Buying A Laptop?

[geeit]

Am looking at buying a laptop.

i am in uk at the momment but will be in krabi in 2 months time.

was wondering how much difference in pirce there is. in uk a Dell Inspiron 5150

Intel Pentium 4 Processor 3.06GHz, 15' UXGA (1024*768) Screen, 256MB DDR SDRAM, 40GB HD, DVDRW. costs around £950 or 65,000 baht.

How much would a similar computer cost if i bought it in thailand?

also are there any other complication involved?

[terdsak_12]

You'd pay around the same for a good name brand here, maybe even more.

[geeit]

are you aware of any compatablility problems bringing a uk computer over to thailand?

Will there be a problems with the power supply, as i am aware that different countries use different power packs.

Any other

Cheers

Geeit

[wuggiman]

you will find no probs with compatability on that ide. only way you ganna save money here on price, is if you find it tax free, anything not produced in Thailand, is more expensive (unless pirate).

if you go to Bangkok you will be able to shop around. but in general there is very little savings to be made on such.

before you do buy, make sure it has same specs as in UK, as even between EU countries such change from place to place.

[penzman]

I was shopping for a digital cam a while ago and they were cheaper here in Canada, same goes for most electronic toys.....

[wuggiman]

not sure about US and Canadien prices, only know European, heard that they are cheaper there, Uk tends to be one of the cheapest in Europe for most IT hardware.

personally i make such purchases when on visa run.

[geeit]

Looks like i'll be buying on here then.

Cheers

Geeit

[bluebear]

Get all the info from the Uk folk before you come out, go to Pantip and compare. If its cheaper here, buy it. if not wait until you go home ( and then the price will have probably dropped anyway )

Somethings to consider;

The mains lead will have a Thai plug,

The keyboard will be Thai / english ie slightly different layout than a UK english one

Some warranties will NOT be international. As soon as it goes out the country the dealer might charge you the full cost for any repairs.

[geeit]

is that pantip.com?

[Guest IT Manager]

Sorry to rain on the parade, but if you are going Name Brand, the prices are as close as is possible, given the prevailing tax issues., whether you buy here or there.

In Thailand, DELL notebooks are sent to Malaysia for service.

Compaq are serviced in country.

HP likewise.

Warranty for both is International.

Toshiba are serviced rather off-handedly by the in-country dealer. As a result I won't touch them, even though I like them.

Depending on your budget, which you didn't mention, you may think about the new Sony Vaio series (LR). Sweet machine, and good for 4 years in my opinion.

If you aren't a person who likes to be among the first, go Compaq/HP. Have a look at the prices on the companies websites for Thailand and/or Singapore. Prices will not very hugely over the next 8 weeks.

[drbones666]

Dell sucks wind like any win-doze box. Can you say Blue-Screen-Of-Death? I knew you could.

You can find the best of the best at any Apple Centre.

[lost_in_space]

######,

what do you trink of acer laptops? i see they have an office in pantip. do you think this means anything? like maybe they take the market here seriously and plan to back up their products. i'm interestedt in buying a laptop from an outfit that'll service it responsibly. sony's a little out of my price range.

[randyksf]

Some facts.. Not fiction as some people have posted.

Power

Fist of all 90% of all laptops have dual voltage power supplies 110 and 220. As to the plugs that is a cheep fix you can get a different cord that goes from the wall to the adapter or just get a 50 baht converter.

Just have to check each unit to confirm this.

Cost

I know for a fact that laptops here are 20 – 30% higher in the states. Not sure about the UK. Compare with www.bestbuy.com or www.circuitcity.com for pricing. For example the Toshiba 17” wide goes for 110,000 baht and in the states I paid 76,000 baht. Other models confirmed this.

Compaq

Compaq is a good laptop and I know their price point is really good. I saw a good unit last September for 800 USD.

Would have bought one but they only had a 15” wide screen, I wanted a 17” screen.

Warranty

Verify that it has an international warranty. Good laptops have a 3 year junking ones have a 1 year. Just remember the screed costs a much as the laptop to replace.

Brands

Everyone has there favorites. Find a unit you like and test it out. Just get over 256 ram. The rest is up to you.

If you go to http://reviews.cnet.com/2001-1_7-0.html?tag=hd.ts This is Cnet.com product review page. Also consumerreports.com is a good place too.

A trick you and do that works great. Is go to a story the folks are on commission, and ask them what unit they have the leas returns on.

I would buy one my home country, you can return it if you take it home and don’t like it. Also you can ask questions and get real answers.

Personally I have three laptops two IBM and one Toshiba. Love the Toshiba IBM is good they have a service center here but they are real idiots there.

Drbones666

Have know Idea what you are talking about? We have a G4 1.33Mhz 17” and a Toshiba 17” both purchased at the same time. The Apple has had to be reloaded 2 times. The Toshiba is going fine. Also I can buy two Intel based units for the price of one apple.

I also thinks it funny my partner has to use my system to make Thai website with Adobe and Macromedia.

[geeit]

not so lucky to have even one laptop let alone 3.

i dont know about acers warrenty in thailand, but i used one for 2 years at work and it was reliable if not the forefornt of technology.

seems like uk is cheaper, and just hope that it desnt go wrong. Im sure there is someone in thalnd who is qualified to fix laptops?

Cheers

Gareth

[kookaburra58]

Anyone know where you can get second hand laptops in Thailand?...is it worth it?

Kook

[randyksf]

Fist sorry didn't mean to sound like I was bragging. got two of them from my old company as it was being closed down for a great price. I use them to keep my geek skills up.

The UK would be the best place but I have also heard that Hong Kong on Sing you can get great prices on electronics.

As to a used laptop. Pantip sells a lot of them but I would trust the vendor at Patpong as much as I trust them. However if you can find a laptop with a manufactures warranty left on it. The you should be fine. Fist write down the ser # and all other numbers and call the Manufacture to verify it.

[Noodles]

I bought a compaq presario 2545ap around 5 months ago.

It was advertised in the BKK post and was sent from Singapore.

It cost me 57,000 Bht tax included. I spoke to a friend in the uk at the time,

and he said over there they were 200 pounds more.

I've not had any problems with it so far, only one problem is the weight.

GO COMPAQ/HP