Laptop Prices

[madmax]

I'm picking up a laptop from the US for a friend of mine in SL. I'de like to know if it is cheaper here as most people expect or is it actually cheaper to buy it from SL.

Here are the specs.

Dell - Inspiron Laptop with Intel® Core™ i3 Processor

* Intel® Core™ i3-330M processor

Features a 3MB cache and 2.13GHz processor speed.

* 4GB DDR3 SDRAM

* Multiformat DVD±RW/CD-RW drive

* 15.6" glossy WLED high-definition widescreen display

* 320GB Serial ATA hard drive (5400 rpm)

* Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator HD

* Built-in 1.3MP webcam

* 7-in-1 media reader

* 3 high-speed USB 2.0 ports

* Built-in Dell 1397 wireless LAN (802.11b/g)

* Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium Edition 64-bit operating system preinstalled

Edited June 10, 2010 by madmax

[Watchman]

may i recommend against the current inspiron series... I'm a die-hard Dell fan, and have been recommending it to friends.

But for some reason they are really slow. A friend of mine bought the exact model you mentioned (SGD 999.00) and its even slower than my 4 year old Dell Inspiron 6400... Its not just the i3... another friend has a i5 and thats just as bad... i guess it just isnt the time for Dell right now...

[ThilakR]

  madmax said:

I'm picking up a laptop from the US for a friend of mine in SL. I'de like to know if it is cheaper here as most people expect or is it actually cheaper to buy it from SL.

Here are the specs.

Dell - Inspiron Laptop with Intel® Core™ i3 Processor

* Intel® Core™ i3-330M processor

Features a 3MB cache and 2.13GHz processor speed.

* 4GB DDR3 SDRAM

* Multiformat DVD±RW/CD-RW drive

* 15.6" glossy WLED high-definition widescreen display

* 320GB Serial ATA hard drive (5400 rpm)

* Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator HD

* Built-in 1.3MP webcam

* 7-in-1 media reader

* 3 high-speed USB 2.0 ports

* Built-in Dell 1397 wireless LAN (802.11b/g)

* Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium Edition 64-bit operating system preinstalled

Hi

I recently bought HP Probook 4520s with Intel® Core i3 processor

2GB memory, with 320GB with almost all the features you mentioned with Face recogniton features for Rs.105,000.00

I think it is a good price with local warranty.

Best

Thilak

Edited June 10, 2010 by ThilakR

[Pericles]

These HP Probooks are the new model showing up at office too.

[kalana]

now u can buy a core i3 for nearly rs 75000.00.. my friend bought a acer core i3 and it had 3gig DDr3 ram,320gb 5400rpm hitashi hard drive.. and all other things u mentioned(including fingerprint scanner)

[madmax]

  Dilesh said:

may i recommend against the current inspiron series... I'm a die-hard Dell fan, and have been recommending it to friends.

But for some reason they are really slow. A friend of mine bought the exact model you mentioned (SGD 999.00) and its even slower than my 4 year old Dell Inspiron 6400... Its not just the i3... another friend has a i5 and thats just as bad... i guess it just isnt the time for Dell right now...

Dell is doing pretty well infact - http://money.cnn.com/2010/05/20/technology/Dell/index.htm. The gain is mostly from the business systems, but consumer sales business is up by 16% as well.

I don't think its anything to do with it being a specific model or brand or the processor for that matter. Here in the US, most Dell and HP laptops comes loaded with 'bloatware' or trial versions of many third party programs and other Dell or HP specific apps. These trial versions are a method of advertising, and helps keep the laptop prices down by offsetting part of the cost to third party companies to include their software on the laptops.

I always clean up a laptop as soon as I buy it and get rid of any programs I don't need, or else simply removing them from the start up routine. Just look and the number of icons indicating the TSRs on a newly bought laptop....

Edited June 10, 2010 by madmax

[madmax]

  royalkalana said:

now u can buy a core i3 for nearly rs 75000.00.. my friend bought a acer core i3 and it had 3gig DDr3 ram,320gb 5400rpm hitashi hard drive.. and all other things u mentioned(including fingerprint scanner)

What about a same spec Dell or HP? Acer is priced comparatively lower in the US.

[madmax]

  Pericles said:

These HP Probooks are the new model showing up at office too.

The Probooks series is a business laptop.

