Where is the Cheapest Country to Buy a Laptop?

[Andrew Baxter]

As worldwide currency rates fluctuate and the U.S. dollar tanks we're seeing lots of tourists flock into the country and leave with hordes of electronic goods. Is the U.S. really that much cheaper than the rest of the world for buying?

In order to get an idea of how much laptop prices vary around the world we used the various Dell sites in each country to configure the price for an Inspiron 1520 with the following configuration:

• Intel Core 2 Duo T7150
• Windows Vista Premium
• 15.4" WXGA Screen
• 2GB of RAM
• 160GB HD
• 8x DVD+/-RW Optical Drive
• 6-cell battery
• Dell 1390 Wireless card

	USA	UK	Germany	Japan	Canada	Australia	China
Dell Inspiron 1520	$1,074	£579.01	€879.01	140,830 Yen	$919 CAD	$1,657 AUD	7998.12 Yuan
Converted to US Dollars	$1,074	$1,176	$1,279	$1,249	$901.95	$1,445	$1,085

Based on this we should all be rushing to Canada to buy our laptops, or at least a Dell Inspiron 1520. But a look at the basic Apple MacBook offering with the following specs:

• Intel Core 2 Duo 2.0GHz
• 80GB Hard Drive
• Combo drive
• 1GB RAM

And a look at pricing around the world reveals that the U.S. is much cheaper than anywhere else for this Apple notebook.

	USA	UK	Germany	Japan	Canada	Australia	China
Apple MacBook	$1,099	£699	€1,049	139,800 Yen	$1,249 CAD	$1,599	10,498 Yuan
Converted to US Dollars	$1,099	$1,421	$1,527	$1,240	$1,225.83	$1,394.25	$1,424

Some of the worst laptop prices in the world belong to Australia, ironic since that country is closer than the U.S. to where notebooks are mostly designed and produced in Taiwan. So long as the U.S. dollar remains weak, it's a pretty sure bet consumer electronics in that country will remain cheaper than elsewhere. Which would explain all those European tourists stocking up on electronics goods to take back home. Just be careful about customs and tax declarations on the way back home!

[stamar]

Doesnt this ignore that the dell is actually much cheaper in the us than canada because of the online coupon structure.

If you chose a 1500$ usd dell, it would cost maybe 1800 in europe but 1100$ average in the us.
The price difference for a dell is higher than you listed imo.

[f4ding]

I'm not so sure Taiwan is closer to Australia then to USA.

[Gaza]

Buying a laptop in Malaysia would be pretty cheap imo.

[Andrew Baxter]

Doesnt this ignore that the dell is actually much cheaper in the us than canada because of the online coupon structure.

If you chose a 1500$ usd dell, it would cost maybe 1800 in europe but 1100$ average in the us.
The price difference for a dell is higher than you listed imo.

It does ignore that fact yes, I was assuming an ignorant shopper was making the purchase in each case

Just compared list values.

[swarmer]

Do the European prices include VAT? And do the US ones not include any sales tax? Adding my local sales tax to the US price (8.5% here in San Francisco, CA) brings it pretty darn close to the UK price... for the Dell at least, anyway. (There's still a significant gap with Apple's pricing... And of course not everyone pays as much sales tax.)

[yuio]

yah, can't miss the coupons, wow take a look at apple; look how they screw anyone who is not American (nothing against Americans, just why should you get the better price? I think it should be close to equal)

[Sam]

Well, its important to factor in taxes too...like American states like Oregon with no sales tax, and Canada with lots of sales tax (10% or more, depending on where you are, except Alberta).

[stamar]

oh yes isnt canadian and euro sales tax like almost 20% unavoidable whereas in america it is normally 7% but as low as 0% and as high as 8.5%

Youve got to factor in this data one more step to reality and the price difference is more like 50% at least.

[Cam_86]

Yeah, this seems pretty flawed. Like someone else said, the coupons in america can knock off, literally, 33% of the final price PLUS its easier to avoid GST/PST/VAT/etc...

You should have put an extra column in for 'best price', where you used all applicable coupons, discounts and deals. I remember a few months ago, when i was configuring the 1520 i was planning on buying, the BEST price i could get on dell.ca was around $1500(T7300, 2 gigs of ram, 160gig hard drive, 8600GT) while i saw people on these forums with the exact same system in their sigs, with prices in the $1100 area.