Job Discussion Forums

dkmny · Joined: 18 May 2004 Posts: 2

Hi, I'm coming to Taiwan soon, and I want to but a laptop. I was going to buy one here in the states, but a friend who worked in Taiwan said to buy one there.
Is that a good idea? Is there really a large price difference between like computers, and are they reliable?

Xenophobe · Joined: 11 Nov 2003 Posts: 163

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!
It has been my unfortunate experience that computers made for the Taiwanese domestic market are inferior to those that they make for export. Four HDD, two graphics cards and two sound cards Mad

in five months with the Acer I bought from Nova on the corner of Wufu and Jungshan. Mad

00Scott · Joined: 17 Oct 2003 Posts: 14 Location: Vancouver, Canada

I shopped around for a laptop in Taipei when my old Toshiba conked out and found them to be about as expensive as they were in Canada, though perhaps a little ahead in the technology. As I didn't end up buying one I can't speak to quality (other than to echo the previous poster in saying that a number of the cheaper "store brewed" machines looked a little dubious); but if you are buying an internationally-recognised brand (go for an iBook, I say; sexy and relatively inexpensive) this shouldn't be a problem. Mind you, I doubt they'd be any cheaper in Taiwan, and buying there would only give you the hassle of reinstalling an English-based OS.

markholmes · Joined: 21 Jun 2004 Posts: 661 Location: Wengehua

I agree with Xenophobe. Buy a laptop in the US and bring it with you. I had terrible trouble with an Acer computer I bought in Taiwan (from T-Zone).

Make sure you get an international warantee

TaoyuanSteve · Joined: 05 Feb 2003 Posts: 1028 Location: Taoyuan

My desktop comp I bought here was really quite cheap and has been quite reliable. If you know how to buy a computer, you'll find what you need here and cheaply.