advice welcome?
R
Hi - quick question - I am moving to Lausanne in August - need to upgrade my laptop. Is it best ( cheaper?) to wait till I get to Switzerland or look in London?
This might help you decide. It’s a shop in Lausanne .
Get one in the UK. The keyboards are different here and it might be difficult to get Windows in your own language.
There is a poster on here called PCDesigns who has his own business, he might be able to give you a few quotes if you ask what you're looking for.
Definitely, I wouldn't wanna get one here due to fact that it takes time to get used to the Germanic keyboard and it is quite annoying. I wouldn't try to buy one from the UK shops either. Depending on the model and brand which you like, I would rather check offers in the US e.g. www.dell.com .
There will be very little difference in price, despite the UK's much higher VAT. But if it goes wrong you can't take it back to PC World easily. You can get an English OS if you shop around. The keyboard shouldn't a problem IMO...
brought my Mac in the UK and got the VAT back, so far so good...
Keyboard is a pain so I will be buying from UK myself but the language is a simple settings change.
I am also moving to Lausanne in Aug and asked about and the verdict seems to be get one in the UK, so I am going for that.
Having just bought a computer this year and suffered from failled mouse, failled DVD drive, and failled headphone souckets, I am glad I got it from the local Swiss dealer in my town where all warannty issues were dealt with promptly, same day, and at no cost to me.
Consider that with a UK laptop...
Hi,
well I assume the machine you use at work has a swiss keyboard and if you can touch type it can be a pain if you continually change between keyboards when moving between home and work can be a pain. The language of the operating system can be more of a pain here but quite a few manufacturers now give you english as a choice as well as the official swiss languages.
Also the price of laptops here used to be less than in the UK, however, that may well have changed as the exchange rate is now much better.
I think really depends a lot on whole long you intend to stay in Switzerland.
Have fun
Martin
that is a very good point, maye it would be best just to get it out here. thx appreciate that point of view on it
Hi
My old laptop died and i needed a laptop desperatley but after seeing the choice available in the French side and keyboards in French and German instructions setup etc to match i decided against it.
I've used German and Norwegian keyboards for years at work before and i always prefer an English keyboard.
Luckly i still have a visa card at my mums address in England, so i just ordered online at PC world. Dixons have a good choice too! I got it sent to her address just before i arrived no problem. The choice and prices where amazing!
There also have a guarantee . Remember thats only for a year anyway for most of them. I'm not sure how that guarantee works in Switzerland but there shouldn't be a problem.
I'm very happy with it ..can you believe its a 3rd of the price i paid for a laptop back in 2000! and a thousand times better. Its a compaq and i recommend them by the way as my last compaq lasted 8 years , its actually still working but the top has broken through over use.
hope this helps
Cosmicgirl
Get it from the UK and online if possible. We have used Laptops Direct and thoroughly recommend them. We bought 2 of these laptops & took advantage of the double memory offer (need to call them for this) and they are fantastic, especially for under £300 a piece.
The warranty should still be applicable anywhere on the Globe. Either from the vendor or the manufacturer.
Hope this helps.
Rob
If you buy your Laptop from John Lewis, you get a 2 year guarantee.
I think most places it is only 1 year.
Not everyone uses windows you know.
I'd buy in the UK if you can't handle the keyboards here.
OR you can order one online - Macs will ship with a US keyboard to Switzerland.
As for the keyboards, so that you don't have to switch between different types when going from home to work or between laptop and desktop, just bring an extra one of whichever keyboard layout you are used to with you, to plug into your desktop at work. Make sure it is a USB connection to keep it simple, and you shouldn't even need to worry about drivers. I'm very glad that I have this set-up.
If you're intending on buying a macbook pro - buy it online from apple.ch. You can choose the keyboard layout there and AFAIK it's a crapload cheaper than in the UK
peter
Macs are definitely cheaper in Switzerland.
You can ask for a British keyboard if you prefer. I did this and they didn't charge extra (admittedly in a shop where they've known me as a customer for years).
Another advnatge of buying here is that the shop is at hand and you can pop down there if ever you have any trouble. Dealing with a shop in the UK will probably cause more hassle than it's worth.
I would be happy to offer you some prices to compare if required.
Hi,
Buy a laptop here... Just walk into any InterDiscount or electronics shop and pick a laptop. Most of the time (like 99%) come unconfigured, so you need to select your operating system language anyway.
I bought a laptop - a very nice small HP almost-subnotebook - from Conforama (of all places - it's a furniture/electronics shop in Crissier outside Lausanne). The price for the laptop for 200 CHF under the price of other place, for the same model.
We did have problem that USB port did not work. Bought it on a Friday, went back Monday morning and had it exchange for a completely new, which was delivered within a week. This is not possible, if you buy abroad. If you buy abroad you need to find a geek to repair it for you free, pay a shop or even worse pay that Geneva-IT-guy who advertises on WRGfm 35 CHF per hour to fix it.
Also, if you are going to be working here, your employer will most likely only have a Swiss German/French layout for you. Then you have to walk around being annoyed that you have a different keyboard at home than at work, or the other way around. Just integrate and get the Swiss German/French keyboard layout to begin with.
As for the laptop.. it's a taste thing.. Go for anything with a Intel Core 2 Due processor, not AMD or Intel Pentium or anything else. You need to have min. 2 GB of memory and 160 GB harddrive. Most home-user laptops you only get 1.5-3 hours battery life out of, so pick a laptop that suits your personal taste choice (but still with the above mentioned minimum specs).
Rgds, Peter