Saturday 10 November 2007

Buying a MacBook Pro? go to Hong Kong!

Yes, if you live in Singapore, and you plan on buying the MacBook Pro, and you have a day [or a few] to spare, why not go over to Hong Kong to purchase your new toaster MacBook Pro?

Not only will you save money, but you get to get out of the country for once!
Why? Coz it's cheaper in Hong Kong!

Let me do the Math for you.

Let's say I want to buy the higher-end 15" MacBook Pro. That's the one with
-2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
-2GB RAM
-256MB NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT
-160GB 5400rpm HDD

Singapore Price tag: S$4267.00, inclusive of GST, or S$3,987.65, for those who will benefit from GST refund.

The similar model from the Apple Online Hong Kong store: HK$ 19,200 [no tax applies].
HK$ 19,200 = S$ 3,555.69, which is just S$100 more than the lower-end 15" MacBook Pro model.

But you'll be saying: Getting to Hong Kong cost money, too!
Yes, indeed it does. but how much money is that?

For this, I checked with PriceLine.com.sg. To save money, one probably wouldn't want to check in at a hotel. so let's try to book for a one-day round-trip ticket on Cathay Pacific for 21 Nov 2007, pretty close to the High-season.
Ticket cost: S$601, including taxes.

Grand total:
S$601 + $3555.69 = $4156.69

Savings: $4267 - $4156.69 = $110.31

but of course, you may have wasted $110.31 worth of time in the process as well, since the flights are 3h 45 min each way, then you have to wait in the terminal, then there's 4 road trips: home-airport, airport-shop [unless you want to shop at the airport shops. they have shops there, though the prices should still be the same.], shop-airport, airport-home.

it's a hassle, but if you need to save a hundred smackeroos, I'ld do it. Besides, you could go to HK disneyland for a vacation! money well-spent!

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