BajaNomad

Laptop

geraldalexander7 - 10-8-2020 at 12:31 PM

I’m in the market for a laptop. I live in La Paz.
Any suggestions on finding one. Maybe small business, private party..etc
I have looked online on Office Depot
Thanks
Gerald

mtgoat666 - 10-8-2020 at 12:41 PM

Quote: Originally posted by geraldalexander7  
I’m in the market for a laptop. I live in La Paz.
Any suggestions on finding one. Maybe small business, private party..etc
I have looked online on Office Depot
Thanks
Gerald


in usa, good brick/mortar store selection/price is costco. does costco in BCS sell laptops?

for simple and cheap, i am a fan of chromebooks.
if you got healthy budget, get an apple.

Casey67 - 10-8-2020 at 01:01 PM

I highly recommend that you do NOT buy a Mexican laptop if English is your comfortable language. I bought one at Coppel a couple of years back and immediately regretted it. Came with Windows 10 single language version in Spanish only, and an extra cost to add the english pack from MS. The keyboard layout is completely foriegn to anybody familiar with a US keyboard. Most of the punctuation and other symbols are all over the place or missing. Luckily I use an external keyboard , mouse and monitor 99% of the time.

Add to that, laptops and most electronics cost roughly 50% more than you'd pay in the US for the same item. Find something you like on Amazon and have it brought/shipped down. I hope that helps.

Archie - 10-8-2020 at 01:04 PM

¿you have access to Facebook?

Marketplace has an elecronics category, there you can filter by zip code to see only the results closer to weherever you are.

Don Pisto - 10-8-2020 at 01:10 PM

Quote: Originally posted by Casey67  
I highly recommend that you do NOT buy a Mexican laptop if English is your comfortable language. I bought one at Coppel a couple of years back and immediately regretted it. Came with Windows 10 single language version in Spanish only, and an extra cost to add the english pack from MS. The keyboard layout is completely foriegn to anybody familiar with a US keyboard. Most of the punctuation and other symbols are all over the place or missing. Luckily I use an external keyboard , mouse and monitor 99% of the time.

Add to that, laptops and most electronics cost roughly 50% more than you'd pay in the US for the same item. Find something you like on Amazon and have it brought/shipped down. I hope that helps.


xlnt tip! I've been searching Marketplace for a used one (I have two chromebooks and just want a laptop for a music library) did not know about the spanish only deal-e-o!

pauldavidmena - 10-8-2020 at 03:02 PM

If you subscribe to Baja Western Onion you'll notice one or two locals who sell refurbished laptops all the time. I have yet to buy a brand new computer in the 30 or so years I've owned one.

Lee - 10-8-2020 at 03:33 PM

Quote: Originally posted by pauldavidmena  
If you subscribe to Baja Western Onion you'll notice one or two locals who sell refurbished laptops all the time. I have yet to buy a brand new computer in the 30 or so years I've owned one.


Scott is the guy in Pescadero you want to reach. Don't know if the link below is current but that's where he advertises. He'll have what you're looking for.

Alan is a member here and publishes the Onion. I've deleted the last edition that came through but saw Scott's ad there.

http://bajawesternonion.com

chippy - 10-8-2020 at 03:37 PM

Check out Sams. Much better selection and prices than Office Depot.

John Harper - 10-8-2020 at 04:05 PM

What's your budget?

John

JZ - 10-8-2020 at 08:24 PM

Samsung is my favorite.

Just bought one on Amazon for one of my kids. Much better than Dell. Bright screens, touch screens.

surabi - 10-8-2020 at 08:45 PM

Quote: Originally posted by Casey67  
I highly recommend that you do NOT buy a Mexican laptop if English is your comfortable language. I bought one at Coppel a couple of years back and immediately regretted it. Came with Windows 10 single language version in Spanish only, and an extra cost to add the english pack from MS. The keyboard layout is completely foriegn to anybody familiar with a US keyboard. Most of the punctuation and other symbols are all over the place or missing. Luckily I use an external keyboard , mouse and monitor 99% of the time.

Add to that, laptops and most electronics cost roughly 50% more than you'd pay in the US for the same item. Find something you like on Amazon and have it brought/shipped down. I hope that helps.


??? You make it sound like some insurmountable problem. I have a laptop I bought in Mexico, it came with Windows 10 and all the language packs and was easy to switch Windows to English.

No English punctuation is "missing" or "all over the place" on a Spanish keyboard, it's just in different places and it's a matter of finding out where. So yes, it's a bit of a learning curve, but it didn't take me more than a couple days to get the hang of it.

pauldavidmena - 10-9-2020 at 05:02 AM

Quote: Originally posted by Lee  
Quote: Originally posted by pauldavidmena  
If you subscribe to Baja Western Onion you'll notice one or two locals who sell refurbished laptops all the time. I have yet to buy a brand new computer in the 30 or so years I've owned one.


