can i go to america to get a cheaper macbook pro???

hi,
i am from England and this summer i am going on holiday to the states, i was thinking of getting myself a Macbook Pro over there because i worked out that it would be £300 cheaper than buying one here.

-will an American MBP be compatible in England?
-are there laws about that kind of thing?

thanks!

louiscoxx,

You would likelyhave to use an electrical adapter to plug into the wall socket, but as long as you can provide 110 volts ac, you should be OK. As for legality, I don't see any problem, but you would have to pay customs duty for the amount if your country requires that.

Go to an Apple store and ask those questions before the purchase. The electrical question would be of the most concern, I would think.

Good luck and have a really good holiday trip to our lovely Country.

Noel

I believe it does void warranty, at least it does for ipods.
Because I wanted to import an ipod but someone told me it voids the warranty

I think it will cost you more to travel to america and then buy the MB Pro and then pay customs and taxes. So I suggest that you buy it from england.

Seb- said:

I think it will cost you more to travel to america and then buy the MB Pro and then pay customs and taxes. So I suggest that you buy it from england.

Click to expand...

im not paying for the holiday!

Hi:

A MBP purchased in the US will work just fine in the UK. The only adaptor you'll need is for the AC mains. Mac power input automatically adjusts to world wide AC use. IOW, from the standard US\Canada 120V 60 Hz to 220-240 AC 50 Hz in the UK and throughout most of Europe.

How to get it past UK customs without paying VAT and so forth, is another matter. ;D

Regards.

chscag said:

How to get it past UK customs without paying VAT and so forth, is another matter.

Click to expand...

I'm told that the most commonly used technique is to discard all packaging, ship back any extra materials you want to keep, and when stopped at customs, claim that you brought it with you in first place. I know one person who did this and was asked to produce a receipt or proof of payment. Of course, he didn't have it, was allowed to leave, and when (weeks later) he was pressed by customs to produce documentation, paid the duty and a hefty fine.

Given the weakness of the dollar, I'd imagine customs is especially interesting in people returning from U.S. vacations.

There are several problems, some of which have already been stated:

1) It will obviously not have a UK power cable. This is not *too* much of an issue with Apple products as the power heads are actually detachable. So if you have any other Apple branded something with power (such as an iPod charger) you can use the head from that, or pick one up at the Apple online store.
2) The keyboard layout will be slightly different. For some people, this is no big deal, for others it's disastrous, especially if you have to switch between UK and US keyboard layouts frequently. You should note that the enter key is particularly different on US keyboards - it's rectangular like the other keys whereas ours are a funny shape. This shows you the US keyboard layout: http://c.matallin.com/wp-content/uploads/design_gal07_20080226.jpg
3) It does technically break customs laws. Be very careful. You could say you brought it out with you... but the Americanisms such as the power plug might make that less than convincing.