Dubai's definitive guide on Gitex offers

XPRESS does the legwork and sifts through all those confusing offers to bring you the best of the lot

• By Ivan D'Souza, Chief Sub-Editor
• 

 

• Image Credit:
• BUS_120930_GITEX BUSINESS GITEX Shopper is the biggest consumer electronics retail platform for retailers and world class brands. PHOTO:Francois Nel

DUBAI: They're sleek, they're fast and they've got brains. And they're creating all the buzz this Gitex.

We're talking Ultrabooks which are making consumers push the envelope on pre-defined budgets. "Ultrabooks are definitely attracting customers looking for a lightweight, powerful, classy-looking laptop," said Muad, a salesman 
at one of the stalls.

However, be prepared to shell out Dh1,000-Dh3,000 more for these feather-light, ultrathin (20mm) beauties — you get compensated with a 2.5 faster processing speed, start-up in 13 seconds and 6-8 hours of battery life.

Apart from that, this year's Gitex has witnessed good interest in laptops, tablets, cameras and TVs. The new venue has seen train-loads (thanks to Metro proximity) of shoppers and tech-geeks descend on the Dubai World Trade Centre (DWTC) to pick and choose from bundle offers at every stall. "Gitex is not about prices, it's about bundle offers, latest products and of course on-the-spot promotions," said Osaid, a salesman at the LG stand.

The manager of a Sharaf DG stall told XPRESS: "In the first few days, people usually compare products and offers, while the serious buying usually occurs deeper into the event."

Gitex Shopper 2012 is featuring about 30,000 products from 120 participating brands and retailers from 10 countries.

Coming back to the deals, while there's nothing quite like last year's BlackBerry Playbook-on-Playbook offer, there are a few good deals going around and they should get better in the last three days.

However with almost everyone offering tantalising deals, it can all get pretty confusing.

No need to fret. XPRESS has done the hard work for you so that you don't have to get tangled up trying to figure out which arthe best-in-clas products, deals and ideas making a buzz this Gitex. Here are our picks of the best offers at Gitex.

Happy Shopping.

Top deals of Gitex 2012

Laptops

HP Envy 4-1080ee Sleekbook

The HP Envy Sleekbook comes with a Beat Audio Headphone worth Dh400, in addition to a 7" Touchmate tablet, a 320GB hard disk and accessories (headset, mouse, carry case). The 14" features third generation i5-3317U 1.7GHZ processor and comes with 4GB DDR3 RAM and a 500GB hard drive. Dh2,999.

Also check out HP Pavilion g4-2191 (15.6", Intel Core i7-3632, 6GB DDR 3, 750 HDD. Dh2,499.

The Asus K56CA (15.6", i5-3317, 4GB RAM, 500GB HDD) which is 21mm slim at Dh 1,999 is also a good bet.

Dell Inspiron 15R (i5-3210M processor), this 15.6" laptop boasts 6GB RAM, 500 GB hard drive, 1GB dedicated Graphics and Windows 7 Dh2,399

Acer Aspire/V5

Thirty per cent thinner, 10 per cent lighter and definitely cheaper, this 14" looker features an i5-3317U processor, 4GB RAM, 500 GB HDD, with the opportunity to upgrade to Windows 8.

Dh2,099 (Dh2,299 for 15.6" V5-571G i5-3317U, 6GB RAM)

Ultrabook

HP FOLIO 131000EXJUM

UltraThin, 13.3 Inch display, Intel core I5 1.6GHZ 4GB RAM, 128GB SSD, Windows 7 Home Premium, Microsoft Office 2010 Starter, Symantec. The bundle offer is the killer — Beat Audio Headphone worth Dh400, a 7" Touchmate tablet, a 320GB hard disk, along with accessories (headset, mouse, carry case). Dh2,999

SLR

Nikon D3200 is a worthy successor to the D3100 with a 24.2 MP DX sensor and EXPEED 3 image processor. The Dh3,299 DSLR comes with a two-year warranty.

The Sharaf DG offer on the D3200 has to be best deal this Gitex. Spend just Dh200 more and get the camera+18-55mm kit lens, a 4GB card, carry case, tripod AND AN iPad 2 – 16GB WiFi for Dh3,499 (you save Dh1,699).

And at Emax you can get this camera for Dh1,649 (see box below) or get a 32" Samsung full HD LED TV with the D3200 at Dh3,999. Carrefour is also selling the D3100 (4GB card) for Dh1,999 with a Dh500 voucher thrown in

Digicam

In digicams there are many offers, but the best of the lot has to be the Fujifilm Finepix T400 – 16mp, 10x optical zoom, 3" LCD, HD video (720p) (was Dh599, now Dh299 with 4GB memory card+case free) and Finepix JX300 – 14mp, 5x optical zoom, 2.7" LCD (was Dh329, now Dh165. Both have a 5-year warranty

TV

Get a Samsung LED 40" UA40EH6000 TV along with a home theatre system for Dh2,700 (Original price TV: Dh2,300: home theatre (Dh900) at Samsung. Carrefour is offering a Samsung LED 32" TV (HD Ready, HDMI port, USB slot. Dh1379 + DH300 Carrefour voucher; Toshiba LED 32" TV Dh1,399+Dh300 Carrefour voucher

Mobile phone

Sharaf DG is offering a Samsung Galaxy Nexus (GT19250 – 16GB, 4.65" HD screen, Android 4.0, 1.2 GHZ dual core processor) for Dh999 against old price of Dh2,449 with an etisalat SIM card (160 minutes talk time).