Scott is the guy in Pescadero you want to reach. Don't know if the link below is current but that's where he advertises. He'll have what you're looking for.

Alan is a member here and publishes the Onion. I've deleted the last edition that came through but saw Scott's ad there.

http://bajawesternonion.com


It looks like I posted http://forums.bajanomad.com/viewthread.php?tid=93297#pid1169... about a year ago - although it feels like it could have been centuries before that...

weebray - 10-9-2020 at 09:19 AM

I'll second the motion for Chromebook. For about 200 bucks they are hard to beat. Especially in La Paz where the internet is lightning fast. I bought a 2TB external drive to supplement it's only shortcoming (smallish storage) I have yet to use it.

weebray - 10-9-2020 at 09:21 AM

BTW. I agree you want a computer made for the us. I got such a great deal on Amazon (US) that it paid for the extra shipping and tax. Also got it in 5 days.

RFClark - 5-19-2022 at 04:53 PM

Be sure you install the latest fix for the big security hole in the Chrome book if you buy one.

mtgoat666 - 5-19-2022 at 05:42 PM

Chrome books are great. Cheap too. Dont buy used computer when new is so cheap.

JZ - 5-19-2022 at 06:33 PM

Quote: Originally posted by lencho  

Hadn't heard about it; you have more details? :O


From what I've heard, it stops ppl from breaking into your laptop with the intent of blocking your ability to delete more than 1 forum posts per week.

This may or may not be germane to you.

Bob and Susan - 5-20-2022 at 09:59 AM

get the fastest processer speed///dont "cheap out"

your internet is only as fast as the processor

cheap computers have slow processors
junk

SFandH - 5-20-2022 at 11:13 AM

Quote: Originally posted by Bob and Susan  
get the fastest processer speed///dont "cheap out"

your internet is only as fast as the processor

cheap computers have slow processors
junk


I paid $250 for a Samsung Chromebook, model XE500C12, 10 years ago and have been using it daily since then. 10 YEARS OF DAILY USE!

It works fine for me. But all the software I use runs in the Chrome browser. I don't edit videos or play games on it.

I am impressed with the hardware. It's still like new.

IMHO Samsung makes good stuff. I also have an ancient Samsung android phone.

pauldavidmena - 5-21-2022 at 07:25 AM

The Dell Refurbished website sells refurbished laptops and other hardware for a fraction of the cost. I bought a 1 year-old XPS 13 laptop for under $500 in its original packaging. I invalidated the warranty immediately by installing Ubuntu on it. :D

AKgringo - 5-21-2022 at 08:52 AM

I recently bought a new Lenovo 15" laptop at Staples. It was on sale for $249, which is something that appeals to me since the way I travel in Baja puts my electronics at risk of loss or damage.

A top-of-the-line unit would be wasted on me!

[Edited on 5-21-2022 by AKgringo]

SFandH - 5-21-2022 at 09:16 AM

Quote: Originally posted by lencho  
Quote: Originally posted by SFandH  

I paid $250 for a Samsung Chromebook, model XE500C12, 10 years ago and have been using it daily since then. 10 YEARS OF DAILY USE!

Chromebooks definitely have their (very useful) place. The only part that bugs me some-- since the hardware does tend to last forever-- is the auto update policy; Google stops updating the software potentially long before the hardware dies.

About how vulnerable that might leave the Chromebook after that, I have no information.

[Edited on 5-20-2022 by lencho]


Yup, auto updates for my Chromebook expired in Sep 2021. I'm still using it though.

Windows does the same thing. My also ancient Dell desktop came with Windows XP on it. They stopped supporting that. I reformatted the disk and installed Cloudready's version of the open source Google chrome operating system. Google recently bought Cloudready and is supporting the OS. It's a great way to modernize an old Windows PC and it was free when I did it. I'm using the old Dell now.

JZ - 5-21-2022 at 09:23 AM

Got this one last summer. Super thin and very powerful. Best and brightest screen you can get.

SAMSUNG Galaxy Book Pro Professional Laptop, 15.6 Inches, Windows 10 Home
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09R94XYBS/ref=redir_mobile_deskto...

Chrome books are fine if you just want to search the internet. You need complete laptop if you want to do any serious work.


[Edited on 5-21-2022 by JZ]

AKgringo - 5-21-2022 at 09:50 AM

JZ, this is the one I got in January. It appears to be very similar to yours in size, with less storage, but came with Windows 11 installed. For the $1,100 difference, I think I can buy some additional storage!

https://www.bing.com/aclk?ld=e8fZBW1PHqTNrOW8wi9kvrcjVUCUzO7...