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Birmingham.couple
Joined: 29 May 2010
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 Posted: Sun Aug 29, 2010 6:42 pm Post subject: Shall I buy a laptop here or there? |
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| I'm leaving for Yangsan on the 13th and I need a new laptop, do you think I should get on here or wait till I'm there? |
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eamo
Joined: 08 Mar 2003
Location: Shepherd's Bush, 1964.
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| Posted: Sun Aug 29, 2010 6:45 pm Post subject: |
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That's a little hard to say because we don't know where your 'here' is!
But suffice to say that if you buy a laptop in Korea then the Operating System will be in Korean and the keyboard will have both English and Korean characters on it. |
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Birmingham.couple
Joined: 29 May 2010
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| Posted: Sun Aug 29, 2010 6:47 pm Post subject: |
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| Here is England. |
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eamo
Joined: 08 Mar 2003
Location: Shepherd's Bush, 1964.
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| Posted: Sun Aug 29, 2010 6:54 pm Post subject: |
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| Birmingham.couple wrote: |
| Here is England. |
Cost would be about the same.......UK and Korea are both expensive for computer stuff compared to USA for e.g.
If you know how to install Windows yourself then I'd say the best option would be to buy here in Korea, then re-format the hard drive and install English Windows. Then you have Eng OS but still have Korean on your keyboard should you choose to type in Korean while you're here.
The other advantage of this is that you'll erase all the annoying and useless software that comes with shop-bought computers. Your computer will run faster with less annoyances. |
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climber159
Joined: 02 Sep 2007
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| Posted: Sun Aug 29, 2010 7:12 pm Post subject: |
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| eamo wrote: |
| Birmingham.couple wrote: |
| Here is England. |
Cost would be about the same.......UK and Korea are both expensive for computer stuff compared to USA for e.g.
If you know how to install Windows yourself then I'd say the best option would be to buy here in Korea, then re-format the hard drive and install English Windows. Then you have Eng OS but still have Korean on your keyboard should you choose to type in Korean while you're here.
The other advantage of this is that you'll erase all the annoying and useless software that comes with shop-bought computers. Your computer will run faster with less annoyances. |
Or, instead of a pirated copy of Windows, might I suggest Ubuntu? Anyone with half a brain can figure it out, it runs faster than Windows, and it's cheaper while also being completely legal at the price of $0! |
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eamo
Joined: 08 Mar 2003
Location: Shepherd's Bush, 1964.
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| Posted: Sun Aug 29, 2010 7:58 pm Post subject: |
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| Quote: |
| Or, instead of a pirated copy of Windows, might I suggest Ubuntu? |
Will it run all the software and games that a Windows user might want to run.........I honestly don't know. Genuine question. |
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Epik_Teacher
Joined: 28 Apr 2010
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| Posted: Mon Aug 30, 2010 2:12 am Post subject: |
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| I just got an Aspire One from Gmarket.com. Paid about $350, about the same as TigerDirect.com. Not a top of the line computer, but a good backup and travel computer. |
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climber159
Joined: 02 Sep 2007
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| Posted: Mon Aug 30, 2010 4:53 am Post subject: |
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| eamo wrote: |
| Quote: |
| Or, instead of a pirated copy of Windows, might I suggest Ubuntu? |
Will it run all the software and games that a Windows user might want to run.........I honestly don't know. Genuine question. |
It depends upon what said Windows user wants to run.
Internet: Google Chrome, FireFox, Skype, messenger programs, etc.
Office: OpenOffice is the best productivity software that will allow you to create, save, and open docs in just about any file format.
Music: supports iPods natively and there are a host of music management programs available
Video: flash is fine, supports xvid, divx, and so on.
Games: I don't play any, but there are many available. |
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ED209
Joined: 17 Oct 2006
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| Posted: Mon Aug 30, 2010 5:15 am Post subject: |
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I bought a laptop here, in Korea. It came with Vista and had the option to install in English. I also keep the regional settings to English so anything I install does so in English. The benefits of getting a laptop here are:
1. A Korean keyboard, so you can practice and use hangul. (You could also buy an extra keyboard when you get here if u want)
2. After sales service is pretty good here. Often they'll come to your home the next day and get it back to you pretty soon if they can't fix on site. |
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Vagabundo
Joined: 26 Aug 2010
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| Posted: Mon Aug 30, 2010 7:51 am Post subject: |
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| Epik_Teacher wrote: |
| I just got an Aspire One from Gmarket.com. Paid about $350, about the same as TigerDirect.com. Not a top of the line computer, but a good backup and travel computer. |
used or brand new???? I saw some attractive prices on desktops on a flyer and showed the flyer to my coteacher but she said those were used.
my understanding was that computers are double US prices. Don't know about England.
