and thought 'wow... what great value' or simular.

[surface]

Where are you coming from? Are you going to be living here or just on holiday?

I don't know what deals you've heard about, but I've found that computers are no bargain in Thailand. Watch out for warranty service as well. Depending on the brand you get, you may have issues with warranty service outside of Thailand for a computer you purchase here.

[asiaworld]

Strangely enough OP is right . I've been here for the last 10 years & bought 5 laptops>all of them here (mostly Pantip). I travel to S'pore HK, Malaysia Taiwan & EU often enough to compare ! Strangely enough, even concidering that i'm NOT entitled to VAT refund i've always found it to be a fraction cheaper here< than anywhere else ! Not so much that it would justify anybody's trip here< but once you're here look no further ! On the other hand handphones & PDAs are more costly here .

[raro]

I bought two Acers recently, a 4315 for the wife and a 4720Z for me.

Happy with both of them, great performance for under 20,000 Baht. Other brands with similar specs are either far more expensive or have a terrible design (Lenovo....).

[trunknuk]

I've hear of 10k baht eeePc's at Makro.

[TopDogger]

Acer's newest relases are the best value you'll find..

[filingaccount]

IF you want quality keyboards+touch pads AND non-reflective LCD screens the only choice is Lenovo. See the Lenovo G400. Good specs, around 18,000 baht. Thinkpads for better specs and higher price.

I always recommend my clients to think long and hard about the 3 things you ALWAYS use when in front of the computer and/or laptop. The 3 things? Keyboard, mouse and screen.

Acers are crap build period.

ASUS has some nice laptops, others are crap.

HP/Compaq. They go for "hip and cool" style, substance not so much.

Same for Sony, although they charge a "bit" more for.... well, nothing.

Dell, I have to little info to pass on an educated guess.

[TopDogger]

Acers are crap build period.

A couple of friends have brought Acers around the same time I got my last 2 Sonys, on each occasion they have outlasted them...

I thought Acer were taking down awards left right n center?

[filingaccount]

Acers are crap build period.

A couple of friends have brought Acers around the same time I got my last 2 Sonys, on each occasion they have outlasted them...

I thought Acer were taking down awards left right n center?

I didn't say Sony was any better...

Awards are one thing and are awarded "left right n center", and many times they just create another award just to have it.

Just try an Acer right next to a Lenovo and you will immediately feel the difference.

[froggshw]

filing account....please tell us about any bad experiences you've had with Acer laptops,to justify your comment about them being crap.

I bought a 5920g Acer more than a year ago..to date its been the best comp I have ever bought..and I have bought a few,including DELL,Hewlett Pacard,compaq over the 15 years I been playing with them..and the cheapest to boot..!!

Not had any problems with mine..and I would reccomend them to anyone I know..the 5930 just released is top spec for little money(under 60k baht)with Blue ray and and leaves all the competition standing in my opinion.

Froggs

[Richb2004v2]

I bought an ACER 4520G about four months ago for around25,000 Baht. I have been very pleased with it so far. The battery isn't great but I think thats the case a many laptops. I would recommend them to anyone.

[Moonfruit]

I bought 4 Acer laptops for the company about two years ago. Worst buy i ever made. I actually wanted to buy Asus, as i think they offer good value for a no frills computer, but for some reason which i cant remember i got talked into the Acre's against my better judgement.

These things didnt even get carried around! They just sat on the desks in the office. All are dead already. I gave up repairing the two that never functioned properly (The other two had intermittent issues also, but not too bad) ditched the lot of them and bought HP's.

Best computer ive ever bought was off a guy on here in the classifieds section. OK, so its a cheap Dell inspiron laptop, but he sold at a great price for a computer that looked like new, decent-ish spec. 18 months later,and apart from the normal wear and tear of a laptop used for 14ish hours every day, being lugged and thrown around its still going strong. In fact, im typing on it right now.

So, Dell gets my vote, along with HP.

[killerjoe]

I bought 4 Acer laptops for the company about two years ago. Worst buy i ever made. I actually wanted to buy Asus, as i think they offer good value for a no frills computer, but for some reason which i cant remember i got talked into the Acre's against my better judgement.

These things didnt even get carried around! They just sat on the desks in the office. All are dead already. I gave up repairing the two that never functioned properly (The other two had intermittent issues also, but not too bad) ditched the lot of them and bought HP's.

