It is the time of the year again for the IT Show.
A time where IT geeks or non-geeks will splurge in IT products.
The IT show is also where people grab good deals and also where people get conned too.
I decide to name this topic based on the IT Show 2006 since this is the highlight of the day.
Now a chronological documentation of the day's events.
0930h: Finished up the last of the SD Perfect Zeong which I had started building. Note that the panel lining has yet been done. After which I picked out one of the many 1/144 kits from my enormous backlog, for construction. I was in a dilemma which to build and eventaually decided to build the Providence Gundam.
SD Perfect Zeong prior to panel washing and top-coat.
1430h: Met up with my army friend, Tay Kok, to visit the IT Show at Suntec Convention Centre. We started off by heading to Carrefour to get a drink, since we expected that we were early (not really). I saw that Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire DVD was on sale, so I decided to check it out. There are 2 releases, a single disc widescreen feature without paper sleeve at $24.90 and double-disc with paper sleeve at $34.90. It may sound rather silly to get pay $10 more for the extra disc with features (which I don't usually watch) and paper sleeve. But since all the other episodes were double-disc features with paper sleeves, I had to get the latter.
Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire Double-Disc DVD
Box shots
The DVD case out of the virgin sleeve
The movie disc features the famous trio
The features disc features Mad-eye Moody and the competitors of the TriWizard tournament.
1500h: I commenced on my hunt for a 17-inch LCD display panel. Among the many choices, LG, Philips and Viewsonic were my potential brands, but Acer came in when I saw their 19-inch Wide Screen LCD panel at $399. So I started to go around and check out each of their warranty policy.
- Philips: I had intention to go for the 17-inch display at $379. However, I realised that it is not covered by their Perfect Panel policy (which is actually 3 years of 0 dots exchange policy!). The one with the Perfect Panel is too pricey at above $400. So Philips is first to be out.
- Viewsonic: They had one with DVI selling at $399. The warranty covers 0 pixel for 1st year and 3 for the remainder. It was considered good deal.
- LG: With DVI, $399 too. It had only 7 days 0 pixel exchange and after which is 3 for the remainder. Not too bad as well and furthermore it is made in Korea.
- Samsung: Curse their 7 pixels warranty. The sale girl claims, "Samsung's is quality and the 7 pixels warranty shouldn't be an issue." I rebuked her, "If Samsung is good, why are they afraid to give 0 pixel warranty?" and that left her speechless.
- Acer: Acer is where I spent most of my time oogling at the 19-inch wide screen display at just $399! But after asking many of their staff, none of them could answer me! I had intended to use this display to replace my gf's cranky 14-inch lappy screen, hence I am unsure if the lappy will support and display wide screen correctly. Apparantly, it was Viewsonic staff that answered my question and that I might end up have 2 black bars at the sides or a stretched display. So I change my mind about the wide-screen, furthermore, it only has an analog input. For the sake of the future use on my desktop (if after I serviced the lappy's cranky display or if it conked off), I should get one with DVI. Hence, I started to look at 17-inch with DVI. The AL1751 caught my attention. But hey! If I decide to go for 17-inch, I shoudl go for Viewsonic since it had the best warranty. I headed back up to Viewsonic at level 6, but too bad they just sold out! DARN! I returned back down to Acer again. I decided on the $388, 3 dots warranty isn't so bad and not very much different from LG's warranty. The interesting bit.... Prior payment, I insisted that the the staff show me the 3 pixel warranty claim. But they are unable and said that it is for show purchases only and normal Acer gives 5 pixels warranty. I had to make sure that their 'show only claim' stands, so I made them write their claim on my receipt. They agreed and I paid. They gave me my receipt and took me to find their sale manager to get the endorsement as shown below:
Afterwhich, I realised that he endorsed on mine, but not his carboncopy and this means that Acer can jsust say that I wrote it myself! I should have asked him to chop their company logo on it as well and to do the same for the carbon copy! How silly of me! Thinking back, I might as well go for LG! A real silly mistake I made today, which I can only laugh about.
2100h: Finally after waiting for almost half an hour at AMK MRT station, me and Tay Kok got our Merz cab. I accompanied him since he was too lazy to carry his trolley with his Brother DPC-115C printer onboard the bus and he wanted to give me a ride. Got home, put my things down and carried on to complete my NG 1/144 Providence Gundam. I completed it at around 2330h, left with the panel lining and top-coat, which I'll do when I wake up later.....
Here's a preview of the NG 1/144 Providence Gundam.
Damnn..... my eyelids are drooping down! I gotta catch my Zzzzz.......
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