Best Prices On A Laptop

[luther]

Pantip Plaza?

Siam TV?

Airport Mall?

Shops near Chang Puak Gate?

Normally, I buy stuff out of country, but a retired friend would like to buy a laptop in the next few weeks.

[nattydread]

Tesco is worth checking out too.........was in there the other day and they were selling a 10" Acer netbook for 7200 baht

when u buy a computer in thailand it comes with a copy of xp installed............i have a genuine windows xp home disc unused with license code for one computer that i brought from UK but dont need it now i paid £30 for it off ebay so if u want it i will take 1500 baht which is cheaper than u can buy in thailand

[mallmagician]

XP, is that the operating system that was before Vista, windows 7 and the new Windows 8 soon? I was recently offered a whole PC with genuine XP installed for the same price. Best of luck with your sale.

Tesco is worth checking out too.........was in there the other day and they were selling a 10" Acer netbook for 7200 baht

when u buy a computer in thailand it comes with a copy of xp installed............i have a genuine windows xp home disc unused with license code for one computer that i brought from UK but dont need it now i paid £30 for it off ebay so if u want it i will take 1500 baht which is cheaper than u can buy in thailand

[WinnieTheKhwai]

I would avoid Tesco. But both Pantip and Siam TV are worth checking out.

[Semper]

10" Acer netbook for 7200 baht

Did it came with a magnifying glass?

[smiling mantis]

Got a Lenovo S205 for ~12000B at the Lenovo store in Airport Plaza, only to have to return it on account of a bad keyboard. Only replacement unit available was a lower-end model, which I angrily accepted (they through in a free USB CD drive, what the hell).

Then I go to IT City and see the model I originally purchased for 500B less.

A great netbook for the price. HDMI out. 1366x720 display. SATA 2 (I bought a fast SSD for it and it's marvelous). Can put up to 8GB 1333MHz DDR3 in there too. Bluetooth and Wifi, good keyboard. Comes with FreeDOS but you can put the latest Ubuntu on there and it's really very nice.

Just don't buy it from Lenovo. Gave me all kinds of crap when I brought the first unit back the next day.

[thaimiller]

Tesco is worth checking out too.........was in there the other day and they were selling a 10" Acer netbook for 7200 baht

when u buy a computer in thailand it comes with a copy of xp installed............i have a genuine windows xp home disc unused with license code for one computer that i brought from UK but dont need it now i paid £30 for it off ebay so if u want it i will take 1500 baht which is cheaper than u can buy in thailand

why would anyone choose to buy XP now? The last two decent laptops I bought had windows seven original home edition already installed. Even the cheap one I bought had a knocked off version on it. XP it very dated now.

[CPT]

For higher end laptops, it seems best to import them. I saved about 33% (after taxes and shipping) by haveing my last laptop (Thinkpad) purchase shipped from China to the East coast of the US then to Thailand. It seems the prices here are more competitive for lower end machines but more expensive ones require a bit of ingenuity to avoid paying crazy prices.

Edit: don't buy the earlier posters XP copy or any computer with it. It has been off the market for two years.

Edited March 16, 2012 by CPT

[amexpat]

Imports won't have a Thai/English keyboard, if that matters to you.

[nattydread]

Tesco is worth checking out too.........was in there the other day and they were selling a 10" Acer netbook for 7200 baht

when u buy a computer in thailand it comes with a copy of xp installed............i have a genuine windows xp home disc unused with license code for one computer that i brought from UK but dont need it now i paid £30 for it off ebay so if u want it i will take 1500 baht which is cheaper than u can buy in thailand

why would anyone choose to buy XP now? The last two decent laptops I bought had windows seven original home edition already installed. Even the cheap one I bought had a knocked off version on it. XP it very dated now.

a lot of people are happy using XP as it is what they are used to...........vista was an awful opearting system in my opinion.and windows 7 is still quite new and am sure i saw it in the Airport Plaza for 5000 baht for the genuine item with a license....i am not trying to sell the xp to the poster,more doing him a favour at that price.........if i really wanted to sell it it would be on all the free classifieds websites today

[Mestizo]

