Buying LAPTOP in US , will it work wireless here ?

mikemike

hi ,
A friend is going to the states soon and offered to bring back a new laptop for me as she agreed mine's a bit dated now ..

I found the one I want with free US delivery and it's roughly €400 cheaper then the same one here ..

my main question is will it work the same as my present one on the wiresless router I have at home (BT Ireland) router ,, and is the software basically the same etc. etc.

also , will it play region 2 dvd's ?

and will she get into trouble bringing it back on the plane ?

sorry for all the questions .

thanks in advance ..

leninbenjamin

The standards are the same across the water. It's just a case of checking what IEEE standard your router uses. If it's 802.11a you'll have to look for a backwards compatible wireless network card in the laptop. If it's b or g you should be grand.

mikemike

thanks for that , I'll look into it ..

will it also play region 2 dvds ?

and would the euro sign still be easily accessible on the keyboard , or would I have to change the settings to a euro keyboard ?

Alanstrainor

Yes it'll play region 2. And there is the possibility you'll have to pay 21.5% VAT + customs charge when entering Ireland.
And before it starts, discussion of tax evasion will result in infractions/bans.

leninbenjamin

mikemike wrote: »

and would the euro sign still be easily accessible on the keyboard , or would I have to change the settings to a euro keyboard ?

you would have to change the settings to Ireland/UK alright and there'll probably be a few keys mislabelled, namely " # \ but you get used to it. Or you can just leave it as it is, there differences are pretty small.

There was a time where US keyboards had one less key than UK, but i think most of them now have the same amount. Probably something to check out before buying though if you want to set it to Ireland/UK.

Overheal

Alanstrainor wrote: »

Yes it'll play region 2. And there is the possibility you'll have to pay 21.5% VAT + customs charge when entering Ireland.
And before it starts, discussion of tax evasion will result in infractions/bans.

Id like the definitive answer on that though. is it just laptops or do Irish customs make you declare everything you buy in the states to take a cut out of it?

Tom Dunne

Overheal wrote: »

Id like the definitive answer on that though. is it just laptops or do Irish customs make you declare everything you buy in the states to take a cut out of it?

If you are bringing something back on a plane as hand luggage, you will not have any problems. I have come back from the US with two - one work, and one personal laptop.

If something is being delivered to Ireland from outside the EU, it will most likely get stopped for the above.

You are allowed to bring in items to the value of 175 Euro as a passenger, as far as I recall. Everything after that is taxed and is supposed to be declared.

Overheal

Thats clear. I still need to ask someone the deal about tax return forms. Im probably wrong but I figured if you didnt get a tax rebate for US goods then you couldnt be double-taxed on the items.

robinph

US wireless network cards pickup a couple less channels than EU ones. Unlikely to be an issue though but did have me confused for a while as to why a US Mac couldn't see a freinds network for a while until I changed the router settings.