Buying A Laptop In Bangkok

[sarahlou]

I've done a very silly thing and left my laptop in the UK (realised on the way to the airport but too late to go back and get it!). I'm on a four week trip to Thailand/China and am trying to decide whether it's better to buy a new one or have my one sent over from the UK. Bit concerned about duty and tax if I try and have it Fedex'd over. It's a bit of a dinasaur so I'd resent having to pay a fortune to get it released from customs! I was planning to get a new one at some stage anyway... I've always been under the impressions (perhaps mistaken?) that Thailand was expensive for electronic goods. Is it worth buying one here, or I am likely to pay a lot more than in the UK? Where's the best place to go for for laptops in Bangkok?

Thanks.

[sulasno]

a netbook would cost about 10K baht

[onnut]

Pantip plaza have many good ones. Cheap to not cheap.

[elshaheen]

when does TechCom at Queen Surkit Center happen, because someone was handing out some flyers in Silom for it. Date, I don't know when. Cheap prices there.

Also check out Tesco / Lotus, Carrefour or Center Point. They usually have good deals, but none of their laptops or the cheap ones have Windows 7 on them. Just Dos or Unix.

[elshaheen]

when does TechCom at Queen Surkit Center happen, because someone was handing out some flyers in Silom for it. Date, I don't know when. Cheap prices there.

Also check out Tesco / Lotus, Carrefour or Center Point. They usually have good deals, but none of their laptops or the cheap ones have Windows 7 on them. Just Dos or Unix.

Ok, here's the info taken from Queen Sirikit National Convention Center's website. You can get there by MRT at Queen Sirikit National Convention Center stop which is right after Asoke and before Klong Toie.

Commart Comtech Thailand 2010

3 - 7 November, 2010

Right IT Products & Solutions for SMEs & Professional Consumer.

Organizer : ARIP PUBLIC COMPANY LIMITED

Tel : +66 (0) 2 686 9009

http://www.commartthailand.com/

[nikster]

FYI Thailand is "cheap" for laptops.

[RJfromUSA]

FYI Thailand is "cheap" for laptops.

i would recomment fortune tower IT for the best deals in bangkok

i purchased an acer laptop there with warranty and free service up to 1 year

fortune tower is at rama 9 subway station

you will find there all the different manufacturers and competitive prices

good luck !!

[lopburi3]

I would not consider Thailand as being cheap for laptops; at least when compared to the US. But perhaps for the UK it would be different. Just check the specs as almost nothing sold cheaply here comes with more than 1GB Ram (which is next to useless in today's world) so you need a factory upgrade before you leave the shop (opening yourself normally voids warranty). Then you need an operating system.

The price has become better in the last year or so but believe that is the trend worldwide.

I suspect in this case a new computer would be the best choice.

[lomatopo]

Make sure you are comfortable with the warranty if you purchase a new laptop here. In most cases the warranty is applicable to Thailand only so you'll have to return to Thailand to get warranty repair/service. It is typically best to purchase a unit where you live and/or make sure you have an international warranty. Obviously if you live here this is a non-issue, for the most part.

Given the easy availability of internet cafes here (I am not familiar with public PC access in China) it might best to hold off buying a new laptop.

[Digitalbanana]

>I've always been under the impressions (perhaps mistaken?) that Thailand was expensive for electronic goods

In some cases it is. Items considered luxury are much higher priced. A high end PC would cost 2-3 times more here than in US for example. Stores are full of cheap products and you get what you pay for. It depends what your needs are. If you are only gone for a month, why not use public net access and buy something you really want back home to cover warranty issues as well?

[britmaveric]

Thailand is expensive for electronics full stop - you'd definitely get a better deal back home and higher specs.

Certainly if you need a computer I prob a netbook might suffice, but when I looked at then in pantip few years back ended up being about 30% more for less specs and no OS. I decided to buy online w/OS, bigger HD, more Ram, better processor and extended battery.

[dddave]

If you plan to do a lot of traveling in the future, then a compact netbook with their 6+ hours of battery life would seem a better choice and the prices here are pretty competitive with the U.K.

As others have pointed out, most will have warranties good only in Thailand but if you do some checking, you might find a brand that provides an international warranty.

If you buy a machine and it doesn't have a licensed operating system installed, the retailer will usually offer to install Vista or Windows 7 for anywhere from B300 on up but beware, it will almost certainly be an illegal copy and could cause you problems later when you try to do updates. If you are familiar with Linux, that would be your best choice.

[BB1950]

Something the other poster didn't mention. You need to consider the installed programs and data that is on your laptop. That may be a problem unless you can download them, requiring someone to have access to the laptop that you forgot.

[sarahlou]

Thank you all for your kind replies. I probably should have mentioned that I'm here on business so visits to an internet cafe won't really suffice. Luckily I had my files stored on a portable harddrive in my handbag, so the situation is not as bad as it could be! I've dug out an old Sony laptop which I had stored over here - it's dying but not yet completely dead yet so I hope to nurse it along long enough to last the trip out.

Having done a little bit more research it seems I might be better to get over to HK when I'm in China and maybe buy one there. Thanks again.