Quick question re. purchasing laptops
 

Good morning!

We're (finally) heading out to GTA at end of June. Are laptops/PC's more/less expensive in Canada than the UK? If cheaper, where's best to buy please?

Many thanks!

DP

Re: Quick question re. purchasing laptops
 

I typically buy macs, and they always seem to be the same price wherever you go. Cheapest would probably be the tax free dixons at UK airport

Re: Quick question re. purchasing laptops
 

I personally think that Laptops/PCs are cheaper here when we talk about Windows OS based machines but I would urge you to shop around and not just walk into the local Future Store or Best Buy (think Comet/Currys and you wont be far off).

As the other thread said, Apple regulate the prices of their products and so you wont see much difference in those items.

Re: Quick question re. purchasing laptops
 

Mac pro definitely cheaper here...the model i bought was the equivalent of 679GBP..in the UK they are 999GBP.

Re: Quick question re. purchasing laptops
 

Bad advice.

Mac's are significant cheaper in North America.

Re: Quick question re. purchasing laptops
 

Try this link for pricing in Canada.
http://www.apple.com/ca/why-mac/compare/

Re: Quick question re. purchasing laptops
 

Laptops and computers don't come with any software bundles here (not that we've seen anyway). I'm campaigning for a Mac next time round.

Re: Quick question re. purchasing laptops
 

I have bought 2 macs over the last 7 years and on both occasions the ca v uk price has been about the same

looking briefly at the apple store website, cheapest MBP is £999, whereas the CA price is $1249CAD but the UK price includes tax so they are about the same

You might of course get a blow out sale in best buy!

Re: Quick question re. purchasing laptops
 

Like anything else you purchase in Canada, you need to shop around as the prices can be dramatically different. Don't discount the big stores either. I've occasionally seen better deals in places like Future Shop or Staples when they have a special offer on something I'm looking for, than on the generally cheaper online stores, like New Egg or Tiger Direct.

Re: Quick question re. purchasing laptops
 

Thanks all,

Useful info. Hubby is dead set against a mac but thanks for info anyway. He's mad keen on gaming and a mac has limited choice of games and you can't fiddle around with a mac as you can a pc (his words, not mine....I'm clueless:blink:)

Is tax 13% on all shopping, whether food, clothes, electricals etc etc?

Re: Quick question re. purchasing laptops
 

Not on basic groceries but is on prepared foods.

Re: Quick question re. purchasing laptops
 

So, for someone like me, who prepares pretty much everything from scratch, tax won't be an issue? But I'm guessing for household/cleaning and toiletry products, it is? So my weekly shop.....taxed at the till for some but not all goods? Yikes, confusing :ohmy:

Re: Quick question re. purchasing laptops
 

That probably needs some clarification. Prepared foods at the supermarket like microwave meals, pizzas, lasagne, cheesecake etc - no tax.

Juice - no tax
Pop - tax
Chocolate - tax

As with many things there may be some variation in different provinces, such as a different rate. Supermarkets also have "tax free" days.

Re: Quick question re. purchasing laptops
 

Generally what is on the ticket price doesn't include tax..so tax is added to your final bill..so if you have $10 in your pocket and you see something for $10..you will end up paying more than $10 when you get to the till.

Re: Quick question re. purchasing laptops
 

And restaurant food = tax.

Re: Quick question re. purchasing laptops
 

Best advice!

I was really confused after I'd counted out all my weird canadian money the first time I went to buy something and they charged me more than what I'd prepared!

Re: Quick question re. purchasing laptops
 

Its generally cheaper in Canada I found. USA is a bigger market and its next door so electronic goods will be a little cheaper.

I bought a Macbook pro in Calgary and tax was only 5%. The equivalent here in the UK cost a lot more.

Re: Quick question re. purchasing laptops
 

You can bootcamp a mac and run Windows and Mac OS.

If you check their refurbed macs for sale on their website you could find a deal.

Re: Quick question re. purchasing laptops
 

jumping in a bit late now but I believe Apple has a pricing structure in place to make their products the same price throughout the world. There might be little differences with exchange rates fluctuating and tax prices (i.e if you buy tax free etc) but most of the time you will find products the same.

Saying that I used to work at Futureshop and there was always a ton of Apple computers returned so you can buy them open box for a nice discount..I would highly recommend doing this, I did it and its as if buying new but with no plasitc seal. There is little to 0% mark up on Apple products either so they often sell open box products to you at a loss, it costs them more having them in the inventory.

