As mentioned in my other articles, I’ve recently returned from an extended trip to the UK and Spain, and with Argentina’s annual inflation being almost 300% during the last nine months, tech prices went through the roof. Buying anything tech-related in Argentina was out of the question, so I put together a shopping list of stuff that I needed. Naturally, the list grew in size with tech that I just wanted, not to mention those shiny things that one buys out of impulse. Shiny Thing Syndrome (STS) has a lot to answer for, but I do justify the purchases knowing that I would have paid three to four times more in Argentina. Also, please bear in mind that this is not a bragging post, but a shopping spree for realistically priced products. And let’s not forget the subtle difference between need and want!
PC Upgrades
As mentioned in I Just Upgraded To Ryzen 7 5700X3D, I gave my AMD AM4 PC platform a boost and to have bought the same CPU here would have cost around two and a half times more. I should have added a 1TB NVMe and a couple of RGB 120mm fans to the list, but hey, you can’t have everything!
In I Finally Bought A Mini PC, I detailed the amazing little PC that we bought to replace the enormous desktop in the living room. It runs brilliantly, is practically invisible, and costs a fraction of what I would have paid in Argentina.
Laptops And Tablets
I finally bought a new gaming laptop as mentioned in Choosing A New Laptop – Part Two, the price of which would have been around three to four times as much down here, which was simply out of the question. Also, since my wife needed to finish some important accounting work and being the OCD geek that I am and not keen on sharing computers, we bought her a Samsung Galaxy Book 4, 15.6″ laptop with an Intel Core i3, 8GB of RAM, 256GB NVMe and Intel Iris graphics. Fortunately, it was on sale at my favourite UK store, Currys, so buying it there saved us about four times as much. She’s delighted with it and the battery life is incredible.
Not content with just a laptop and since we were catching several flights during our trip, I spotted a Lenovo Tab P11 at half price in Currys and STS took over, especially since the deal included a keyboard and pen! Mind you, playing Lara Croft Go on an 11″ screen is far more enjoyable than on a phone. By the way, the same tablet in Argentina would have cost seven times more!
And naturally, I needed a wireless gaming mouse for my laptop, so enter the Corsair Iron Claw RGB.
VHS, Cameras And Phones
VHS conversion
In July I wrote an update on my latest VHS to digital experiences and, following a comment from reader, Brian, I mentioned that I had bought a used StarTech USB 3.0 Video Capture Device. It was duly delivered to my daughter’s house in the UK and I paid less than half of the advertised price for a new unit.
On opening the box and testing it, I was amazed to find that it had never been used, with all the component bags sealed. Why did I buy it? Because if my Kanji USB VHS converter box fails, I would need a backup, and units like these are very difficult to find where I live. Unless you want to use Easycrap USB devices, which I certainly won’t, ever again.
Action Cam
For the last few years, I’ve been using a GoPro Hero 5 Black as my motorcycle action camera and, excellent though it is, the battery life had become woeful, even though I had bought a second battery. I had already decided to replace it for numerous other reasons as well as the 45-minute battery life, not to mention its lack of aerodynamics when riding at speed and the outrageously bulky and proprietary USB-C microphone adaptor, which is a joke throughout the entire industry.
In the end, I went for a Drift Ghost XL Pro which, at 1080p recording resolution, gives me a battery life of around seven hours. It’s also aerodynamically designed, has an easy-to-use microphone adaptor and everything can be controlled and set through the app. It’s a lot less expensive than an equivalent GoPro, which is overpriced in my opinion.
New Samsung Galaxy A25 Phone
A couple of years ago, I handed down a Samsung Galaxy Note 8 to my wife, but over the last few months, the battery was lasting less than a day, added to which, the Android system v9.0 had reached end of life and would not be updated. Having checked prices in Argentina, we picked up a Galaxy A25 5G in Spain for four times less and with 256GB storage/6GB RAM, incredible battery life, and an excellent camera, it more than suits her needs.
I Want!
We also bought a few shiny things on impulse. Not that we needed them, but when I stroll around a tech superstore, it’s usually a good idea to either frogmarch me out of there or handcuff me to the car instead.
The above Amazon Echo Dot was definitely an impulse purchase, although it was on sale at half price. I am naturally a little suspicious of gadgets that listen to you and Alexa is no exception. But I suppose if we’re not planning any anarchist activity, I won’t be expecting a knock on the door in the near future.
Anyway, we bought numerous other shiny things that we use every day, which I won’t bore you all with. Suffice it to say that we took advantage of first-world prices because we don’t know when we’ll be back in Europe in the foreseeable future. We can only hope that the basket case economy of Argentina makes progress to some kind of normality in the coming months and years. However, I’m not holding my breath.
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