Need New Laptop

[girlx]

my spacebarkeeps sticking as you can see, among many other things that have begun to pop up with my system. it's about 2 years old now so since i rely on it for my livelihood i should probably get a new one now. i know about pantip but am reluctant to buy from them, i would prefer to buy a top of the line from the US with an international warranty. but i think i will have problems getting them to ship to me here. anyone have any advice on where to get the best deal from here? i have an HP Pavilion and would love to upgrade to the newest version.

[Highwayman]

i know about pantip but am reluctant to buy from them, i would prefer to buy a top of the line from the US with an international warranty.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Is your problem with 'pantip' that you're concerned you won't get what you paid for i.e. something gets swapped on you? If so just go to a big retailer like DataIT (1st floor @ Pantip Plaza) or IT City on the top floor. If you buy from either of those places you won't have any problems getting what you paid for, although it might be a tad more expensive but worth it for the peace of mind.

Getting something sent over from the US might mean you get slugged with import duties so l wouldn't be going down that path. Take a look at the US HP/Compaq site and you might find that Thailand isn't that far behind the US in models.

[Hikage]

i know about pantip but am reluctant to buy from them, i would prefer to buy a top of the line from the US with an international warranty.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Is your problem with 'pantip' that you're concerned you won't get what you paid for i.e. something gets swapped on you? If so just go to a big retailer like DataIT (1st floor @ Pantip Plaza) or IT City on the top floor. If you buy from either of those places you won't have any problems getting what you paid for, although it might be a tad more expensive but worth it for the peace of mind.

Getting something sent over from the US might mean you get slugged with import duties so l wouldn't be going down that path. Take a look at the US HP/Compaq site and you might find that Thailand isn't that far behind the US in models.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Agreed. You dont buy from Panthip per se. There are many different companies in Panthip, some good, some bad. IT City is a good option as highwayman said and not much more expensive.... safer definately.

[Firefoxx]

Simply avoid Pantip. Go to IT Mall, at Rama 9, in front of the subway station.

Most international warranties aren't honored in Thailand. It would be much simpler to buy whatever's sold here.

[Guest endure]

Wouldn't giving your keyboard a good cleaning/vacuuming be cheaper?

[muldoon]

what are prices like at the moment for high spec laptops ? what would 90,000 baht get you at Fortune ?

[Hikage]

Simply avoid Pantip.  Go to IT Mall, at Rama 9, in front of the subway station.

Most international warranties aren't honored in Thailand.  It would be much simpler to buy whatever's sold here.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Same concept different location. You will find good and bad places at both.

[Thaipwriter]

seems a bit excessive, buying a new laptop because the space bar is sticking.

new keyboards for laptops cost about 2000 baht, i would go see a local spares centre if i were you! (back up all your data first!!!)

you would not buy a new car because the radio was stuck on one station!!!!

[girlx]

like i said the keyboard sticking is only one of many things that have been happening, and since i rely on this laptop for my livelihood i should probably have some backup.

anyway would any of you recommend ordering from pantip's online store? i can go to bangkok (from koh phangan) but in an emergency i am wondering if they are reliable. i worry about buying from pantip because several times i have had friends go in to get their computers fixed and the shops would take out their good parts (graphics cards or whatever) and replace them with inferior quality ones in addition to "fixing" the system. tourist police were no help. also i am afraid that i would not get licensed software with my system in thailand and that is another problem i have been having (sketchy OS). you might be right, Data IT/IT City is probably ok. i will look there.

thanks for your help!

[Firefoxx]

pantipprice.com is *NOT* Pantip's online ordering store. It has a storefront in Pantip, but it's not associated with Pantip itself, nor does it have prices representative of the prices at Pantip, which are usually cheaper. People *have* orderded from pantipprice,and the general consensus is that if you don't have time to go shopping, it's a good, but expensive, alternative.

Hikage, it's the same concept, but at least in a much lesser degree. Pantip has degraded rapidly and is crowded, hard to park, hard to get to, and just a plain bad experience. If you're going to go shopping, at least do it with some degree of comfort.

[lomatopo]

In addition to the large retailers at Panthip and Fortune IT Mall just about every major notebook manufacturer has an authorized retailer. I am pretty certain you will be able to find just about any notebook you require. I do think the selection might be larger at Panthip.

IT City (6th floor Panthip) has a massive selection of notebooks HP, Toshiba, Sony Vaio.

The equivalent type store in the Fortune IT Mall (forgot the name but on the 3rd or 4th floor occupying the northernmost portion of the building (above Tesco Lotus) has a similar selection.

