Korean Job Discussion Forums

deetah · Joined: 14 Nov 2004

Iam in the market for a new laptop-price range $1500-1700 (Canadian). My co-worker swears by Apples (on the expensive side). My sister, on the other hand recommends Sony's or Dells. I am leaning towards a Dell. My needs are basic: downloading music, watching DVDs, surfing the net, the odd word doc.

Any reccomendations?

thorin · Joined: 14 Apr 2003

Randall Flagg · Posted: Tue Dec 14, 2004 2:44 am Post subject:

I swear by Apple products as well. I made the switch back in June and I doubt I will ever go back to a PC. My Powerbook G4 was expensive but I feel it was worth every penny. If you can part with the extra cash then it is worth it.

Sleepy in Seoul · Posted: Tue Dec 14, 2004 2:51 am Post subject:

I swear by Apples as well. I swear at PCs. An Apple iBook G4 is advertised on http://www.applestore.co.kr/ibook.html at 1,342,000 won, which works out at CAD$1,556.52. Small, fast and perfect. It doesn't have a dvd writer, but it does have CD reader/writer, dvd player etc.

the saint · Joined: 09 Dec 2003 Location: not there yet...

riverboy · Joined: 03 Jun 2003 Location: Incheon

I have an HP 4300 thingymajig. I don't know jack about computers, but it has everything including a DVD writer and it's all inernal. It starts up awfully slow though

SuperFly · Joined: 09 Jul 2003 Location: In the doghouse

I just bought a color classic on ebay with an LC575 motherboard woo-hoo!!

120 bucks!

http://kanchan.hn.org/zubyo.html

J.B. Clamence · Joined: 15 Jan 2003

Laptops are not very cheap here. If you plan to go home for a visit soon, I would recommend buying one in North America. I bought a Sony VAIO this summer back in the states for aboutr $1300 US. That price won't get you much here in Korea.

Randall Flagg · Posted: Tue Dec 14, 2004 7:59 am Post subject:

SuperFly · Joined: 09 Jul 2003 Location: In the doghouse

Three Microsoft engineers and three Apple employees are traveling by train to a computer conference. At the station, the three Microsoft engineers each buy tickets and watch as the three Apple employees buy only a single ticket.

"How are three people going to travel on only one ticket?" asks a Microsoft engineer.

"Watch and you'll see," answers the Apple employee.

They all board the train. The Microsoft engineers take their respective seats, but all three Apple employees cram into a restroom and close the door behind them. Shortly after the train has departed, the conductor comes around collecting tickets. He knocks on the restroom door and says, "Ticket, please."

The door opens just a crack and a single arm emerges with a ticket in hand. The conductor takes the ticket and moves on.

The Microsoft engineers saw this and agreed it was quite a clever idea. So after the conference, the Microsoft engineers decide to do the same on the return trip and save some money.

When they get to the station, they buy a single ticket for the return trip. To their astonishment, the Apple employees don't buy any ticket, at all.

"How are you going to travel without a ticket?" asks one perplexed Microsoft engineer.

"Watch and you'll see," answers an Apple employee.

When they board the train the three Microsoft engineers cram into a restroom and the three Apple employees cram into another one nearby. The train departs.

Shortly afterward, one of the Apple employees leaves his restroom and walks over to the restroom where the Microsoft engineers are hiding. He knocks on the door and says, "Ticket, please..."

jay-shi · Joined: 09 May 2004 Location: On tour

mindmetoo · Joined: 02 Feb 2004

Anything but HP.

Things to look for:

- good keyboard/touch pad (many lower cost laptops really cheap out here)

- slim. Nothing sucks like lugging around a thick bulky laptop.

- memory and hardrive... bigger. 512mb is a good amount for a laptop. I'm skeptical anything over that will have good cost/benefit. A big HD you will thank yourself later as you begin to download movie/tv files via bit.torrent.

- a wireless modem you might rarely have a use for in Seoul. Most laptops have them as standard these days, however.

- An easy to swap out hard drive is cool or a bay for an additional hd is good too.

- Brand name with a model sold in the west. Ask up front for English XP windows and English laptop reinstall CDs. There seems to be a lot of confusion among ESLers that you can buy a Korean laptop with the default Korean XP and there's a magic "change to English" button. You can't. It's also important to get reinstall CDs in English as laptops use a lot of special drivers. If you have to reinstall, simply installing XP isn't enough. You need then to plop in the laptop "image" CDs and reinstall all the special hardware drivers. If that's only available in Korea, you're in for a bad day as you try to find drivers on the net...

In general with laptops you get what you pay for. Don't cheap out. You'll hate yourself 5 months later. If you can lay down 2 mil for a laptop, do it. Even if it hurts a little.

mithridates · Posted: Tue Dec 14, 2004 4:35 pm Post subject:

Apples are wretched when it comes to Korean pages. Can't play music on Cyworld, when writing Korean emails on hotmail the Korean works but it looks like gibberish! You just have to know where the keys are because there's no way to check if you make a mistake. I can't count how many times I've clicked on OK for "Cannot play music file. The format is invalid." every single time I load up a Cyworld page. That's why I got my own laptop, an IBM Thinkpad for $1400 CDN.
Comes with wireless card, travel mouse, memory upgrade and carrying bag.

Randall Flagg · Posted: Tue Dec 14, 2004 4:52 pm Post subject:

Moldy Rutabaga · Joined: 01 Jul 2003 Location: Ansan, Korea

Apple users can be devoted users, but I think you should think about your needs-- if you want to download games or shareware, the pool of software which will run on an Apple product is going to be considerably more limited. I haven't yet seen a PC emulator on an Apple which ran better than a 486, but maybe new ones are better. On the other hand, Apples have nice multimedia capabilities and are generally easier to set up.

I would go to Yongsan with a budget in mind, and see what there is. At your price range there's plenty to choose from. Don't cheap out on RAM or hard drive space whatever you buy-- that's my advice.

Ken:>