Hi,
Being new in Taiwan, I would like to buy a laptop so I can communicate with my friends back home, surf, etc… I have gone in some stores and found prices ranging from 40,000NT to 65,000NT. Since I will only be here for a year, I really don’t want to spend that much money on a laptop. What do most new expats do? Where can I look for a used laptop? Any advice would be appreciated…
Thx.,
Martin.
One option would be to buy it in your country of origin … assuming it is cheapter there. But perhaps you are already here and that is not an option. Since you are only going to be here a year, and your investment in a laptop must serve you after you leave, be sure to only buy a laptop that has an international warranty, meaning that regardless of where you go, you can still get it fixed by the local service office. I bought my Apple PowerBook G4 in the States and brought it here, as it was considerably cheaper that way. Apple provided an international warranty, meaning that if it breaks here in Taiwan, I can get it fixed. See if other companies like IBM do that for their Thinkpads.
If you just want a throw-away cheap laptop, there are plenty of local semi-no-name-manufacturers out in the computer markets that could sell you a new laptop with dodgy support. You don’t have to buy a Dell, Gateway, IBM, Acer or Asus.
I don’t have any sources for used laptops. I would be very warry about that anyway.
I recently got a laptop. The starting price was something like NT$55,000. I ended up paying NT$45,000. It’s a local no-name brand (makes machines for Toshiba, though), and I got a 2-year global warranty.
So my advice: bring a local/fluent friend/coworker. Bargain. Be firm with what you want and don’t back down.
Good luck!
I’ve got a snappy little iBook with 640MB RAM and wireless I could let you have for respectable price. PM me…
[quote=“tilkster”]I have gone in some stores and found prices ranging from 40,000NT to 65,000NT. Since I will only be here for a year, I really don’t want to spend that much money on a laptop. What do most new expats do? Where can I look for a used laptop? Any advice would be appreciated…
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Laptops should start in the 30,000NT range. I’ve seen some decent Twinheads at below 30K and a IBM X30 in the mid-30s.
The used laptop market in Taiwan is extremely small, which kinda makes me wonder where all the old laptops go. You’ll probably only find them in the rare 2nd hand computer part shops.
Echoing the advice given above, you definitely want to get someone fluent in Mandarin/Taiwanese to go with you (locals preferred)
I bought a Twinhead nearly 8 or 9 years ago, but it was a disaster, and the after service was poor.
Given my experience, you NEED good after sales service for laptops much more so than with regular desktops because getting replacement parts is quite difficult. Or you need a really reliable tech-service guy in your company!
So I would buy
Avoid the cheap no-name brands. No-name brands for desktops are usually okay, but laptops are integrated systems with frequently unique or specially adapted hardware/software. This has caused me enough troubles.
Kenneth
I will suggest a Dell good price to performance ratio.
The most important thing as several others have pointed out is an international warranty from a reputable brand.
That said, Dell does not have an international warranty, and if it’s a model that doesn’t share any common parts with a model that was originally marketed and sold in Taiwan, then you can’t even pay them to fix it.
In short, unless you plan to buy it from Dell in Taiwan, I wouldn’t recommend bringing a Dell over for long term use.