martina

Hi there,
I want to buy an Olympus 400 digital camera and I have been looking at them here at home. The cheapest I've seen is €419 (euro)approx $520. Should I wait until I go to Bangkok in Feb. to buy it? What price should I expect to pay, where should I purchase it or is it not a good idea?

JamesA

In general Thailand is 'not' a place for cheap electronics, Hong Kong and Singapore 'Yes'.
Especially for a Digital camera I would buy localy from a local business who you know.

orgy7

Personlay I have yer too find any electroncs in BKK/SIN/or HK that offer prics cheaper then you can get online from USA..

in BKK it seems that every electonics is worh 1.5 to 2x as much.. and if you do find a bargain. your reciept will say NO REFUND..

martina

Thanks JamesA and orgy7 for this and previous information.

dko3tgk

I agree. Bangkok is not the best place to buy electronics. I have bought 3 different cameras now in Asia and I usually stick to HK. BAngkok felt like it wasn't as legitimate. ANd places that seemed better were pretty much retail priced. ANd I also agree with the fact that HK isn't a whole lot cheaper than the US. B and H Photo is a store in NY that usually has comparable prices to HK. And they sell online. I usually use their price as a guide when I go to HK to buy a camera. The cameras I did buy in HK beat the B and H or NY street price significantly and that's why I bought them in HK, but I found that alot of cameras were not that much cheaper in HK.

GSM cell phones however are a good deal cheaper in Bangkok. JUst go to to the upper floors of MBK, I found the prices there to be cheaper on average than HK.

However, what is good in terms of electronics in Asia are the ASia only models that aren't available in the US. Some ASia market only items like tiny digital cameras or MP3 players with milky color finishes or multiple color options. I saw alot of MP3 players in HK that aren't available in the US. Also alot of smaller Japanese and Korean brands had different tiny MP3 players and digital cameras that aren't available here. If you are into that, that's what ASia is good for in terms of electronics pricing. For an item that is the same here, more often than not it would be similarly priced here and I would just buy it here.

dywong

I have also been disappointed to find digital cameras and memory cards selling for just as much, if not more in Bangkok. As one solution, I simply bring my trusty 35mm and have the rolls developed in BKK where they also will transfer the prints onto a disk. Compared to the US, it is substantially less expensive and perhaps better, the prints have better quality and I'm not frustrated by my digital camera's internal delay, low batteries, etc.
For 5 rolls of film, I paid a total of 1600 baht. You may be able to do better.

orgy7

definatly have your pictures printed in BKK.. I paid about $5 too have 32 digital pics printed..

getmet41

hi this question is directed to dko3tgk:
I am interested in buying several GSM cell phones in Bangkok (for me and some friends)... where is a good place to go and just give me some general info on purchasing GSM cell phones in BKK. Thanks- Todd

JamesA

We have several cellphones in the office and every single employee has their own, prices range a great deal but an absolute 'basic' Nokia 5110 costs B 3,950 which is exactly US$100, others we have cost around B 7,950 which is just on US$200, staff have flashy ones which cost betwwen B12-20k, i.e US$300-510

dko3tgk

Hi getmet41,

I ended up buying my cellphone in HK. In my opinion, BKK has better prices, but HK is a little more cutting edge in having the newer models earlier. At the time I was in Asia. HK had the model I wanted, BKK didn't. Are you also going to HK?

First thing is to research what models you would be interested in. Also you need to remember that Asia, except including Japan and Korea and parts of China, use GSM. Here in the US you need service with T-Mobile, AT&T, or Cingular to use an asian phone. No Sprint or Verizon, they use a different technology, similar to Korea. The phone should be a tri-band phone. The US uses two frequencies 850 and 1900 mhz. Asia/Europe uses 900 and 1800 mhz. A tri-band phone uses both Asia/Europe frequncies and 1900 in the US. I may be wrong but I think Cingular might use 1900mhz in some areas. There are 1 or 2 quad-band phones with all four frequencies but they are pretty expensive and there is only maybe 2-3 models on the market.

There are alot of websites that talk about overseas models.
(I do not work for any of these sites. And I recommend them because I personally look at them)
Mobile Review is a Russian site that is pretty comprehensive.
http://www.mobile-review.com/index-en.shtml

Plemix is an online store in Washington state, that has prices, in my shopping travels, that are pretty close to the HK prices I've seen. I would use them as a comparison to the prices you see in Asia.
http://www.plemix.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?

So first look at Mobile-Review to see which tri/quad-band phone you would be interested in. Then look at Plemix and have the prices with you as a reference when shopping in BKK.

In BKK my Thai phone friends say MBK is the cheapest and best selection in one place. In the higher floors in the back is the flea market looking section, and its almost all phones. Its easy to get overwhelmed, walk around and ask for the model you want and how much it costs.
For bargaining, in both MBK in HK and Mongkok in HK, prices can't be bargained by a whole lot. THis is becasue these areas are so concentrated with phone vendors that its very competitive already. You can bargain a little, but don't expect huge price cuts.

As for my opinions into what phone makers are better than others?
Samsung is about style. It usually has the smallest phones, usually clamshell, with generally better screens and ringtone capability. SonyEricsson is more tech heavy, with all of the cutting edge features like bluetooth and higher res cameras. Nokias are the midrange phones. Size are decent, usually candybar form, and reasonably priced. But not exceptional in any category or feature. The Japanese phones brands like Panasonic and Sanyo have almost all the features in one phone, but aren't that small, and pretty expensive. I'm not too familiar with Siemens, other than the people who i know that have them usually complain about durability. I have a few friends with the SL55 slider phone where the slide has worn out. Mobile-Review will have more details than I can provide.

Lastly, prices may seem really high. This is not true. Prices in the $300-$600 range. What you need to understand this is the non-subsidized price. In the US when you sign a new service contract, the store usually gives you a portion of their commission to subsidize the cost of the phone. That's why you see specials for $100 phones and free phones. You should look for a local phone store, and ask them, if you brought your own phone, how much money would they give you towards the phone. Depending on how much commission the store is getting paid by the service providers affects the amount. It should be between $150-$400. This is very common in Asian-American phone stores in your local Chinatown and Koreatown. But if you don't have one of those near you, independent, non-company phone stores should be wiling to offer that deal to you if you ask around enough places. So a $350 phone you bought in Asia, after signing a service contract here in the US, the phone may end up costing $150. As much as a US model, except yours is a really cool Asia model that may be up to a year away from US release or never at all.
If you have any other questions you may AIM me at RamenXprt
Sorry to everyone for the long post. Its not an easy process for people who are new at this.
dko3tgk