Best computer ive ever bought was off a guy on here in the classifieds section. OK, so its a cheap Dell inspiron laptop, but he sold at a great price for a computer that looked like new, decent-ish spec. 18 months later,and apart from the normal wear and tear of a laptop used for 14ish hours every day, being lugged and thrown around its still going strong. In fact, im typing on it right now.

So, Dell gets my vote, along with HP.

I only bought one Acer last year for my wife, but we gave it away as a present to someone in my family not using much computer right after a few months...

It had a Celeron M Processor and I got it for 26.000 baht at the main store on the 1st floor of the Pantip Plaza. Following the recommendations of the salesman I have the memory upgraded from 512MB to 1,5GB right away in the store. At home we saw then that the computer was incredibly slow even with the upgraded memory! I was testing the computer for a couple weeks, installing and uninstalling different software to see if it helps. It worked better with Windows XP than with Vista, but despite of all possible adjustments made for some reasons its output volume was too low when using Skype. So we had to get Vista back, and all the pain with it.

Of course at the store the Manager confirmed that the notebook was just worked properly and yes, that model was not exactly fast. He politely apologized for the piece of crap I bought from them and smiled, but assured me that whatever consumer rights i might have in my own country, the laws in Thailand are different, with no obligations for him to change my laptop for another one...

I admit that I was superficial and actually didn't test the computer much in the shop, trusting the brand and the recommendations of the salesman. I didn't think it was possible that a leading computer brand launched such a miserable product...

That much for Acer. I hope their notebooks really developed much during the last 1 year...

[filingaccount]

filing account....please tell us about any bad experiences you've had with Acer laptops,to justify your comment about them being crap.

I bought a 5920g Acer more than a year ago..to date its been the best comp I have ever bought..and I have bought a few,including DELL,Hewlett Pacard,compaq over the 15 years I been playing with them..and the cheapest to boot..!!

Not had any problems with mine..and I would reccomend them to anyone I know..the 5930 just released is top spec for little money(under 60k baht)with Blue ray and and leaves all the competition standing in my opinion.

Froggs

How about a track record from several retail shops?

How about a track record of people calling my business (IT support) with problems related to Acer?

Yeah, Acers are crap build. Finicky keyboards (press the g or h keys and you see the whole keyboard sink), lose CD trays, USB contact problems, mainboard failures, LCD screen hinges cracking, LCD screen color bleeding and light bleeding, bad driver support etc etc.

They generally do not last past a year. Laptops should last a good 5 years before experiencing any sort of hardware failures.

[TopDogger]

Laptops should last a good 5 years before experiencing any sort of hardware failures.

BS... Even desktops don't last that long, I have a 500gb 0+1 array on a desktop and one of the drives needs replacing already within 8 months, same with the last one. Infact out of the 10+ desktops i've had in the last 15yrs not a single one has gone 5yrs without some sort of hardware failure..

[Richb2004v2]

I just tried pressing the 'G' and 'H' key on my ACER and its true the keyboard does sink. However I don't have another laptop to compare it against. I most admit that it does not feel as strong and well built as my old SONY, but the Sony was a brick of a machine.

As for life span. I had my last Sony laptop for 7 years and in that time only needed to replace the CD drive and I upgraded the memory. I passed it on and its still going. I've had my current desktop for over 3 years and the one before that for 5 years. I bought this ACER with the view to keeping it for 4 or 5 years. Maybe thats a little optamistic. Anyway I will buy an ASUS eee PC soon so I will no longer need to carry the ASUS on flights etc

[jeffer]

I only bought one Acer last year for my wife, but we gave it away as a present to someone in my family not using much computer right after a few months...

It had a Celeron M Processor and I got it for 26.000 baht at the main store on the 1st floor of the Pantip Plaza.

A Celeron M is a budget processor so it's going to be slow whatever brand you have, more so with Vista. For the same price today you can buy something with an okay Core 2 Duo processor (T5450+), a big difference in performance however if I was wanting to run Vista with all the extras then I would only buy a notebook with a decent video card, not one with onboard video.

In Thailand I always think if you're having repeated hard drive failures it's because they are running too hot. If you're not in a A/C environment then you need a well ventilated case with an intake fan blowing fresh air over the hard drives. With notebooks you need one of those notebook coolers. I have a couple you see at any IT Mall for a few hundred baht. They run quiet (1x20 cm fan) and reduce the hard drive temp by at least 5 degrees. Currently have one 7 year old overclocked desktop, another 5 year old desktop I don't use much and my main desktop nearly two years old. Also have a couple of old hard drives nearly ten years old that still work but too small to bother with. All work, SMART eror reports are always good. When you read on internet forums about hard drive problems it seems a few people have continual problems and others have hardly any problems so I put it down to the way people use their computers. A friend of mine always has problems with his computer but he never stops trying to tweak it so it's impossible to work out what he has stuffed up this time and no one will bother trying to help him now because he just won't leave it alone when it does run properly. If you go into a lot of Thai homes you will find 10 year old computers still running with all the original hardware. There is one man near me who has a computer that must be 20 years old, still uses it every day as a word processor, doesn't want to get something new.