I want no part of a Korean language operating system either. |
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somethingawful
Joined: 26 Nov 2008
Location: Daejeon
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| Posted: Mon Aug 30, 2010 9:48 am Post subject: |
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BUY AT HOME!
This is my story, and probably familiar to some, and totally different for others who have bought in Korea.
I got my wife a Sony Laptop in Korea. One, it cost more than back home, but we needed another one. We bought it, took it home, and formatted it and installed English Windows Vista. Here is where the problems started!
1. The laptop is identical to one you can get in the US, or England, or Canada, or Japan, but trying to download drivers from one of those Sony sites would not work since there is not equivalent model # on the sites. It would say, "Sorry, not the right PC for these drivers" so we had to download from the Sony Korea site. I think this is their version of some sort of regional copy protection so cheaper Sony's are not taken from China and sold in Korea.
The problem being you have to register or something to gain access to their precious drivers! God forbid just anyone downloaded them! We finally had to go to an actual Sony store, have them log in, and download the drivers for us. Pretty embarrassing.
2. About two weeks later the fan started acting strange (revving up and down constantly, making lots of noise). It was pretty obvious that it needed to be changed. I had a coworker write on a note for me, "This laptop's fan is dying, it needs to be replaced, here is the warranty info".
Sounds simple, right? Hell if we could get the guys at three different stores to actually take the thing to have it fixed. We had to get a friend to come in and pull an "Ajuma fit" before they took it, saying "Sorry" a lot and smiling to us.
Long story short, you're going to be in Korea a year (probably), get the laptop from where you live! Dell and HP are sold everywhere and you might be able to get warranty work done on them in Korea, or at the very least get them fixed. Getting a Laptop in Korea only saves you the hassle of having to carry it on the plane and watch movies during the trip. Also I find the selection there to be sort of limited, sure there are some shady places in Seoul to get others, but you're gambling with your money there. From what I've seen in Korea there are a million Samsung and LG's but very few Dell, Asus, HP, ThinkPad, Mac, etc. |
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Epik_Teacher
Joined: 28 Apr 2010
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| Posted: Mon Aug 30, 2010 1:48 pm Post subject: |
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| Vagabundo wrote: |
| Epik_Teacher wrote: |
| I just got an Aspire One from Gmarket.com. Paid about $350, about the same as TigerDirect.com. Not a top of the line computer, but a good backup and travel computer. |
used or brand new???? I saw some attractive prices on desktops on a flyer and showed the flyer to my coteacher but she said those were used.
my understanding was that computers are double US prices. Don't know about England.
I want no part of a Korean language operating system either. |
It was brand new. It was a trade off, I could have gotten a 250 gig hard drive DDR2 RAM, or a 160 gig hard drive DDR3 for the same price. They only come with one gig RAM, I didn't figure at 1 gig there would be a lot of difference between the DDR2 and DDR3 in performance. So I figured I'd rather have the extra hard drive space. I went with the DDR2 RAM. |
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JD_Tiberius
Joined: 16 Nov 2009
Location: Korea
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| Posted: Mon Aug 30, 2010 2:22 pm Post subject: |
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| I'm kind of in the same boat as you. I'm due to fly out from the UK to Uiryeong on the 13th and need a laptop. I think I'm going to go for one from home though just to save me the hassle of trying to explain what spec I want. |
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AnsanAnswers
Joined: 16 Jul 2010
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| Posted: Mon Aug 30, 2010 6:36 pm Post subject: |
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Save yourself all of the hassle and buy yourself a MacBook Pro. The OS is much more stable, no drivers to worry about installing, viruses to be infected by or anti-virus software to slow down your system.
Plus, for presenting to a class, Apple's Keynote is far superior to Microsoft's PowerPoint. The initial price difference definitely will pay for itself in the long run.
Just my 2 cents. |
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