Hi all,
I’ll be travelling to Taiwan in for about 4 months time, and am interested in using a laptop while I’m there. I’m torn between buying a laptop here in Canada before I go, or in Taipei once I arrive.
I’ve heard that in Taipei you can get cheaper machines, but that you’re on your own in the break (whereas buying them in North America offers some protection if it breaks).
Do people here have any suggestions as to where I should buy?
Thanks,
John
Apple and Dell protect you wherever you are. Dunno about the others. Buy machine here and get lots of free software bundled, which saves heaps right there.
I’d say wait. Bolster the Taiwan economy instead?
I bought mine here. Donno where you’re from, but laptops are far more cheaper here than in my home country. I can get a much better machine for the same amount of money and depending on the brand, the service is good too…Just make sure, that they have a local office at your place…
I bought mine here. Donno where you’re from, but laptops are far more cheaper here than in my home country. I can get a much better machine for the same amount of money and depending on the brand, the service is good too…Just make sure, that they have a local office in your home country.
[quote=“champaignj”]Hi all,
I’ll be travelling to Taiwan in for about 4 months time, and am interested in using a laptop while I’m there. I’m torn between buying a laptop here in Canada before I go, or in Taipei once I arrive.
I’ve heard that in Taipei you can get cheaper machines, but that you’re on your own in the break (whereas buying them in North America offers some protection if it breaks).
Do people here have any suggestions as to where I should buy?
Thanks,
John[/quote]
Buying a notebook in Taiwan? Caveat emptor!
I just went through a similar process. The pundits say IBM, Dell & Toshiba are the best PC notebooks, so that was my starting point.
I paid a deposit for a Toshiba at the last Computex exhibition at the Toshiba stand from a salesperson wearing Toshiba uniform. But when I went to collect it from the “shop”, it turned out to be a bucket shop, and they were unable to provide documentation for the computer’s worldwide warranty. Unless you buy from an appointed agent, you have only a shop warranty, and it’s hard to tell here. Besides, it turns out that the “worldwide” warranty on Toshiba’s is patchy.
Next I looked at IBMs, which have a great reputation for quality. But once again, you need to make absolutely sure you are buying from an appointed agent. It’s not uncommon here to buy a computer from a shop which then magically appears from an altogether different shop, usually someone’s brother, etc… Another consideration is the language of the OS. Most computers are naturally configured with Chinese software, and you may find you have to pay extra for English, or worse they give you an illegal English version. With that, you may be denied software updates and, at worse, it may invalidate your guarantee.
I’ve seen Acers with legal English OS for sale in some quality stores like FNAC, but I’ve heard plenty of negative comments about Acer quality, even though, apparently, they also build Taiwan’s IBMs!
BENQ? I wouldn’t! See what people say about them on the Net, and you certainly won’t get a comprehensive worldwide warranty.
Finally, I got sick of the hassle and went with a Dell. You can customise-order it on their Taiwan website or just call them. From calling to recieving my Dell took just 4 days, even though they build and ship their notebooks in Malaysia. It has a 3 year next-day warranty, which you can transfer to over 90 countries at any time by updating your details on their website.
Lastly, even though the company may have an office in your home country, they may not support your model, as the models sold in different markets vary. Beware! In such cases, you’ll be paying shipping charges for components from Taiwan. If you stay with the big manufacturers, you won’t have this problem.
As Alien says, an Apple or a Dell is a no-hassle buy with good support. Heck mine even has an all-English keyboard without the clutter of Chinese characters and bo po mo fo! 
You get what you pay for!
[quote=“E-clectic”]
As Alien says, an Apple or a Dell is a no-hassle buy with good support. Heck mine even has an all-English keyboard without the clutter of Chinese characters and bo po mo fo!
You get what you pay for![/quote]
I like my Apple with bu pu mu fu keys, but then again, the OSX offers multiple language platforms unlike those PCs where you have to have Chinese OR English Windows OR (insert other languages) installed seperately.
We used Compaq laptops for years in my former company and they were crap, lot’s of problems. Later they changed to IBM and there was way less trouble. Things might have changed though.
Currently I use an Asus laptop at work, no probs since about 2 years (or a bit less). I run WindowsXP Pro and Linux on it.
Very informative, this gives me a bit more info to chew over.
Thanks again,
John
what about buying one off the street I know I am getting a dell or hp one p4 etc etc… all i need it is to last 3 months or so my old one I have now is crap and I am not taking it with me all the way from the united states to Taiwan. also does anyone know any web sites so i can check prices i perfer english sites 
I’ve got an iBook and couldn’t be happier. Whatever you get make sure it’s a name brand with a worldwide warranty. Also, I would suggest that you also buy the extended warranty.
Strongly suggest avoiding the purchase of anything “local.” There are huge differences in quality, service, etc between, for example, Asus’ own-brand stuff and the kit they make for Dell or Apple…
actualy i was looking at some of the asus stuff personaly I could care less about warrentys and things like that. thats why i was considering buying dell or an hp 17 inch laptop off the street but i dont know how much or where to look
I must reply to Alien’s suggestion that only Apples are capable of multilanguage OS operation. Win 2K, Win XP, and Win 2003 all can have this capability bolted on with the MUI (Disc 3 for Traditional Chinese). It works wonderfully, you can have different user accounts set up to use different languages. My wife loves it, and so do I as I no longer have to struggle with reading cryptic chinese when dealing with a configuration problem.