Generally if you want a cheap laptop thats not Apple branded (i.e Acer) it will be cheaper here in Canada, follow their flyers and website as they often have sales. Ive seen very basic 15 inch Acers start at $279.99.

Re: Quick question re. purchasing laptops
 

Bootcamp works very well. But why tarnish your nice Mac's hard drive :D

Re: Quick question re. purchasing laptops
 

Ditto on a refurbished Mac

Buy a Mac and only buy it from the Apple store by scrolling down to the Special Deals area under "refurbished". The refurbished Mac's are the cheapest price you will get anywhere - trust me, I did a lot of research into it with looking into Future Shop, Costco, London Drugs, etc.

Don't worry about it being refurbished as they come with the exact same one year warranty as the all the other ones. I've bought three laptops and several Ipods this way and have never had any issues.

Mac's are so much the way to go for personal use.

Re: Quick question re. purchasing laptops
 

This is taken straight from Apples website:

UK Price for 21.5" iMac is 999 GBP ($1606 CAD)

CAD Price $1199.
Each Province has difference tax rates but even here in NS where we get screwed over with 15%, the price is still only $1379.
In Alberta, where GST is 5%, it's $1259.


As I said, Apple products are much cheaper here in Canada than in the UK.

Re: Quick question re. purchasing laptops
 

How much tax are you paying? 13% (HST payable in Ontario) takes the Canadian price to $1411.37, current exchange rates take the UK price to $1615. Seems like a decent enough difference to me!

I agree, if you're buying apple, go for refurbished or open box. Warranties are still intact either way. At least they were with my ipod.

For other brands, there's generally a sale on something somewhere most weeks , Future Shop, Best Buy (same company), Staples, The Source.

Re: Quick question re. purchasing laptops
 

Why?

I see no significant advantage to buying a Mac other than saying you have a Mac?
Mac software is overpriced and hardware is overpriced for what it actually does,
The only plus for Apple products is that if you have a list of Apple products such as iphones, ipads and AppleTV its integrates well… other than that you paying a lot for a brand image…

Re: Quick question re. purchasing laptops
 

Agree completely, Apple control the prices, consequently are over priced compared to PCs, the only real difference is maybe some visual design appearances. There is more PC software than Mac, it is updated more frequently (other than graphics software, which PC and Mac are about the same). The only Apple product I like is the ipad, it is a great tool to use my new GPS software on as it is also touch screen, same as my Garmin GTN750.

Re: Quick question re. purchasing laptops
 

Agreed, another reason why we won't be purchasing a MAC....sorry but I hate the iPad, which I'm using to type this message. In my opnion it's an overpriced piece of crud that doesn't have flash player or usb socket....and typing on it is frustrating to say the least. My son received it as a gift from grandparents but it's been passed to me because he'd rather use his PC.....it ain't the apple of my eye.....

Re: Quick question re. purchasing laptops
 

Viruses, trojans, etc.

I'm on a PC for work every day and for engineering and the programs we run, it's the way to go and 'cus I know my way around one I use to have a PC at home for home use. As the kids got older, they each had PC's 'cus I knew more about them but with surfing the net, I starting spending way too much time fixing them. And yes you can all the greatest anti-virus software like we do at work but they still get in.

I decided to try Mac's for my teenage daughters first, yes they were pricey but in the three years they've had them, I haven't had one problem with them. I've been on a Mac myself for two years for personal use, surfing, downloading, photo editing, website construction, etc. and I've never had a problem and I haven't come across anything that I can't do on a Mac that I could on a PC. For the record, most of the guys in our engineering office are the same - PC for work and a Mac for play - they were the ones that convinced me try one.

And by the way, I'm not big on "brands" so that doesn't factor into the equation. I am Scottish though and yes I'm cheap, so if I'm going to pay a premium for something it better bloody well perform and the Mac has exceeded my expectations and was well worth what I paid for it.

Re: Quick question re. purchasing laptops
 

Agreed they are for some and not for others.

Reasons to go for a Mac (laptop specifically)

- Very hard to get a virus - having had PC's prior to 2010 I would get some form of a virus/malware flag up every few months. Since having a Mac not once. Exact the same for everyone else I know who has one.

- Materials & Parts - Macbook Pros are made from one piece of aluminium, drop this and the casing isnt going to break (internals might not not the outer part) it also doesnt warp. I have had multiple laptops in the past that get stress cracks, warp and crack just with basic wear and tear. Very annoying.