Tesco is worth checking out too.........was in there the other day and they were selling a 10" Acer netbook for 7200 baht

when u buy a computer in thailand it comes with a copy of xp installed............i have a genuine windows xp home disc unused with license code for one computer that i brought from UK but dont need it now i paid £30 for it off ebay so if u want it i will take 1500 baht which is cheaper than u can buy in thailand

why would anyone choose to buy XP now? The last two decent laptops I bought had windows seven original home edition already installed. Even the cheap one I bought had a knocked off version on it. XP it very dated now.

a lot of people are happy using XP as it is what they are used to...........vista was an awful opearting system in my opinion.and windows 7 is still quite new and am sure i saw it in the Airport Plaza for 5000 baht for the genuine item with a license....i am not trying to sell the xp to the poster,more doing him a favour at that price.........if i really wanted to sell it it would be on all the free classifieds websites today

Windows 7 is still quite new? It was released mid 2009. This is 2012. Do the math.

Windows XP was released way back in 2001 and Microsoft ended mainstream support for XP back in 2009.

Pawning off an old, antiquated and mostly unsupported operating system at ANY price is not doing anybody any favors.

-Mestizo

Edited March 16, 2012 by Mestizo

[Mestizo]

Imports won't have a Thai/English keyboard, if that matters to you.

Excellent point. Even if it doesn't matter to the buyer now, it probably will when it comes time to resell on the Thai market.

Also worth pointing out that they actually make transparent stickers to place on each key of keyboard.

http://www.amazon.com/Keyboard-Stickers-Transparent-Lettering-Computer/dp/B002EX5F60

We've gone that route before and found that the stickers were actually quite durable. Lasting about a year to year and a half under very heavy usage.

-Mestizo

[WinnieTheKhwai]

Windows 7 is still quite new? It was released mid 2009. This is 2012. Do the math.

'quite' new, not 'brand new'.

And the most recent update (Service Pack 1) was released Feb 9 2011, just about one year ago.

I agree XP has had its day. Does have a place on older hardware or VMs still, even though running as a restricted user is a bit of a pain. That's much smoother in Win 7.

Another thing you could do is run the Windows 8 Consumer Preview.. that'll be completely free to use for close to a year.

[threedot]

Now now, bickering about which of MS' operating systems is better is like bickering about which breed of dog's turd smells better.

Go and get a free linux distro instead. Linux Mint is nice for newbies.

As for cheap laptops, if you are after a budget machine then SiamTV is as good as any, unless you're willing to save a few 100b haggling with the small shops.

For high end machines, you're better off buying from BKK or better still, abroad.

[Lizard2010]

I think Mestizo and others are just being honest.

Most people want the latest operation system.

Some people still like Windows XP, and that is there prerogative.

[Mestizo]

most of thailand is using xp

Have you personally checked the operating systems of most computers in Thailand???

That is a completely false statement. As somebody who has spent the last 4+ years heavily involved in the Thai IT industry, interfacing with organizations across the country, I can tell you that the use of XP these days is very few and far between. Saying "most of Thailand is using XP", is simply not true.

-Mestizo

[nattydread]

most of thailand is using xp

Have you personally checked the operating systems of most computers in Thailand???

That is a completely false statement. As somebody who has spent the last 4+ years heavily involved in the Thai IT industry, interfacing with organizations across the country, I can tell you that the use of XP these days is very few and far between. Saying "most of Thailand is using XP", is simply not true.

-Mestizo

when i said most of thailand i meant home pc users

i beleve a lot of companies stick with xp because it works........granted u computer boffins have to have the latest in software or u all call each other luddites but if the op goes and spends say 12k baht on a computer for emails and a bit of surfing the net (which is 90% of users) the computer will come with a copy version of xp..........windows 7 costs 5k baht thus bumping the purchase cost up to 17k baht.windows xp is perfectly adequate for the above and most people dont really need the bells and whistles and "cool" interfaces that windows 7 has

i personally prefer the layout that xp has and bought the spare xp OS to put on my new Acer which came with Windows 7 unfortunatly Acer does not provide drivers for xp for that model

like i said earlier i dont give a toss whether anybody wants to buy it in fact i will probably end up putting it on a netbook

using XP right now on another laptop and its working just fine

[uptheos]

Tesco is worth checking out too.........was in there the other day and they were selling a 10" Acer netbook for 7200 baht

when u buy a computer in thailand it comes with a copy of xp installed............i have a genuine windows xp home disc unused with license code for one computer that i brought from UK but dont need it now i paid £30 for it off ebay so if u want it i will take 1500 baht which is cheaper than u can buy in thailand

why would anyone choose to buy XP now? The last two decent laptops I bought had windows seven original home edition already installed. Even the cheap one I bought had a knocked off version on it. XP it very dated now.

