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General discussion

Purchasing a laptop in the US that will be used in the UK

by rmgillen May 1, 2009 1:13PM PDT

My daughter will be leaving to live in the UK (Birmingham England) and will be there for at least 6 months perhaps longer. She will need a laptop. I don't even know what I should know. What should I be looking for. How does the technology differ? Is there any recommendations I should be aware of?
I have purchased Gateway for a number of years (1 desktop and two laptops)and have found them versatile and reliable and have not had to battle some of the issues that other users I know have had.
Any and all suggestions would be appreciated.

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3 Posts
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The short answer.
by r. proffitt Former Forum moderator May 1, 2009 1:35PM PDT

1. AC power. All the laptops I see accept 100 to 240 VAC and 50 to 60 Hz. No issue there.

2. WIFI. It's standard. Here and there.
Bob

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Adapter head Voltage
by deniceels May 4, 2009 9:09PM PDT
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Agreed.
by Renegade Knight May 5, 2009 7:20AM PDT

I recently bought a machine from the UK and had to do this in reverse. Since the machin wasn't rated to use 120V like the USA has we had to buy a power converter that changed 120V to 240V. Machine works great.

Ask the laptop maker what you need (and make sure the guys knows what he's talking about). Some AC adapters are auto switching. Some need you to flip a switch, an some don't adapt at all and then you need some kind of device to convert power from what you have in the UK to what you need in the laptop.

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