The mad rush happened on Saturday after a phone call from Dad about a B&W printer he wanted to get at the IT fair. I recalled that certain laptop deals come with a free printer so I kickstarted my memory into the world of laptop specs again. And I thought I could get a laptop in Johor.

Special gratitude to Louise who grabbed some brochures for me on Friday as well as JiaBin & Yunyou who helped look through pages of Fujitsu, Compaq, Nec & Acer during Saturday's crash course & shortlisted the ones I need. Oh and my geeky dance partner too whose opinions are a double confirmation. Ok I'm set.

I did exactly what YY suggested: check out Harvey Norman outside Carrefour for better competitive deals b4 heading to the fair and he's right: the poor Compaq promoter boy was caught in a tight spot with HN offering $1450 while Compaq can only go as low as $1580. So intention was to trudge all the way back to the other end of Suntec to HN @ Carrefour to grab lappy while waiting for parents to purchase their IT-fair printer.
That was before I saw the brochure for Toshiba.

I hope I did you all proud with these specs I fanned over in 5mins:

Toshiba Portege M800-E371 Pearl White Specifications

Processor and Chipset	Intel Core 2 Duo processor T9400 (2.53GHz) check 800MHz Processor FSB Intel GM965 chipset
Operating System	Microsoft Windows Vista Business Edition Windows XP Professional media kit included)
System Memory	4GB DDR2-667 System Memory (after free upgrade) check 2�x DDR2 SO-DIMM Slot (simi lai eh)
Video & Display	Intel Graphics Media Accelerator X3100 (check) 13.3-inch widescreen WXGA Display Native screen resolution - 1280 x 800
HDD	320 GB SATA�(Hitachi HTS542525K9SA00) check 5400 RPM 8MB Cache
Optical Drive	Super Multi Double Layer Drive (DVD +/- RW/RAM)
Communication	Gigabit Ethernet Intel Wireless Wi-Fi Link 4965AGN Bluetooth 2.1 with enhanced data rate
Audio	Conexant High Definition SmartAudio 221 Built-in stereo speakers Built-in microphone
Front & Side I/O Ports	3 x USB 2.0 ports 1 x RJ-45 (LAN) IEEE 1394 (simi lai eh) VGA analog output (simi lai eh) Headphone out with S/PDIF Microphone in Volume Control 5-in-1 Card Reader Express Card slot
Miscellaneous	Integrated camera Fingerprint sensor 6-cell Lithium Ion battery 1 year carry-in international limited warranty
Dimension & Weight	314mm (L) x 229mm (W) x 27.5mm -35mm (H) From 1.97kg (oh so check)

Ok what sealed my decision on the package was the combination of my favourite 4letter word with some alphabets:

A) FREE Norman Security Suite (worth $55)


B) FREE 2GB RAM Upgrade (worth $98)


C) 2nd & 3rd Year Local Warranty Extension (worth >$99)
While waiting in line to get this redeemed, Mum was telling me in her how-come-u-didnt-get-that tone that there's a pink version of my laptop and I was like "Mummy, I don't think clients will take me seriously if I turn up in a dress and a XIAXUE-PINK laptop." I mean, I would definitely go for a sexy bloodred but xiaxue-pink? End of discussion.

D) Canon MX308 4-in-1 Colour Printer (worth $249)
Colour printer + scanner + copier + fax. I am getting excited about this.


F) FREE Toshiba Camileo P10 HD Camcorder (worth $399)
Perfect for filming testimonials for our business + lovestoriesproject + choreo pracs.


)ther FREEbies:
Optical Mouse, Bag, 4GB flashdrive

It was $1,899 with the Student Promotion but this Harvey Norman guy overheard me repeating specs to my parents and told me he can offer me $1840. No amount of cajoling would get him to give me the free Gars Skin that Toshiba was packing in though:

I would have ordered this tribal angel design. Then again, I don't need it. Just for chioness sake and my lappie is already gorgeous enough. And besides, I can choose to design my own Gars Skin in future *inserts smug look*

After cutting the freebies' value from the total bill, I basically paid only $900 for the laptop! Deal or what bwahahaha! All this wont be possible without Daddy's prepayment and W328's generous donation for my birthday present :D Lovetank totally overflowing with abundance! Woots!

And now back to continue working my butt off for projects. Happiness!

PS: Birthday entry coming right up after I've photoshopped some pics ;p