Computer in China
 

I'll be going to China for 17 days and a colleague suggested that I look for a new laptop for my son while there. If I did so, I could choose, my Chinese associates say, between IBM and Lenovo--essentially the same machine, but one with a warranty (IBM) but much more expensive and the other (Lenovo) without a US warranty.

But then I asked another friend who works for IBM what I should do and he suggested that I might not be able to import a laptop from China.

Any suggestions on either of these issues will be appreciated. You can also contact me by e-mail if you have advice--since I'll be off to Japan and away from FT in a few days. Thanks myuch.

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry7520/4.0.0 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 UP.Browser/5.0.3.3 UP.Link/5.1.2.16)

When I was an expat in China, we bought a Benq laptop. After two years, the OS froze, the touchpad stopped working and one of the USB ports stopped working. I put the hard rive in a USB case to protect the data, but the rest of the machine is useless.

If I had it to do over, I would get a US machine, unless you're going to live there. You can get a Dell laptop for less than $1000, and have full warrantee. YMMV.

Don't know about being able to buy and import a laptop while in China. But I can tell you this. I am extremely satisfied with my Lenovo ThinkPad X40, which I received for Christmas. So far, so good.