Hi all

I am moving to Kunming in about a month from now, and want to know if I should purchase a new laptop in Australia and take it with me or get one over there. I can get an Asus A3FH (Celeron 1.6, 512 MB RAM, 60 GB HDD, DVD burner, 15 inch TFT) for about $AUD1000, and wanted equivalent prices for a similar cheapish laptop over there.

Any help is appreciated!
Thanks in advance,

Hamish

How much is $AUD1000?

You can def. find cheap laptops here in China (700-1000 USD) but I would hesitate to buy here for a few reasons:

1. language. the program software is going to be in Chinese, which means you'll have to track down an english version of windows, install it, get new versions of all your programs, etc etc. At minimum, its a lot of screwing around. At worst, you'll have some things that are always in Chinese. This might not be a problem for you, but it will be for your friends or computer repair shop back home.

2. And about those repairs: even if you buy an international brand over here, you're probably going to have a hard time getting the documentation needed for warantee. Not to mention all the forms are in Chinese. The place you buy from might tell you they will fix it free for X period of time but then you go back and they have "never seen you before."

In my experience, crap Chinese brands are cheaper but international brands of electronics are generally more expensive over here anyway.

Does someone know of an electronics/computer store that they trust? I usually go with 国美 (Gome, for some reason, in English) for the big-ticket stuff.

Hi bongzilla

$AUD1000 is about CNY/RMB 6000.

Hope this helps

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Hi geteven

Sounds like I might be better off getting it here then and taking it with me. I can get an Asus laptop here with two years international warranty, which should cover me over there too.

Thanks for the assistance. I am looking forward to getting there! :-)

Hamish