Buying her a laptop

[viking]

The question has come up as to where it would be best to buy a laptop. The prices here (US) seem more reasonable than in Russia, but the the laptops there are in cryllic with cryllic keyboards, and of course the windows operating system there would be installed in Russian. Has anyone had any experience which is the best way to go? The lady reads and writes in english so language is not an issue, but native Russian is more convenient.

[catzenmouse]

Viking,

 One thing to think about here is your possible timeframe. If she is to come here it is a good way for her to get used to the type of PC that she will be using here. You can always put Cyrillic on the PC so that she can switch back and forth and get keyboard stickers that list both.

Ken

[Shadow]

Another thought. If there really is a substantial price difference (I found no big differences) you can buy the laptop, and let her buy a USB external keyboard.
This way she can use the Cyrillic keyboard for typing Russian and the English one on the laptop for English communication.
Be sure to get a legal Russian Windows (good luck on finding it  )

[RobTom]

You don't need a Russian version of Windows to run Russian software. I have run a few standard native Russian software programs on my PCs for a couple years. Two of these were PromtXT and an interactive Kyiv business and residence map. These work fine with the WindowsXP/SP2 that came with my laptop.  Nothing special.

But it does take a system level change, which is very simple with WindowsXP/SP2. It takes only a couple minutes and a re-boot. Don't confuse the required "system code page 1251" installation with Cyrillic font installations.

In summary, the older the version of Windows you have, the more complicated it is to run native Russian software. Full instructions are at:

http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/PaulGor/full_e.htm

 

[andrewfi]

Send her the money.

If you, or more likely she, end up paying import duties then you will be very sure which is the cheapest place to buy a machine.

I recently went to the trouble of looking at buying a laptop from the US, because it seemed cheaper and I would not have to pay any import duties for such a purchase. What I found was that the very cheapest poverty specials, that Wal-Mart and a few others sell, were a little cheaper in the US than over here, generally speaking such low end machines are not sold in this part of the world. If one buys a more normal machine, branded, with decent spec (WiFi, dvd burner, good screen, proper software, memory and disk space) then there is no difference worth talking of and when it comes to warranty issues, well, then there is no real choice anyway. Some machines have international warranties, but the cheap ones don't.

So, if one considers:
Price - no difference
Import duties - very significant
Warranty - returns would be very costly
Convenience - localisation, language etc, much better locally

There is not much reason to bring one from the USA.

[docetae]

Send her the money.

If you, or more likely she, end up paying import duties then you will be very sure which is the cheapest place to buy a machine.

I recently went to the trouble of looking at buying a laptop from the US, because it seemed cheaper and I would not have to pay any import duties for such a purchase. What I found was that the very cheapest poverty specials, that Wal-Mart and a few others sell, were a little cheaper in the US than over here, generally speaking such low end machines are not sold in this part of the world. If one buys a more normal machine, branded, with decent spec (WiFi, dvd burner, good screen, proper software, memory and disk space) then there is no difference worth talking of and when it comes to warranty issues, well, then there is no real choice anyway. Some machines have international warranties, but the cheap ones don't.

So, if one considers:
Price - no difference
Import duties - very significant
Warranty - returns would be very costly
Convenience - localisation, language etc, much better locally

There is not much reason to bring one from the USA.

You can import the laptop as your own. In this case, you have nothing to pay. Regarding warranty, build a brand and you can get warranty directly from the company supplying it. You get good deal right now on refurbished Toshiba and IBM (around 400$ for a P3M)

[andrewfi]

You can take a laptop as your own. You can not import a laptop as your own. There is a difference. If you take it in with you, you will be expected to leave with it.

Can you get away with smuggling?

Of course you can.

Will you get away with smuggling?

Who knows?

You feel lucky?

Do you wanna steal?

Are you so poor that you need to buy a secondhand machine with no way of supporting it, with the 'wrong' keyboard and software? becasue if things go well you might save a few dollars?

Check some prices, check the realities. I have done. My advice is based upon:
1) Not breaking any laws.
2) The needs of the user.
3) The reality in respect of real costs.