Low Yat Visit

Once again I find myself in this building of wonderful offers. Only, this time, I wasn't there to buy anything for myself.

Today, my job was to help YM and YP choose laptops for themselves. They're leaving overseas to do masters and are therefore looking for PCs to use. I love computers in general and was pleased to be able to go window shopping with them (since I can't buy one for myself...) By the way, thanks for the lunch! It was an awesome lunch at First Cup (some cafe I saw for the first time at Sungei Wang).

Anyway, we pretty much ruled out Toshiba and HP and Acer from our list of brands to consider. I mean, come on... Acer's just cheap and really cheap (in price and... well, no offence, but in quality as well). HP and Toshiba's just too expensive for something you can find in other more reliable brands.

Thus, we were left with two brands of choice: Asus and Dell. (There are two of them, and they each insist on getting two different brands. Oh well.) =P

It's fun walking around low yat looking at different laptops at different shops. And it's nicer still when someone else has to deal with talking to the shop owners/sales persons. (Less stress haha...) Oh, I managed to come home with Cyber Clean for my keyboard and a laptop keyboard skin to make it easier to clean dust off it! No more painstaking effort spent on getting dust out from under the keys! (Came back happy, definitely!)

ASUS K40 (AB/IJ)
It's amazing how many different offers were made for this particular model. It was within budget initially (under RM2500). I knew nothing about this brand beforehand so all I could do was listen and check the specs.

The Good
+ lots of free gifts were offered +
+ price range is acceptable +
+ cheaper warranty than Dell +
+ durable +
+ offers other than Intel processors +
+ uses its own technology (apparently) +

The Bad
+ usually comes without OS (freedos) +
+ does not come with original Office (costs more if it does) +
+ no bluetooth (not a problem, free USB offered) +
+ does not come with system CDs (costs more if it does) +

Dell Studio 14
I have always been a Dell fan so I've actually looked this up before looking for it today. In fact, the first thing I did when I came home was to come up with a detailed specs list and end price offered for this model.

The Good
+ stylish, more colours to choose from +
+ cheaper than Asus (all things considered) +
+ reliable tech support and great after sales service +
+ durable +
+ price includes original OS and Office programmes +

The Bad
+ no free gifts (lol!) +
+ expensive warranty +
+ doesn't have its own technology (but it has the best combination IMO) +

I feel like upgrading my own beloved lappie after looking at Dell Studio 14 (my precious bao bei); it's a Dell Vostro 1400 by the way. Get better RAM, better graphics card, and maybe a larger HDD space. But, I'm not sure if I can trust what it can be upgraded to... Hmm... Besides, I have no problems with it at the moment.

I still love my bao bei the way it is!