[bino]

The equivalent type store in the Fortune IT Mall (forgot the name but on the 3rd or 4th floor occupying the northernmost portion of the building (above Tesco Lotus) has a similar selection.

IT City and Data IT are both at Fortune on the third and fourth floors respectively.

[sbk]

Just as an FYI, girlx, Acer has a dealer in Surat Thani.

[Tyree D.]

nothing beats Sony Vaio, um besides an iMac. I got mine in Chiang Mai. They were very helpful. Somebody on another thread posted there is no support for Sony here. Doesn't he see all the stores? Beware of innacurate info on TV.

[yeti]

HP has a reseller locator on its Thai website. Why not trying one of them if you want a new HP pavillion?

If they are registered on the HP website they should be as official as possible, and in case of problems buying near your place would be easier for you.

And as they are registered on HP official website, if you don't have the service quality you're expecting you can always complain to HP (that's the advantage of using an "official" reseller).

[lomatopo]

I just spent another afternoon at Panthip and there are so many notebook PCs I'd be amazed if the OP couldn't find something appropriate. All name brands, all with warranties. They actually had a huge display in the main. ground-floor lobby today. HP, Compaq, Toshiba, IBM, Acer, Asus, BEnq, NEC, Samsung, Sony Vaio were just some of the manufacturers I noticed today. Unless you can go back to the U.S.A. to pick up a notebook (ordered on-line) the choices locally seem up to the task.

Some of those Sony Vaio models are quite tempting.

Edited October 15, 2005 by lomatopo

[girlx]

"Some of those Sony Vaio models are quite tempting."

curious... does Vaio run off of Windows? is it a PC? someone once told me not to buy them because it runs off a memory stick and is not compatible with many things PC, but i like the look of them and am not sure if that was even true....?

[Firefoxx]

"Vaio" is the brand of Sony PCs and notebooks. They're normal, just like other brands. Some people don't like Sony products, since they have memory stick slots (like cameras and camcorders), and memory sticks are expensive and are not an industry standard (they're usually not found on non-sony products), unlike compactflash and SD memory.

However, this is not a reason to buy or not buy a *notebook*. A memory slot in a *notebook* shouldn't be a big part of the decision, unless the main purpose of the notebook is to transfer images from your camera. Whoever told you that a Vaio is not compatible with many things PC must be very anti-Sony.

The bad thing about a Vaio is that it's usually very expensive. Good things are that it's stylish and usually has good specs and design. A lot of people I know own and like Vaios, but they're pretty rich. I personally would buy an Acer, since they give more bang for the buck.

[Conan]

Having owned a laptop shop back in Aus - here are some points and suggestions:

Sony - good quality, very good screens, also there is $ attached due to the name, price is controlled on these and so are distributors there are (in Aus) good margins so try to negotiate some extra stuff into the deal on a sony.

Toshiba - low end ones are not good construction even if it wears a good name, get something else for a cheapie, the business models are good, good screens and 3 yr international warranty but you'll pay.

Fujitsu Lifebooks- best quality, made in Japan (everything else is china or taiwan - regardless of what the label on sony viao says), magnesium alloy lidsto protect screen, tuned (engineered) well and perform better than their specs would indicate.

Acer - cheap, cheap, cheap - don't do it. These have been a problem for years, low quality screens, badly designed, cheap cases that crack and break.

HP - tend to be good quality as long as you keep away from the bottom end ones.

Compaq - reasonable, good speakers for a laptop, nothing else particularly good, nothing bad either - makes reliable choice for a cheap laptop.

Dell - mixed bag, service sucks badly. The cheap ones are cheap for good reason, onl;y the cheapest parts are sourced. The business models have always been better (except the CPi and CPx series which sucked)

IBM - used to be good, now sold to Lenovo in china and manufacturing all moved to new plants these wont be the same old thinkpads anymore but no one yet knows how the new ones will compare.

Asus - never had much experience but these do have 2 year international warranties which is good if you travel.

ECS (protac in Aus) - good quality for a cheapy - recommended - 2 year warranty on many units. way I see it if I can get a reliable machine at a much lower price point then get it, who cares if it "only" lasts two years - you're laptop is out of date in 2 years anyway.

Mitac/Clevo,etc - these are large manufacturers and sell to the small guys who rebrand - one of these guys make the low end Dell machines I am almost certain - I don't like them they tend to be slow and heavy.

Of course there are going to be one off models that perform well, even from a bad brand.