Does that mean my Windows 98 is very dated too?

[Mestizo]

most of thailand is using xp

Have you personally checked the operating systems of most computers in Thailand???

That is a completely false statement. As somebody who has spent the last 4+ years heavily involved in the Thai IT industry, interfacing with organizations across the country, I can tell you that the use of XP these days is very few and far between. Saying "most of Thailand is using XP", is simply not true.

-Mestizo

when i said most of thailand i meant home pc users

i beleve a lot of companies stick with xp because it works........granted u computer boffins have to have the latest in software or u all call each other luddites but if the op goes and spends say 12k baht on a computer for emails and a bit of surfing the net (which is 90% of users) the computer will come with a copy version of xp..........windows 7 costs 5k baht thus bumping the purchase cost up to 17k baht.windows xp is perfectly adequate for the above and most people dont really need the bells and whistles and "cool" interfaces that windows 7 has

i personally prefer the layout that xp has and bought the spare xp OS to put on my new Acer which came with Windows 7 unfortunatly Acer does not provide drivers for xp for that model

like i said earlier i dont give a toss whether anybody wants to buy it in fact i will probably end up putting it on a netbook

using XP right now on another laptop and its working just fine

We've bought 2 netbooks for home personal usage in the past 2-3 years in Chiang Mai. One Acer and one Dell. *BOTH* came with Windows 7 home.

Where did your 90% figure come from?

I stand by my original assessment. Regardless of your fabricated statistics and your gross over generalizations, your statements are simply not true.

-Mestizo

[nattydread]

most of thailand is using xp

Have you personally checked the operating systems of most computers in Thailand???

That is a completely false statement. As somebody who has spent the last 4+ years heavily involved in the Thai IT industry, interfacing with organizations across the country, I can tell you that the use of XP these days is very few and far between. Saying "most of Thailand is using XP", is simply not true.

-Mestizo

when i said most of thailand i meant home pc users

i beleve a lot of companies stick with xp because it works........granted u computer boffins have to have the latest in software or u all call each other luddites but if the op goes and spends say 12k baht on a computer for emails and a bit of surfing the net (which is 90% of users) the computer will come with a copy version of xp..........windows 7 costs 5k baht thus bumping the purchase cost up to 17k baht.windows xp is perfectly adequate for the above and most people dont really need the bells and whistles and "cool" interfaces that windows 7 has

i personally prefer the layout that xp has and bought the spare xp OS to put on my new Acer which came with Windows 7 unfortunatly Acer does not provide drivers for xp for that model

like i said earlier i dont give a toss whether anybody wants to buy it in fact i will probably end up putting it on a netbook

using XP right now on another laptop and its working just fine

We've bought 2 netbooks for home personal usage in the past 2-3 years in Chiang Mai. One Acer and one Dell. *BOTH* came with Windows 7 home.

Where did your 90% figure come from?

I stand by my original assessment. Regardless of your fabricated statistics and your gross over generalizations, your statements are simply not true.

-Mestizo

and how much were these netbooks and was the Windows 7 OS a genuine copy

[Awk]

For higher end laptops, it seems best to import them. I saved about 33% (after taxes and shipping) by haveing my last laptop (Thinkpad) purchase shipped from China to the East coast of the US then to Thailand. It seems the prices here are more competitive for lower end machines but more expensive ones require a bit of ingenuity to avoid paying crazy prices.

One interesting note in this regard is that Thailand for some reason does not add anything other than the 7%

sales tax on laptops. Tested and tried, but do for your own sake make sure the package is very clearly labeled "LAPTOP".

[MESmith]

I use XP. Wont change until my computer fai

[thaimiller]

I use XP. Wont change until my computer fai

so after that comment, I take it you'll be changing soon

[JimShortz]

To answer the OP's question... You should check out all of the plazas in your hunt for the best deal. I recently bought a Lenovo laptop from a shop in Pantip Plaza (go in through the main door and turn left; first shop on your left down the "alley" - very helpful, good English and great price). Before buying it, however, I checked out all three plazas at the NW corner of the moat and I recommend you do the same - offers change frequently...