You need to install it on top of the English OS. Officially, it is only available as part of a corporate license, but of course there are various unofficial channels.
I bought a cheapish notebook from Nova, 1 year Taiwan warranty, and the brand name ‘Fox’ on the lid. Never heard of them, but of course the sales girl told me they come from the same factory as Zanussi washing machines or something. I wasn’t really taking much notice, being skeptical of sales people generally, but actually she didn’t try to bullshit me half as much as the guy who sold me my old compaq - and what a piece of crap that turned out to be!
The Fox works fine, and does everything I want. It came with XPpro in English, office, and a few other goodies, but I can’t seem to find the software license. Must have misplaced it, but I still get software updates OK.
Anyway, the fan started squeaking horribly a few weeks ago and I took it back to grumble. (Everyone there spoke adequate English too, btw. ) They wrote me a receipt, and packed it off for repair without any argument. It came back two weeks later apparently all fixed, but there was one thing that pissed me off A LOT.
A new item on my desktop - a folder titled ‘speedy’ containing a couple of pics of some chinese guy picking his nose, a help file, and one other I didn’t look at too closely. I deleted the whole lot without any further ado and ran all my ‘search and destroy’ software. There doesn’t appear to have been anything malicious done, but I’m still pretty bloody unhappy about it.
This small incident aside I’m quite happy with my purchase.
Now this is damn affordable http://www.apple.com.tw/store/ Check out the G4 ibook 
. Now if I didn’t already have a laptop I’d be buying that.
Well, then I need to reply to your comment… 
You said it yourself, did you notice? Yes, multi-language capability is available for Windows, there had even been a multi-lingual version of Win2k. But at what prices? And where to get?
The ordinary Windows installation on any computer you buy is just one language, that’s the standard. If you buy a Mac (any Mac) running OS X however, you will get multi-language out of the box for everyone.
I will be bringing my cd collection with me and fed exing it back so no need for software which is why I am considering caugh caugh buying it off the street or other such places caugh caugh for far less. warrentys dont need em dont like em never had em i am not a noob when it comes to computers even when i got my dell laptop from dell.com i didnt get a warrenty and it still works 3 years later
Sure you can deal with software problems on your own, but the difference is that if something fails on a laptop there is virtually nothing you can do except for send it back to the manufacturer. They are not user servicable at all. I had a Compaq laptop a few years ago that I bought second-hand. One day it simply died, and with no warranty it was unfixable.
One moral of the story is never, ever buy a Compaq or HP laptop, because their policies suck and they’re bady made. But the other moral is to get a warranty, because otherwise it will be almost impossible to deal with a hardware failure.
I’m also looking at a new notebook, and my most important considerations are worldwide warranty and service/support. I’m currently using a Dell, and the international support for machines brought from the US is nonexistent. Fixing my current machine has been a pain in the ass to say the least. The Dell’s sold in Taiwan are pretty outdated compared to what’s available in the US. As for the other options mentioned:
IBM - Don’t really like the “feel” of the trackpoint and keyboard
Apple - Can’t run some of the software I need to use
I was recommended by my Taiwanese friend towards Asus, Acer, or BenQ. But, then people here say Acer and BenQ are no good.
The search goes on…
I don’t think that is strictly true. Firstly, you can transfer any Dell warranty (on the Internet) to another country, but you must do so before leaving. It will then be fully supported in the new country. This is the information given me when I recently bought a Dell notebook in Taiwan.
Secondly, it’s true that Dell Taiwan has a limited selection, and they have yet to offer the latest video cards, but I wouldn’t call it outdated. I went for the Precision M60, which is configured the same internationally.
I don’t think that is strictly true. Firstly, you can transfer any Dell warranty (on the Internet) to another country, but you must do so before leaving. It will then be fully supported in the new country. This is the information given me when I recently bought a Dell notebook in Taiwan.
Secondly, it’s true that Dell Taiwan has a limited selection, and they have yet to offer the latest video cards, but I wouldn’t call it outdated. I went for the Precision M60, which is configured the same internationally.[/quote]
I should clarify, the Dell model that I brought over was never sold in Taiwan, so I was told by Dell Taiwan that I couldn’t even pay them to fix it , nor could I buy parts from them for it at my own expense. I was told by Dell US, that I couldn’t buy parts at my own expense, and have them shipped at my expense to Taiwan. Warranty, well, that’s even more of a longshot with this in mind. So, if you are buying a Dell, make sure it’s a model that is available and supported in the country that you plan to use it in.
Outdated maybe wasn’t the right word, but what is available are not the latest models. I just went to the Dell Taiwan site the other day, and they only sell the Latitude line, which maxes out at 1.x GHz, and 1G RAM. The Inspiron line in US goes up to 3.x GHz, and 2G RAM now. So, the best Dell notebook available in Taiwan is one generation behind the best Dell notebook available in the US.