Thursday, February 3, 2011

Buying a laptop in Sri Lanka!!!

   Since it a very popular the 'buying a laptop' thing these days I thought of writing something about it. First of all it is Sri Lanka. There are very good laptops as well as very bad laptops, and so are the sellers. In here we do not get a wide range of choices. The business is within few businessmen. You will know this if you go to Unity Plaza. Go thorough every  shop, but you will see only few brands and also few models from those brands. Most surprisingly all those shops will have exactly the same models at a given time. What a coincidence.
   Most the shops get laptops from the same dealer, no one's better than the other. And there warranty, yes it's a real warranty. But bi you have bought a 'Compaq' most probably you've already had experience in claiming it. It takes months. And also it's a one year warranty. If your laptop busts after 1year and 2 months (just happened to me) , there is no escape. So when you buy one make sure the money is worth it.
   First there is HP. It's an averagely good product. Everything in an HP is average good. Most of the time it's reliable and will last long more than three years without any problem. Hp Compaq in other hand is the low cost version of HP. Compaq is one of the worst brands I've ever seen. Very low battery life, and after a year you'll have to replace some parts like battery, screen, keyboard etc. .
   Then there is Dell. Dell is known as a good brand all over the world. But before telling any I should point out that 'Dell Vostro' model is a low cost model and what I'm gonna say is not applicable to them. The touchpad, keyboard, battery etc. all are good in Dell. It's reliable. It's the best brand if someone is looking for a lifetime partner.
  The next in line is Sony. Specially the VAIO, it an entertainment based series. They are extreme performers. The best for gaming I'd say. But they are bit expensive. And there is some probability that the screen may go out early. I'll rate sony between Dell and HP.
   Then the Acer. Same as Compaq. Very low price - very low quality. But if someone is trying to buy a laptop just for typing, surfing, watching films etc. Acer or Compaq may be a good choice.
   Then there are Toshiba and Lenovo which I don't know anything much. Toshiba was used to be a very good brand. But lately I've heard that they are degrading there standards. Don't know how much is true. And Lenovo, since it's kind of new taking off from IBM, cannot still say for sure. But it's pretty clear that the quality of an IBM, cannot be expected from a Lenovo.

   And there is another important point. All the above brands takes parts from OEM manufacturers. They are the very few (about half a dozen) companies who build laptop parts and sell them to other companies. Almost all those companies are situated in China. So there cannot be many distinction between them in durability of the parts. But the different engineering I think, does the difference. From above brands only Dell is producing some of their parts in USA. But most probably they are sent here.
   The brands like Alienware, Asus, Apple etc. are very rare in Sri Lanka. So there is no point in thinking about them unless you plan to go abroad.
   And one important point is, the laptop prices in Sri Lankan market are somewhat higher than the global market. If we check ebay we can see the different. The difference may be 10,000 - 335,000 rupees. That's quite an amount. But cannot do anything about it. Unless, there is someone coming from abroad who can afford to bring a laptop with him. If so, that's the best way.

15 comments:

  1. Yaaah..
    I was surprised your idea because I never thought that you have this much of writing skills. Anyway I decide to put a comment on this.
    The major problem I have seen in Sri Lanken laptop market is the lack of dealers for those brands.Unity plaza is not a good place to by laptops because I have lots of experiences of dealing with them. When you go their to buy a laptop they are very friendly as you can never imagine.When first time I went there they showed me lots of brands and a "Three years warrenty!"(actually the warranty period is less then 1 year). I really surprized and without finding any information about them I bought the laptop.I had lots of problems in my laptop. I went to claim warrenty and they were not as when I went there to give my laptop.I was told that you can't claim warrenty today since today is a saturday.However I was able to give my laptop. After a two week I called them but any telephone line didn't work.The TP numbers were working.Finally I got my laptop. It had been working for some time(2 or 3 months) without any problem.But now the problem is worst.
    Anyway I recomend, find a good place to buy your laptop.Specially go for a dealer.It is the best thing you can do. EPSI,Metropolitan are dealers.But the price is somewhat higher than Unity.But their warrenty is excellent.

    Cheers!

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  2. ya ur right...
    Contacting a dealer is the best thing to do.
    you were surprised by my writing skills ha... I'll take that as a complement. thanx!!! :)

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  3. Claiming a warranty is almost all the time is a nasty business. You're dealing with 'businessmen', that's why. Good advice there Akalanka. Good you share your experience with everybody. I have an idea to buy a laptop too but I'm too lazy for that preparation of spending so much money. Taking with people already having laptops, walking around shops gathering information etc. etc. and claiming warranty if it's broken is a real headache.

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  4. @Angelo
    I haven't degraded VAIO, but you know it's not the best. :P

    @Back-Seat-Holder
    Ya you are right. It's a real nasty business. Sometimes ebay can be more reliable than these guys.

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  5. @akalanka;
    I don't understand your comment...."I'll take that as a complement ". I meant your writing skills are very good. :)...

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  6. this website gives you updated local price lists of laptopsLanka Price you can compare global prices also it clearly shows the difference of unity plaza prices with authorized agents but surprising to see unity prices are almost same as prices in other countries

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  7. I'm very pleased if anybody could tell me names of some shops where I can buy a better laptop and where there's good after service.........

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  8. In unity it's all the same the after service is not that good, you'll have to wait more than a month to claim a warranty. You could get a good service from Metropolitan but prices are high.

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  9. I also think Metropolitan provides a good service.They have replaced my adapter within 30 minutes although there are few days available to expire my warranty :D

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  10. I thinks Acer is best .... thanks for your post

    smbacer

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  11. Nice post. I was checking constantly this blog and I’m impressed! Extremely useful info specially the last part I care for such information a lot. I was seeking this certain info for a long time. Thank you and good luck. laptop

    ReplyDelete

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  13. To deliver the latest Innovations in technology with integrated services and solutions beyond imagination. Laptops in Sri Lanka

    ReplyDelete