French vs. US mbp

So I will be going to france on december 26th for 2 weeks. I've decided that I will blow away 2,399 euros on a new 15" 2.4ghz mbp. Lately I've been playing a lot of WoW on my macbook, but I kinda wish I could play it at max setttings and native resolutions, and get into pc gaming, like f.e.a.r., crysis, etc. I'm willing to look past the fact that I can't easily change the hard drive. I just have a couple of questions to all you frenchies and europeans.

• When I go to an apple store, and I want to upgrade to 4 gigs of ram, will they charge me the same amount as the online store?
• If I want the biggest hd, can they make the swap right away? How long does it usually take?
• Is the french keyboard any different than the US'?
• I'm guessing everything will come in french, but I can easily reinstall leopard in english right? (dumb question, i know i can)
• How about the magsafe adapter? I would need an international adapter to be able to use it in america right? Or can I just use my macbook's adapter? (probably not)

Thanks

Edit:
Oh yeah, I love my macbook, the only thing I hate is the max volume of the speakers is not loud enough, sometimes I'd just rather not use headphones and don't have a set of speakers handy. Or I wanna show a video to a couple of friends at school and stuff but the speakers just dont cut it. The mbp speakers look much bigger and better placed, at least aurally... do they sound much better, crisper, louder, crappier?

 

French keyboards in general have a different layout from the US... the letters are arranged differently... I would assume that MBPs in France use the typical French layout.

 

France uses a ZWERTY keyboard layout instead of QWERTY, so letter arrangements are a bit different. It could be a bit distracting for typing.

 

Andrew in the Apple forum! Its an apocalypse!

Jokes aside, I'll answer what I can more confidently answer.

There should be no problem regarding the language. You probably don't even need to reinstall; just select English when you first boot up your MBP and are setting it up.

And I don't know, but I don't think they do on-the-spot customizations. Best to ask someone who goes to Apple Stores more often (no Apple Store in Vancouver yet! ).

 

Why not buy one from the U.S.A? The Euro against the Dollar is at its highest ever. Isn't there enough time to buy online?

 

I second that. 2400 Euros equals $3500 USD. With the Macbook Pro being expensive already, why waste an extra $1500?

 

I play videos on my girlfriend's Macbook with VLC. It has a separate volume adjustment, and the volume is never a problem. Use command + up to raise the volume in VLC.

 

I can't buy online because my country doesn't have an online store and I don't have an american credit card. Would be great if I could order from the US apple store.

The macbook pro costs $7000 where I live (Venezuela), so I guess $3500 is an improvement. I'm not going to the US anytime soon, so yeah, maybe this is the best I can do.

I know that silly. For some videos, or for some music, the volume is just not enough. Especially flash videos that are downloaded from youtube.

Thank you all for your comments.

 

Holy! That's freaking expensive!

 

You can't customize HD in store on spot but you can for ram.

BTW I think you will still save money if you get a US visa, then down lets say NY then grab a cab to apple store, then back to airport and fly to France. LOL.

 

Too bad the Concorde's retired, he could make it back to France quickly .

 

Yikes! Can you buy one on ebay (using paypal or something), and have them ship it from the U.S. maybe? Just a thought....

 

If your buying from the apple store here in france you can customise the keyboard layout and choose a standard english layout ie QWERTY. You can also choose english install disk's etc. The hdd cannot be done instore, and not sure about memory, but you could probably do this yourself anyway.
Also many of the apple stores here are not "apple stores" but apple resellers, so this maybe another thing to keep in mind.
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I would do that, except couriers here aren't very trustworthy, and I don't trust ebayers for a $2,500 purchase.

Yeah I was thinking of going to an apple store in paris, I think my ex said there was one there, can't remember, but she would always ramble about apple when I didn't care for it, but that was like 3 years ago. I'll just figure out what to do for the hard drive.

Thank you all.

 

I am sure Paris will have an Apple Store, and likely you will be able to get a QWERTY keyboard layout. One thing I would think about though is the next time you will be in the US. If it is in the 6 months or so, there may have been an update to the MBP. Plus for what you are going to pay you could get one with every single option and still be cheaper. Maybe it is time to visit that aunt of yours!

 

Well, apparently there's no official Apple Store in Paris yet...if you look at the Store List: http://www.apple.com/ca/retail/storelist/, so far there's only five current countries with Apple Stores; Canada, US, UK, Italy and Japan. But I'm sure Paris is on their map, and most likely there are going to be Mac premium resellers in Paris anyways. By Mac premium resellers I mean they are boutique Mac stores that focus on selling and servicing Apple products .

 

I was just mentioning this to my dad, he said he is going to the US on a business trip in april, so I guess I could get a fully loaded and possibly updated mbp by then... the thing is, he doesn't know the difference between a hard drive and a floppy disk so I'm afraid he could screw up getting exactly what I want. Because of our price problems, there are strict import rules in our country, so he needs to buy the laptop, and make it seem as if it was a personal computer he owned before going away, which means no unboxing for me and he has to set it up... and try it as well, because if he brings it here and something doesnt work, then im screwed, no apple stores here.

I guess I have a lot to think eh? Unless maybe the 'geniuses' where he would buy it could open it and set it up for him, etc...

Weird, my ex told me there was one, maybe she just meant what you mentioned as premium reseller. daaaamn i dont know what to doooooo

 

No unboxing does suck, but you could get a killer machine for less money. And I am very sure the geniuses at the Apple Store will gladly get it up and running for him.

 

Well if the 'geniuses' can set it up for him, then I think that's the way I'm gonna go. I could get a fully loaded mbp (getting the ram from somewhere else), and waiting til april will almost certainly guarantee I will get the penryn processors. I guess the macbook will suffice for wow gaming until then. I'm already at level 20 in 7 days :S I cant stop! help me!!!:cry:

 

LOL! Ya, my wife kinda forbids having that game in the house now. Way too addicting!