[filingaccount]

Laptops should last a good 5 years before experiencing any sort of hardware failures.

BS... Even desktops don't last that long, I have a 500gb 0+1 array on a desktop and one of the drives needs replacing already within 8 months, same with the last one. Infact out of the 10+ desktops i've had in the last 15yrs not a single one has gone 5yrs without some sort of hardware failure..

Laptops != Desktops.

[Maigo6]

I bought an ACER 4520G about four months ago for around25,000 Baht. I have been very pleased with it so far. The battery isn't great but I think thats the case a many laptops. I would recommend them to anyone.

I also have The Acer 4520G.

For the money I think it's fantastic value with great specifications.

This new Acer replaced my old Travelmate Acer that I had for 5 years, it's still going strong but of course the 4520G is in a different class.

Highly recommended.

[filingaccount]

Laptops should last a good 5 years before experiencing any sort of hardware failures.

BS... Even desktops don't last that long, I have a 500gb 0+1 array on a desktop and one of the drives needs replacing already within 8 months, same with the last one. Infact out of the 10+ desktops i've had in the last 15yrs not a single one has gone 5yrs without some sort of hardware failure..

Laptops != Desktops.

(editing was apparently not allowed, please excuse the double posting)

I decided to expand a little on my answer to you.

What brand of HDD? What kind of failure? And what level of use? Many things factor in to failures. Maybe you should be considering SCSI drives if your HDD use is high.

A desktop that is home built depends greatly on you own knowledge and skill putting it together, if you overclock it (and/or overvolt), buy sub-par cooling (or any other component for that matter) or keep it in a non-forgiving environment.

Also, a desktop generally sees much more use than a laptop. More heavy CPU use, more HDD accesses, and uses more power and thus gets warmer. The choice of PSU is critically important, specially in Thailand where power output is unstable (190-250 volts !), the power on the PSU rails has to be stable for components like VGA cards, HDDs, sound cards, NIC's and so forth. Some equipment is more sensitive to power fluctuations than others.

The grounding of the power is very important since you dont want 10-12 volts "leaking" onto the chassis. This also is critical if you are in a dusty environment as the "leaking" power will be transferred to the mainboard directly and quite likely render it useless.

A laptop is normally built with durability in mind (some OEM's excluded). The cooling depends mostly on the heatsink, not the fan. The fans are generally low powered and low rpm, hence silent. Besides, most laptops are used a lot less than desktops, so they dont face the same "wear". You dont generally open it up and poke around in there, it is a sealed system. A sealed system removes external factors as failure points.

In closing I'd like to enter my current laptop.

ASUS A8Jp

1.86 Ghz Core2Duo

2 GB RAM

80 GB HDD

ATI x1700

etc

It is going stong now 22 months fully on 24 hours a day, 7 days a week without any problems to speak of.

Before that it was an HP some or other, that lasted 3 years without any failures. It was sold only because I wanted more power for my folding@home. Yes, folding takes 100% of each and every free CPU cycle, essentially running the CPU 100% permanently.

Again, the only laptops I see failing quickly and on a regular basis are Acers. Unfortunately people still buy them, and have to suffer. Gives me very good business though. I hardly ever see any other brands.

If any other brand fails, it is generally a factory fault and it is apparent within a day of use. Most manufacturers give a brand new spare part immediately though, since the failures are few and far between.

[Maigo6]

Again, the only laptops I see failing quickly and on a regular basis are Acers. Unfortunately people still buy them, and have to suffer. Gives me very good business though. I hardly ever see any other brands.

If any other brand fails, it is generally a factory fault and it is apparent within a day of use. Most manufacturers give a brand new spare part immediately though, since the failures are few and far between.

I guess it's just down to luck, I was using my old Acer travelmate, crap specs etc for downloading in Japan, and I did some serious downloading on a very high speed connection, I never had any real problem with it, of course it was an old model with zero specification to speak of.

