Buying a laptop from the US and using it in Australia

I’m flying to America in a few days, and I’m considering purchasing a laptop. America seems to have cheaper goods, so I could save quite a bit of money purchasing a laptop in America as opposed to here in Australia.

Is there any good reasons why I shouldnt buy an electrical product in america and use it in Australia? Our voltage is different, 110 instead of 240, but I’m fairly sure you can get a converter for that.

Is this a good idea? Or is it just not worth the few hundred I’ll save? Thanks :smiley:

Off the top of my head, two other things may be worth considering:

  • Is the supplied modem cable compatible with the Australian standard fitting (not that it would be hard to replace if it is)?

  • Will the manufacturer provide a worldwide warranty, or one limited to the US? Is helpdesk support accessible from Australia? If your computer is damaged, will you have to return it to the US, or can it be repaired under warranty in Australia?

You would be wise to check the Australian Customs website. There’s a good chance you’d have to pay Australian tax/duty on your laptop when you come back to Aus, thus negating your savings.

Aus Customs says that you are only allowed a maximum of $400 duty free that’s not alcohol or tobacco. Your laptop will be several thousand I imagine so you may have a hefty tax/duty bill. I suggest you contact Aus Customs and find out exactly how much you may have to pay.

The power is a non-issue in most cases as notebook power adapters can usually handle a range of international power inputs. All you should need powerwise will be a little physical adapter plug.

If you are not using the onboard modem, it’s s a non-issue but modems do have different electrical and signaling characteristics in different countries. You can always get an inexpensive external USB modem if one is necessary.

Re the desired model you also need to check how AU warranty service works for out of country purchased notebooks. If the unit is seen as a gray market unit (unlikely) you may be SOL re warranties.

Unless the cost saving is huge you’re better of getting one at home.

There may be a few other issues, like an OS that uses American English instead of Australian English. A few words in menus and prompts may be spelled differently than what you may be used to. Installed office software will be using American English rules of spelling and grammar. Most software, however, can be internationalzed with a few menu selections; A4 for 8.5"x11" paper, metric units by default, and so on.

A US computer keyboard has a somewhat different layout than a UK computer keyboard. I don’t know why there would be a standard Australian keyboard that is somewhat different than the US standard, but it could be the case.

Also, to you, it will appear as if the screen and keyboard of a US laptop is upside-down. You may have to torate the computer so you can be comfortable with it. :smiley:

While this is technically true and, techincally, it is illegal to bring a laptop back without declaring it, its rather trivial to evade customs on this matter.

Am I parsing this correctly? Are you saying that Australian current is 110 as opposed to 240? American current is also 110.

Aside from which, as others have noted, laptop computers run on DC and use a converter anyhow, and most of those converters will accept a wide range of input voltage. (Stores here in NYC sell multi-adapters for the different plug configurations).

As for language / dictionaries / keyboard arrangements, I think all modern OSs let you switch. I admit I’ve never done it.

::opens “International”" PrefsPane::

Yep, there’s one for Australian English, and also an Australian keyboard.

Of course your actual physical keys will continue to have the same symbols painted on them, but if you’re a touch-typist that shouldn’t matter. (And if you’re not, why would you care about having an American keyboard layout inflicted on you?)

Well, FWIW I took my now dearly departed laptop to Germany with me, and the only thing I did differently was scavenge the cord that goes from the wall to the converter [that brick that has a cord then going out to the computer] off one of Christian’s dead printers instead of spending money to go buy a new one…It worked beautifully. Though he is a network weinie for Alrt, he does know his way around equipment quite thoroughly=) and Germany uses funky power standards as opposed to the sane and sensible American power standards <giggle>

Though I do currently have and use a german keyboard because my logitech one suffered a small iced tea accident last week [reading SDMB as a matter of fact. Iced tea through the nose stings…] I just had to relearn touch typing a smidge=) [made my email sort of interesting when I forgot=)]

There was a very in-depth discussion on Slashdot about three months ago regarding the practicality of a UK traveler purchasing a laptop while in the US for a few days.

I suggest reading some of the highly-moderated comments.

I think you might need a special “Southern Hemisphere” hard drive that spins in the opposite direction :slight_smile:

Brian

woops, I got the numbers mixed up. Aussie is 240, america is 110. :smack:

I think you will find that the warranty issue is the only real one.