And remember just because 1 person you know had a good experience with a brand doesnt make it a good brand they could just be lucky. Find a large company and see what they have bought - they never buy Acer and for good reason - mobile sales force of hundreds pretty quickly tells you when you have a bad machine.

Edited October 19, 2005 by Conan

[Mister Fixit]

like i said the keyboard sticking is only one of many things that have been happening, and since i rely on this laptop for my livelihood i should probably have some backup.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

If you have never had any form of backup and you rely on your laptop for a living, you must be completely daft. Get a 1 gig USB pen, at the very least, and backup must-have data to that.

Better still get a cheap HDD and put it into an USB enclosure and Ghost everything from the laptop to that every day or whenever.

[astral]

If you want quality and after sales service,

then go for a brand name like HP and Compaq!!

It may cost a little more, but not much and you will not regret it!!

[girlx]

If you have never had any form of backup and you rely on your laptop for a living, you must be completely daft.

geez, people really tend to nitpick on here don't they? of course i back up my information. i mean i don't have another system as backup if this one fails, and as i live far from civilization, it would help to have another laptop.

[~G~]

Just because pantip has a bad name, it doesn't mean you have to give up on all computer retail centers in Thailand

IT City, Powerbuy are only a few of the good options.

Working on the beach I'd expect some dust... You can get an external keyboard for pretty cheap, or to get one of those "USB flexible keyboards" which eliminate the proglem of dust and dirt under the keys.

By the way, if someone knows a source of second hand notebooks I'd be happy to know.

Edited October 21, 2005 by ~G~

[Conan]

There are a few places in Pantip with 2nd hand laptops - one in particular had line upon line of the same model IBM (my guess is ex lease) - these should be good, the old IBM were well built quality machines. Also if the retailer has dozens of hte same machine it is going to be easier to get warranty and parts, and the fact that they have so many shows that that particular model does seems to be a durable one.

If anyone needs a dust proof work machine you can get the panasonic toughbook, designed for the US military, these can be droppped from 6' with no damage, run over and are water resistant but they weight like a brick.

[muldoon]

I bought a new HP laptop today (in NZL) :

Pentium M 770 2.13 GHZ (centrino technology)

2 GB 533mhz ddr2 RAM

80 GB hdd

15.4" wuxga display 1920x1200 res

ati radeon graphics card w/ 128 MB memory

DVD writer/player

802.11 a/b/g

bluetooth

3 year international warranty

etc..etc...

4000NZD ~ 120,000 baht

very impressive machine....so I'd recommend high end HP models.Didn't want to buy in BKK, mainly due to warranty coverage.

[Mister Fixit]

If you have never had any form of backup and you rely on your laptop for a living, you must be completely daft.

geez, people really tend to nitpick on here don't they? of course i back up my information. i mean i don't have another system as backup if this one fails, and as i live far from civilization, it would help to have another laptop.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

It's not a question of nit-picking (note the hyphen! ) Joke, OK?

What you meant was not immediately apparent, but on a second reading I can see what you mean.

I'd suggest a trip to Pantip or one of the other IT places in BKK, such as Fortune Town. There's plenty of better stores to shop at, and just because they may be situated in Pantip doesn't mean you'll be ripped off.

There's been plenty of good advice here about where to shop. I wouldn't use an Internet supplier, however. I'd want to see the thing working before my very eyes before I took it away.

As you are way out in the sticks, imagine the hassle of returning a duff laptop if it arrives non-working. Doesn't bear thinking about ...

[lomatopo]

As you are way out in the sticks, imagine the hassle of returning a duff laptop if it arrives non-working.  Doesn't bear thinking about ...

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

An excellent point for both laptop and desktop buyers remote to Bangkok. Maybe plan to spend three days, buy the machine the first day, then hammer on it for a day or two in your hotel room, and/or a wireless internet-equiped cafe (updating Windows, drivers, downloading SW, etc.) to shake things out.

I would have no fears about buying a notebook or desktop at Panthip or Fortune IT Mall as there are dozens of authorized distributers, and in many cases the manufacturer's themselves franchise exclusive shops.

BTW, the Acer (official, authorized) repair shop at Panthip seems like it is always filled with customers. Not sure what that means though.

[kayo]

Hi girlx,

not to nitpick ( )

but do you keep your laptop well cleaned?

Do you just use the disk cleaner and defrag that are preinstalled with windows, or have you got any additional cleaning programs.

I'm no expert in this stuff, but I recently (through a recommendation on these boards) downloaded a freeware program called CCleaner and it has (is it my opinion or is it fact??) significantly expanded my capacity for storage and seemingly speeded up my whole system somewhat.