[lasi]

  madmax said:

I'm picking up a laptop from the US for a friend of mine in SL. I'de like to know if it is cheaper here as most people expect or is it actually cheaper to buy it from SL.

Here are the specs.

Dell - Inspiron Laptop with Intel® Core™ i3 Processor

* Intel® Core™ i3-330M processor

Features a 3MB cache and 2.13GHz processor speed.

* 4GB DDR3 SDRAM

* Multiformat DVD±RW/CD-RW drive

* 15.6" glossy WLED high-definition widescreen display

* 320GB Serial ATA hard drive (5400 rpm)

* Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator HD

* Built-in 1.3MP webcam

* 7-in-1 media reader

* 3 high-speed USB 2.0 ports

* Built-in Dell 1397 wireless LAN (802.11b/g)

* Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium Edition 64-bit operating system preinstalled

If you are refering to Dell Inspiron 1564 with Core i3, it is 85,000 in SL with DOS

[NPP]

  royalkalana said:

now u can buy a core i3 for nearly rs 75000.00.. my friend bought a acer core i3 and it had 3gig DDr3 ram,320gb 5400rpm hitashi hard drive.. and all other things u mentioned(including fingerprint scanner)

the core i3 one 5740 if im ryt is 99,000 with linux

[Pericles]

  madmax said:

The Probooks series is a business laptop.

Then it makes sense that they are giving it to the office people, nuh?

[shanX]

If you have a contact in US, HP Home & Office, throws out coupons with huge discounts, get it shipped to the US address, cud save loads of $$$

That's what I did. And also got a Linksys WRT54G2 for $30 with the same deal.

[SeanD]

Tell your friend to get the warranty transferred to Sri Lanka if he is based there. Though frankly I wouldn't touch Dell with a 10 foot pole, coming from a workplace that is all Dell machines and having owned 3 laptops none of which lasted more than 1.5 years without a major warranty repair. One of them had their motherboard crap out on me for no reason as soon as I landed, softlogic (Lankan Dell agent) quoted me 75,000 for the repair at the time (4 years ago) and said if I transfer the warranty to SL then they can do it under warranty for free. However, the transfer takes a couple of months, and it was more worth my while just to get another Dell (which also lasted exactly 1.5 years before the video card died). The third Dell (the reason I get these is cos I can get them at Enterprise cost as I work in a Dell powered university) has held up for about a year, though has needed warranty repair once in that time. Dell's warranty service is excellent though (they send a part and technician to fix it if your company doesn't have Dell certified technicians, or in my case, send the part to the onsite technician) the very next day. I'm not sure any other manufacturer is known for that speed of service. It could also be just my bad luck, cos there are just as many Dell machines that hold up to many years of use (I won't say abuse, as I am a very light user).

However, if your friend is going to use it in SL then he'll need to get something which has an SL agent who can perform warranty repairs for peace of mind. So I guess Dell, or HP (which also has an agent). I think Toshiba's and Asus are more reliable these days, but I'm not sure if there are agents in SL. Pricewise I don't think US prices can be beaten.

Here's a little 3-year survey of laptop service history: http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/17/laptop-...a-win-hp-fails/

Edited June 11, 2010 by SeanD

[kumudug]

  Dilesh said:

may i recommend against the current inspiron series... I'm a die-hard Dell fan, and have been recommending it to friends.

But for some reason they are really slow. A friend of mine bought the exact model you mentioned (SGD 999.00) and its even slower than my 4 year old Dell Inspiron 6400... Its not just the i3... another friend has a i5 and thats just as bad... i guess it just isnt the time for Dell right now...

I have to disagree with you here. I baught an inspiron 1464 from singapore about a month back and its really impressive except for the battery.

Edited June 11, 2010 by kumudug

[Watchman]

  kumudug said:

I have to disagree with you here. I baught an inspiron 1464 from singapore about a month back and its really impressive except for the battery.

strange... thats the exact model my friend has.. and its quite the opposite on hers... freakishly slow computer, but amazing battery life.

Must try what madmax said and ask her to remove the trial S/W and junk.

[kumudug]

  Dilesh said:

strange... thats the exact model my friend has.. and its quite the opposite on hers... freakishly slow computer, but amazing battery life.

Must try what madmax said and ask her to remove the trial S/W and junk.

The slowness is probably due to the S/W junk. Mine is with 4G of memory corei5 version.

