Well that's good. Fantastic. That gives us 20 minutes to save the world and I've got a post office. And it's shut!

Toshiba Australia, You Suck

The Toshiba T115 and T135 are awesome little notebooks.  The T115 has an 11-inch screen and a single-core Core 2 CPU; the T135 a 13-inch screen and a dual-core Core 2.  Apart from that they're basically identical; 1366 x 768 LED-backlit screen, real keyboard, wireless b/g/n, 2GB to 4GB RAM depending on the model, 250GB or 320GB disk likewise.  Not much bigger than a netbook, but a lot more powerful.  The T115 is $461 on Amazon, the T135 starts at around $600.

You can't get them in Australia.

What you can get is the T110 and the T130.  Which have the same specs, but retail for $999 and $1299 respectively.

The Aussie dollar is currently at 91 US cents.  You do the math.

You'd think that with such a huge disparity in pricing, someone would step in and import the US model....  And that's exactly what has happened.  The T115 is $699 locally (including sales tax) and the T135 starts at $899 depending on the model.  They'd probably be even cheaper except that the importer honours the warranty, including shipping costs to and from the US repair centre.

Pure mercantilism, but it's Toshiba's own fault for leaving the door wide open.

Update: Aha!  There's an Athlon Neo X2 version of the T115: dual-core 1.5GHz with Radeon 3200 graphics.  I ran Haruhi with Vista with full Aero effects on a 3200 motherboard for a year - albeit with a 2.6GHz CPU - and that's quite a capable combination.  Cost is $765.  Battery life will probably be noticeably shorter than for the single-core models, but my current notebook's battery is shot and only gets about half an hour on a charge, so it's bound to be an improvement.

Update: Rats, they piddled in my cornflakes.  It doesn't have Wireless-N.  Only one of the 11" models does, in fact.  But then my current notebook doesn't have Wireless-N either.

Update: Huh.  When did Australia enter the 21st century?

All goods (except for tobacco products and alcoholic beverages) may be imported duty and tax free if their value is $1,000 or less.

Update: That model is $498 on Amazon.  So $699 $765 locally isn't bad is a little steep, but still a lot cheaper than Toshiba Australia, who don't offer that model at all.  They list a 6-hour battery life compared to 8 hours for the slower Intel single-core with its slower Intel graphics; I think that's a reasonable trade-off.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 01:29 AM | Comments (9) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
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