I got a Lenovo G570 for 18,500 Baht. A bargain in my opinion, with an i5 processor, 4GB Ram, 640GB drive, 15.6" screen, but no operating system. Had I known I would have bought the XP on offer, lol. As it is I chose not to buy an operating system and installed Windows 7 on mine (I will take the fifth amendment on how I procured it, but rest assured mine fully updates with no "nag" screen or issues at all... simple really. PM me if you need advice on procuring Windows 7, legally of course...)

[WinnieTheKhwai]

We've bought 2 netbooks for home personal usage in the past 2-3 years in Chiang Mai. One Acer and one Dell. *BOTH* came with Windows 7 home.

Almost all new computers come with Win 7 and *should* come with Win 7. Note that this may be a bare bones version like Windows 7 Starter, which Microsoft makes available for 'emerging markets' like Thailand. In the Thai consumer market, many also come without any OS (saving that expense) and allowing people to install whatever they fancy.

In terms of what is currently out there in Thailand, the picture is less clear. Note that *globally* (which, for computer related stuff means mostly the North American and European markets), Windows 7 only overtook XP in October 2011.

For other parts of the world there is less reliable data. In China, XP is still used much more than Win 7. (Possibly Thailand would be closer to China in terms of OS usage than North America, but again anyone's guess)

http://www.zdnet.com...rtakes-xp/15435

Again though, to the OP, for new hardware there is no good reason to run XP; support (which means fixes and security updates) will end soon, and XP encourages people to run with full Admin privileges all the time; running restricted (like you should), while supported, is much less convenient than in Win 7.

Edited March 17, 2012 by WinnieTheKhwai

[WinnieTheKhwai]

Now now, bickering about which of MS' operating systems is better is like bickering about which breed of dog's turd smells better.

And yet you need it if you want/need to run stuff like MS Office, most games, etc. First and foremost in the real world, an OS is something that runs software. It's not a beauty pageant.

[BlackArtemis]

I have enjoyed 7, glad I upgraded (student cost was $30). I don't know how I feel about 8 yet. I have it running on another laptop and I am not liking the missing start bar.

[WinnieTheKhwai]

I have enjoyed 7, glad I upgraded (student cost was $30). I don't know how I feel about 8 yet. I have it running on another laptop and I am not liking the missing start bar.

It's not that big a transition for me to be honest, even with the Windows 7 Start Menu I mostly started things by hitting the Windows Key (opening the start menu) and typing the first two-three characters of whatever I wanted to open, then hitting Enter. That still works in 8.

And Linux is moving that way too; Ubuntu is going the same way: Hit Windows key, type. (Or select from the screen that comes up). Ubuntu 12.04 (out next month) is looking really nice; there's a beta release out for that as well.

Alternatively, create a folder on the desktop, maybe call it 'Program Manager' for old time's sake, and make shortcuts in there to all of your programs... Should end up with somthing like this:

Edited March 18, 2012 by WinnieTheKhwai

[worgeordie]

Makro are offering a Lenovo 14inch LED AMD processor,2GB mem

320gb HDD, wifi webeb cam, for 9.900 bht

that should be good enough for all normal uses,

regards Worgeordie

[BlackArtemis]

I have enjoyed 7, glad I upgraded (student cost was $30). I don't know how I feel about 8 yet. I have it running on another laptop and I am not liking the missing start bar.

It's not that big a transition for me to be honest, even with the Windows 7 Start Menu I mostly started things by hitting the Windows Key (opening the start menu) and typing the first two-three characters of whatever I wanted to open, then hitting Enter. That still works in 8.

And Linux is moving that way too; Ubuntu is going the same way: Hit Windows key, type. (Or select from the screen that comes up). Ubuntu 12.04 (out next month) is looking really nice; there's a beta release out for that as well.

Alternatively, create a folder on the desktop, maybe call it 'Program Manager' for old time's sake, and make shortcuts in there to all of your programs... Should end up with somthing like this:

It's more of a minor annoyance. If I only had to work in one OS it would be fine. But as my main system is 7, every time I mess around with 8 it is a bit of a hassle. In two years time I won't even notice. (That is if I make the switch. Just bought a new lappy, it will get 7 put on it and this one will go back to Vista when I sell it, unless someone pays me extra to keep it on it.) I miss the $30 Win7 deals, now it's $64

Edited March 18, 2012 by BlackArtemis