Well my battery lasts max for about 2.5 - 3 hours that's why I said the battery is a bit disappointing cause if this is the time I get from the brand new battery its gonna go down to like 1.5 in one years time.

Trust me this thing is pretty fast. I even don't feel the painful slowness of the new vs2010 when working on this.

[Pericles]

You boys might also wanna consider the OS. Win 7 is supposed the be better for your battery life

[Watchman]

  kumudug said:

The slowness is probably due to the S/W junk. Mine is with 4G of memory corei5 version.

Well my battery lasts max for about 2.5 - 3 hours that's why I said the battery is a bit disappointing cause if this is the time I get from the brand new battery its gonna go down to like 1.5 in one years time.

Trust me this thing is pretty fast. I even don't feel the painful slowness of the new vs2010 when working on this.

at this one is an i3 with 3GB... i guess that explains it... and i presume the slower processor consumes less power too..

Though my other friend has the same specs as you hers isnt that 'fast' either.. its just 'not slow'...

OT: between Windows XP and Windows 7 which consumes less resources? I know win7 takes up less than winVista, but is it less than XP?

[Pericles]

  Dilesh said:

OT: between Windows XP and Windows 7 which consumes less resources? I know win7 takes up less than winVista, but is it less than XP?

I presume it makes more demands on the CPU and memory depending on the edition and the eye candy, but it is supposed to get significantly better battery life from laptops. Than XP.

[kumudug]

  Dilesh said:

at this one is an i3 with 3GB... i guess that explains it... and i presume the slower processor consumes less power too..

Though my other friend has the same specs as you hers isnt that 'fast' either.. its just 'not slow'...

OT: between Windows XP and Windows 7 which consumes less resources? I know win7 takes up less than winVista, but is it less than XP?

I don't know about you but no amount of battery draining or resource taking is gonna get me to go back to xp. Well I haven't used my new laps hardware on xp but my desktop used to be xp and now its Win7. I have to say speed vise its like no difference. I mean for instance if you install vista to a machine that used to run XP you would definitely feel the difference but I have to say I'm not seeing much difference in XP and Win7 in my desktop. Stability vise also Win7 rocks. Haven't given me a single blue screen so far

[Saturn]

  Pericles said:

You boys might also wanna consider the OS. Win 7 is supposed the be better for your battery life

It depends on the PC - laptops tend to be optimized for the OS they are released with - particularly when the laptop uses a custom power management software to enable special modes (beyond hardware stuff) - so a machine that was released for windows Vista and had manufacturer software for power management might do better on vista than on 7 or XP (unless the manufacturer releases updates)..

[ThilakR]

  royalkalana said:

now u can buy a core i3 for nearly rs 75000.00.. my friend bought a acer core i3 and it had 3gig DDr3 ram,320gb 5400rpm hitashi hard drive.. and all other things u mentioned(including fingerprint scanner)

Hi royalkalana,

Could you please give me an idea of the place? I need few more laptops to buy.

Are they with warranty? or just hand carry stuff?

One of my friend bought a laptop from Unity Plaza and his warranty expired just after 3 months as it has already been used.

Thilak

[MkX]

Guys need some info about getting down a laptop here. Do you guys have any idea about Australia prices vs Changi airport duty free prices?

I can get my cousin to buy one from australia and bring here or get him to buy at singapore transit. what would be better?

Also, are there any known websites with virtual shops for changi airport.

[MrCat]

Generally computers are not cheap as in Singapore over here. But Changi is not so cheap either since you only get access to a very limited number of shops.

If your cousin has got enough time, best bet would be to get him/her to hunt for some deals at reputed electronics sellers. Some electronics giants do good deals when they want to move stock.

I would send the specs/requirements/budget and then get the person to keep an eye out for a deal. Ebay.com.au is quite good as well, for example this week’s group deal : http:// groupbuy. ebay. com. Au /

P.S. Aussy dollar`s exchange rate could be a disadvantage for you though.

Edited May 30, 2012 by MrCat

[Watchman]

Shops in S'pore sell laptops at prices which are only a tiny bit cheaper than Sri Lanka. But prices in Changi (not that i have seen any laptop shops there) are generally higher (not quite 'duty free').

I would rather pay a tiny bit more and buy it in SL and save me the potential hassle of shipping it back to s'pore or Aus to claim warranty

Edited May 30, 2012 by Watchman