Hi
I will be visiting Shanghai, ho Chi Minh city and Singapore over the next few weeks. I am interested in buying a Playstation portable and mini iPOD and was wondering where the best (ie. cheapest) place is to buy these please? Any idea of price?
Cathy

I am guessing from your other posts that you are from the UK. You may find electronics cheaper in Asia, but do some shopping at home before you go to make sure. Also consider ordering on-line from apple.com in the US where they have minis at US$250. I would be a bit wary of buying in China, as fakes abound in most things, and electronics are no exception. I would not buy from a street stall or street market, stick to an electronics shop and even then be careful. At a minimum, be very sure there are (i) instructions in English,(ii) a world-wide warranty in English, and (iii) the CD is inside the package or otherwise you can’t run the software.

Can’t speak for the play station, but I would be very careful on this as well and make sure you have a worldwide warranty.

I love my mini, but would say that if you have 220 CDs or more that you want to transfer, you should spend the extra money for an i-pod as it has about 10 times the memory space for about $50 more in price.

Hi Cicerone
Thanks a lot for your response. I do live in the UK. Unfotunately Apple do not ship internationally so the only option we have is to pay UK (ie. more expensive) prices which is why I am looking to buy these items elsewhere! I would be careful to buy from a shop with a proper guarantee as you correctly advise. I just don't know how where I might get the best deal!
Cathy

If you have any friends or colleagues in the US, Apple can ship to them, and they can forward on to you. I live in Zurich and encounter the same problem with US companies. I have my family send them on, and mark them as a gift so I don't pay any customs duty.

You might find US companies will ship to Canada, so if you have Canadian friends, family or colleagues, that might work too.

I did not see the Singapore part on your message. If you buy anywhere, I would buy in Singapore, as your chances of encountering a fake are a lot less, and if you have a problem, you can complain to the tourism board which actually does have some clout with the government.

Apple control its sales channel pretty closely around the world, so you won't find prices siginificantly lower than list. In the US, sometimes you can have some websites selling for about 10% off, but that's about it. It's probably same thing elswhere in the world.

The iPod Mini is S$458 in Singapore, which is about 150GBP. So, you do save about 30GBP, compared to the UK price.

I wouldn't bother looking for one in China.

Also, while the cheapest iPod is only US$50 more than the Mini, that model is only 20GB, or 5x the Mini. The 40GB one is US$399, or $150 more than the Mini.

Cathy, to support rkkwan's point about Apple pricing, the going price of a Mini in Australia is AU$399, about £160.

I wouldn't expect to find big savings on genuine-article items in China. My daughter bought a Sony digital camera there, and after shopping around and beating the vendor down by a few yuan still saved very little on the Australian price.

I'd certainly feel more comfortable buying in Singapore than in either Shanghai or HCMC. You'll find other bargains in those places (clothes, for example).