This and other programs (often times to be found free) can prolong the life of a computer I reckon.

[nikster]

Having owned a laptop shop back in Aus - here are some points and suggestions:

Sony - good quality, very good screens, also there is $ attached due to the name, price is controlled on these and so are distributors there are (in Aus) good margins so try to negotiate some extra stuff into the deal on a sony.

Toshiba - low end ones are not good construction even if it wears a good name, get something else for a cheapie, the business models are good, good screens and 3 yr international warranty but you'll pay.

Fujitsu Lifebooks- best quality, made in Japan (everything else is china or taiwan - regardless of what the label on sony viao says), magnesium alloy lidsto protect screen, tuned (engineered) well and perform better than their specs would indicate.

Acer - cheap, cheap, cheap - don't do it. These have been a problem for years, low quality screens, badly designed, cheap cases that crack and break.

HP - tend to be good quality as long as you keep away from the bottom end ones.

Compaq - reasonable, good speakers for a laptop, nothing else particularly good, nothing bad either - makes reliable choice for a cheap laptop.

Dell - mixed bag, service sucks badly. The cheap ones are cheap for good reason, onl;y the cheapest parts are sourced. The business models have always been better (except the CPi and CPx series which sucked)

IBM - used to be good, now sold to Lenovo in china and manufacturing all moved to new plants these wont be the same old thinkpads anymore but no one yet knows how the new ones will compare.

Asus - never had much experience but these do have 2 year international warranties which is good if you travel.

ECS (protac in Aus) - good quality for a cheapy - recommended - 2 year warranty on many units. way I see it if I can get a reliable machine at a much lower price point then get it, who cares if it "only" lasts two years - you're laptop is out of date in 2 years anyway.

Mitac/Clevo,etc - these are large manufacturers and sell to the small guys who rebrand - one of these guys make the low end Dell machines I am almost certain - I don't like them they tend to be slow and heavy.

Of course there are going to be one off models that perform well, even from a bad brand.

And remember just because 1 person you know had a good experience with a brand doesnt make it a good brand they could just be lucky. Find a large company and see what they have bought - they never buy Acer and for good reason - mobile sales force of hundreds pretty quickly tells you when you have a bad machine.

my 2c:

Acer yes, the low end models you need to stay away from, business class is OK and has excellent service in Thailand (I have had 3 acers, 2 top of the line models which have been good, 1 low end model which was crap beyond belief).

Sony - good quality and design but the service is awful, awful, awful. Pray that nothing breaks.

Fujitsu: Not all models are made in Japan, some are made in Malaysia and have significantly worse quality. A friend has one of those and pretty much half the hardware has failed by now. Surprisingly it's still running though, duct-taped together, in the dock ('cause the built-in USB failed), with external keyboard. The models made in Japan are excellent.

HP and Compaq are one and the same company these days - decent laptops, decent service.

Asus has a good reputation for quality.

IBM Thinkpads used to be the best and from all I hear new ones made by Lenovo are just as good - indestructible. Need to have the thinkpad name on them though, the other Lenovos are not nearly as good.

Dell - has gotten significantly worse. Only sells to business in Thailand, not recommended.

[nikster]

my spacebarkeeps sticking as you can see, among many other things that have begun to pop up with my system. it's about 2 years old now so since i rely on it for my livelihood i should probably get a new one now. i know about pantip but am reluctant to buy from them, i would prefer to buy a top of the line from the US with an international warranty. but i think i will have problems getting them to ship to me here. anyone have any advice on where to get the best deal from here? i have an HP Pavilion and would love to upgrade to the newest version.

I very strongly recommend to buy locally because something will break and you will have to return it in which case it's very good to have a service center around - you dont want to deal with international warranty. Many companies have limitations WRT international traveller's warranty. One exception I know of is Apple, they will fix anything in any authorized dealer.

Top end models will usually come with a genuine XP install

Don't go to Pantip (BKK), go to any of the other IT malls.

A lot of companies have websites with the recommended prices for Thailand

http://www.acer.co.th

http://welcome.hp.com/country/th/en/welcome.html

http://www-8.ibm.com/lenovoinfo/th/noteboo...kpad/index.html

The new MacBook Pro is also very good but it sounds like you want a Windows PC. The MBP can do Windows but it's not officially supported

HP is fine too, I am sure you can order any top end model from any HP dealer. They just usually don't have them on the show floor as they don't sell them in numbers.