Tablets

While there's no beating the iPad or Galaxy, here are some cheaper options worth considering:

HCL ME U1 7" (Android 4.0.3, 4GB storage, WiFi for Dh399), Me Y2 (3G and WiFi, Android 4.0.3, 8 GB storage for Dh799). Touch is very good, and HCL's own app store has 15,000 apps. You could also look at Simmtronics 7" at Dh299. Touchmate has a one-plus-one 7" 4 GB tablet offer for Dh799, while Eurostar also has 1+1 ( 10.1" and 7offer for Dh899

Offers by retailers

- At Plug-Ins, buy items worth Dh1,000 and spin the wheel to win cash vouchers, mobile phones, cameras etc. On laptops between Dh2,000-Dh2,498, get a 500GB hard disk+speaker+accessories; between Dh2,499-Dh3,498, get a 7" tablet+speaker+accessories. You also get a 7" tablet on any SLRs up to Dh2,998 and a 500GB hard disk thrown in on SLRs above that

- Emax is offering free Karbonn tablets on laptops above Dh2,000. In cameras, get 50 per cent off on a Nikon D3200 (Dh1,649 against the retail price of Dh3,299) in exchange for your old DSLR (working condition with charger), 50 per cent off on some models of new digicams (Nikon, Sony, Canon, Fujifilm) in exchange for your old digicam (working condition, lithium ion battery and charger). Emax is also offering a tablet free with the Samsung Galaxy SIII, BlackBerry Bold 9900 and Nokia 808

- At Jacky's for every Dh300 you spend, get a raffle coupon to win a Nikon camera every ten minutes. On laptops they are offering accessories (mouse, antivirus, headset etc) and either a 320GB hard drive, or a 3-in-1 printer, or a tablet depending on the laptop price.

- Jumbo is offering a hard drive, (Seagate 500 GB), with accessories kit on laptops between Dh1,499-Dh1,999; 14mp camera and accessories kit on laptops between Dh2,000-Dh2,499, a camera and DVD player on laptops between Dh2,500-Dh2,999 and tablet+camera on laptops between Dh3,000-Dh3,499. On every Sony product purchase above Dh1,500 get a Dh500 Sony voucher. In addition every Dh300 spent entitles you to a raffle coupon for a chance to win an iPhone 4s every hour.

- Sharaf DG is giving out freebies worth Dh20 million. The best offers are on laptops - Dh1,999-Dh2,498 you get accessories and a 500GB hard drive; Dh2,199 and above (accessories and a 7" tablet); Dh2,499-Dh2,478 (accessories and Nikon digicam). Plus buy accesories and you can win an iPad every hour, or Dh5,000 cash. You can also win prizes in a 'spin and win' deal on purchases about Dh1,000

- At Asus you stand to win a Zenbook every day.

- Fujitsu's 8 days, 8 offers deal gives consumers the chance to win phone, cameras and other stuff.

Laptop makeover (SSD):

If you can't buy an expensive Ultrabook, how about turning your old laptop or computer into something close to an Ultrabook - that too at a much lesser price?

And its also simple - all you need to do is replace the main hard drive on your laptop/computer with Sandisk's new 2.5" Extreme SSD (Solid State Drive). Call up Redington, drop the laptop/computer with them and they will copy all your data from your laptop to the new drive.

The Sandisk Extreme SSD comes with a three-year warranty and can boost computer performance considerably. Boasting 6GB RAM, the SSD is 2.5 times faster than normal drives and bring improved safety and security features. For example if you drop your laptop, there's no risk of data loss since the shock/vibration-resistant drive has no moving parts. Start-up takes just ten to 13 seconds and application loading times are considerably shorter, with battery performance also boosted due to low power consumption.

Priced at Dh550 for 120GB, Dh975 for 240GB and Dh1,800 for 480GB, the installation is done in 3-4 working days for free

Danube:

DanubeDirect.com, an e-commerce portal from Danube group is selling mobile phones, laptops, tablets, at 20-30 per cent less than the retail price. The best offer was on the Samsung Galaxy SIII (16GB) that's selling at Dh1989 (market price – Dh2,399), iPhone 5 for 3,799 (16GB) iPad 3 Dh2299 (WiFi and cellular - 16 GB). They offer a one year warranty on all products, free home delivery and 14 day return policy.

Note: Your entry ticket gives you a chance to win Samsung Galaxy SIII phones, LG gift vouchers and the grand prize of a Ford Mustang!!

Fact Box

Buying a laptop? Read this...

First be clear on what you want. For most, an Intel Core i3-processor laptop will do perfectly well, but it's better to go for one with an i5 (third generation) processor or i7 as the price differential has come down to around Dh200-Dh500 (There's even an i7 (HP) for Dh2,499)

What are 1st, 2nd and 3rd generation processors?

if the processor number starts with a '2' it means second generation (example: i5-2450) and '3' means third generation (example: i5-3317U).

Usually i3s are first generation. Obviously go for laptops with the latest third generation processors as the price difference is not much and you get more speed and power.