I bought myself an Acer 4520G a while back, 2 GB Ram , 250GB HDD, Bluetooth, AMD Turion 64 x 2 Dual core, Nvidia GeForce 8400M graphics, Built in Webcam, Signal up Wireless etc etc and have experienced Zero problems with this Acer also.

At the price I paid I think it's great.

[filingaccount]

Again, the only laptops I see failing quickly and on a regular basis are Acers. Unfortunately people still buy them, and have to suffer. Gives me very good business though. I hardly ever see any other brands.

If any other brand fails, it is generally a factory fault and it is apparent within a day of use. Most manufacturers give a brand new spare part immediately though, since the failures are few and far between.

I guess it's just down to luck, I was using my old Acer travelmate, crap specs etc for downloading in Japan, and I did some serious downloading on a very high speed connection, I never had any real problem with it, of course it was an old model with zero specification to speak of.

I bought myself an Acer 4520G a while back, 2 GB Ram , 250GB HDD, Bluetooth, AMD Turion 64 x 2 Dual core, Nvidia GeForce 8400M graphics, Built in Webcam, Signal up Wireless etc etc and have experienced Zero problems with this Acer also.

At the price I paid I think it's great.

Yes, luck to have one that works Edit: and it shouldn't be about luck....

How is the keyboard? Compared to a regular desktop keyboard I mean.

It is NOT expected that the laptop keys should/would be of any different quality than the entry level Logitec keyboard.

Try pressing the "H" or "G" keys... and see how the keyboard sinks.

Edited August 18, 2008 by filingaccount

[JAS21]

Again, the only laptops I see failing quickly and on a regular basis are Acers. Unfortunately people still buy them, and have to suffer. Gives me very good business though. I hardly ever see any other brands.

If any other brand fails, it is generally a factory fault and it is apparent within a day of use. Most manufacturers give a brand new spare part immediately though, since the failures are few and far between.

I guess it's just down to luck, I was using my old Acer travelmate, crap specs etc for downloading in Japan, and I did some serious downloading on a very high speed connection, I never had any real problem with it, of course it was an old model with zero specification to speak of.

I bought myself an Acer 4520G a while back, 2 GB Ram , 250GB HDD, Bluetooth, AMD Turion 64 x 2 Dual core, Nvidia GeForce 8400M graphics, Built in Webcam, Signal up Wireless etc etc and have experienced Zero problems with this Acer also.

At the price I paid I think it's great.

I'm just about to buy the Aspire 5930G 944G328n...just waiting to see if price drops next month...guess I'll need to take out the extra two year warrenty.........

[nidge]

Since being in Thailand i have bought 5 laptops.

1) Atec. budget Thai laptop. Great for the money, but was really cheap so actually it was a pile of crap.

2) Acer. Looked nice in the shop and wireless wored really well. but the build quality was awful. Keyboard sank when keys were pressed and the trackpad stopped working. (i hate using a mouse).

3) Sony. Looked lovely and the screen was great. But so much crap pre-installed software and the keyboard always got dirty very easily.

4) Dell. Didn't actually buy this, it was given with my job. It was like a brick, i hated it and never been so happy as when i gave it back after quitting my job.

5) Apple MacbookPro. Had this for nearly 2 years, (a record for me). Had to buy a new battery after 14 months as the old one started to get a shorter and shorter life. I love this laptop and cannot see me replacing it for a long time.

[nikster]

Acer is usually the cheapest for the money and they have pretty good service in Thailand, at least in my experience. I have had some lemons and some really good ones - the latter ones were high end, 803 and 8204.

If you want the best quality, get a Thinkpad (and uninstall all that crap software they put on it). If you want the best price, get the Acer - you can even get a 3 yr warranty for cheap, and chances are you'll need it.

I am a subscriber to the theory that hard drives in Thailand fail due to heat. I think jeffer is spot on about that. I have never lost a hard drive before I came to this country. I have lost about 1 / year here over the last few years. I now use a laptop cooler, and I am also "overclocking" my fans. I am hoping that will save my current drive. The only other possibility would be that newer high density drives just fail easier - but that wouldn't make a lot of sense. Hard disks don't like heat, and three of the drives I lost were in laptops that got too hot, Acer and a MacBook Pro.

Edited August 18, 2008 by nikster

[monty]

I'm solidly in the Acer camp as well!

Excellent price/specs level, combined with excellent customer service/warranty!

Yes, they are indeed not the best build machines, at least not the budget aspire series. But the little problems I have had with it always have been resolved immediately, sometimes even outside the warranty without questions asked.

Acer is actually the second biggest notebook manufacturer, right after HP, so they must be doing something good!