Hi,

Quick question - I'm looking at buy the wife one of the new Apple Macbook Pros with a Thai Keyboard. I live outside Canada/UK/US/Thailand, and calling Apple resulted in oh you'll have to buy it from Apple in Thailand yada yada yada.. they are not available here.

So, are the new Macbook Pros available in Thailand? If so, what are they going for? I can get the higher end 2 ghz model, on the US site for $2499? We are both travelling in a month.. I'm not sure whether to wait and buy one there for her, or just make her use a US keyboard?

Sean

I'm not sure of the availability but, judging on the other Mac hardware pricing, the MBP will be / is more expensive in Thailand. You can always use an external USB keyboard.

The easiest way with the keyboard itself is to buy a standard model, and order a replacement keyboard at an apple store near you. The Genius Bar can swap it for you. (The iBook has a user-replaceable keyboard, not sure if the macBooks have that or not.)

If there aren't any apple stores near you, try your luck with a small-box Apple retailer, they should be able to do the same thing.

What I am not sure about is if you will be missing any Thai OS components if you go this route- being able to show all the screen info and help in Thai.

I've seen new MacBook Pro sold at Mac Studio J-Avenue branch (Suk. Thonglor) last week.

And here's the price at Mac Studio (excludes VAT).

1.83Ghz 84,900 Baht

2Ghz 104,900 Baht

I doubt if the Thai keyboard is available outside Thailand.

There are sets of stickers available to convert any keyboard to Thai,

or even other exotic languages.

If you put stickers over the keyboard you would loose the backlighting. It is possible to get replacement keyboards in any language (seen it for previous macs, not sure if it was original Apple product or third party), but I can't find the site now.

It took me a long second to warm up to it- but I sure like the idea of swapping out the keyboards. However, I am not sure it would be possible with the new MacBook Pro's.

I was in the J-Avenue's sister store in Siam Discovery this evening and was told the Pro model comes ONLY with an English only keyboard in Thailand. I bought a G4 PB from them <6 months ago and this too is English only. Seems like a Thai alphabet external keyboard would be a best solution then.

Prices were as follows:

1.83GHz / 512MB RAM / 80GB for Bt 84,900

and

2GHz / 1GB RAM / 100GB for Bt 104,900

Edited April 24, 200620 yr by GoodHeart

Now you can also go for the new monsterous 17" version! Prices in the US are the same as the 15" with 2.16 GHz.