- Software (OS) - Windows computers DO slow down noticably with use, it cant be helped, it is because of the way Windows was designed. Windows knows and acknowledges this (new Windows 8 has one touch restore button to re-install basic OS system to restore speed) Macs slow, but it isnt noticeable. For everyday use this is ideal.

Reasons not to get a Mac,

Price - Alot higher than PC's.
Software availability - getting better, especially with Bootcamp.
Familiarity - Used to Windows, cant handle the change

My personal opinion there are two kinds of people best suite to Mac.
- Digital Artists using high end Adobe and Mac native software
- Basic users who Surf internet, listen to music and download/watch movies

Mid end users who use random bits of software and Gamers are not suited to Macs at all.

Re: Quick question re. purchasing laptops
 

My iMac still works as well and as fast now as it did when I bought it 5 years ago.

For that reason alone, it's worth every penny in my opinion.

I've never had a laptop or PC that has been able to last 5 years and still be in decent shape.

Re: Quick question re. purchasing laptops
 

100% agree. One of the biggest reasons alone.

Futureshop will charge you upwards of $150 to remove viruses if you dont know how to do it yourself - this is ALOT of people. Factor this over mutliple years/PC's and its a no-brainer.

I know investing in a Apple product is seen as overpriced, but your not just paying for the brand name it genuinely is a product that 'works' and will continue to do so without issues for 5 years + Try finding a PC that does this.

Re: Quick question re. purchasing laptops
 

While that's true, I ran Windows PCs for years with no kind of anti-virus and never had a problem even when connected directly to the Internet with only the software firewall for protection. Macs are safer for inexperienced users, but Windows isn't so bad as long as you don't behave in ways that are likely to infect your machine; like running random software you downloaded off the Web.

Of course I run Linux 99% of the time now so that's no longer an issue; I only keep a Windows PC around for iTunes for my girlfriend's iPod.

Re: Quick question re. purchasing laptops
 

Well then you better go check your Mac for a virus update, it can take Apple as long as a couple of months to correct the issue and they have a bad habit of not informing there users that they have a risk of infection.

http://www.montrealgazette.com/techn...318/story.html

The only reason why Mac’s don’t have so many viruses is simply because its smaller market, however the growth of the brand combined with the ignorance and delusion of its owners has made it ripe and easy for attack..

If you really want a virus immune OS then look at one of the better Linux variants and a PC… run from read only ROM/flash... or better still get off the internet

Re: Quick question re. purchasing laptops
 

Macs are PCs.

Assuming you mean 'Windows PC', my old XP machine that I brought over from England doesn't get booted up much anymore but it's still running after nine years; the only issue is that the Microsoft Framework something or other is screwed up and won't update even if I uninstall it and reinstall it. My original $500 Linux PC from 2008 is still working fine after four years too.

I looked at Macs when I bought my new laptop, and for an extra $1500 I could have had an Apple logo, less RAM and a slightly faster CPU. I think you can guess which one I picked.

Re: Quick question re. purchasing laptops
 

Are you serious?

or better yet, just get a Mac.

Re: Quick question re. purchasing laptops
 

Yep its very much possible. But for majority of people this wont be the case. Their laptop they paid $600 for wont last past 2-3 years without needing something done.

Im just trying to explain the benefits over a Windows PC - having worked in the IT dep of a school in England, I can tell you the lifespan of a Windows machine is terrible, dont buy cheap, and dont buy without added protection of at least 3 years.

Re: Quick question re. purchasing laptops
 

Well I have 10+yr IBM laptop running win98 in our lab taking tempreture measurements on a regular basis..

Re: Quick question re. purchasing laptops
 

Same here - Toshiba Satellite laptop bought in 1999 running Windows 2000, perfect now as it was then. Good for emails and web surfing still.
Macs. Wouldn't have 'em in the house.

Re: Quick question re. purchasing laptops
 

That's awesome.

I think my original Pong game will still work if I hook it up to my TV - now which box is it in?

Re: Quick question re. purchasing laptops
 

I can even get my Apple ][ or Apple//c up and running ProDos or Apple Basic

which just disproves a hardware life cyle of less than 3 yrs

FYI we got an old coleco vision up and running last month

Re: Quick question re. purchasing laptops
 

I could have predicted that my post would get you boys discussing your hardware ;)

Question, from OH of course, what are the equivalents to Dabs and Novatech etc, i.e. where to get components when building a PC and is that the cheaper option in Canada rather than buying off the shelf.......