Buying a Envy 15 internationally

I'm thinking of buying a Envy 15 internationally since I'm living in Japan

Whats the best way to go about this ?

here's the spec I want

i7-720QM or 820QM (is a 820QM good deal ?)
HD 5830 Graphics card
4Gb
1920x1080
Hard drive .. doesn't matter as I will upgrade to a SSD

Normally I would just use Ebay but I'm unsure about using it for a laptop also there are number of sellers that are selling refurbished envy's

Are there different grades of refurbished ?
Is buying a refurbished unit a good option ?

Cheers

Joe

 

One of the differences with a refurbished unit is the warranty, I believe. This may not be an issue for you, however, since I have no idea if the original HP warranty would be valid in Japan anyways.

 

I used to live in Japan and I have recently dealt with this issue from the opposite side, as I bought several USB 3.0 devices that are only available in Japan. For example, Buffalo's US offices have not been able to provide any support whatsoever for their USB 3.0 blu-ray burner, since it is only sold out of their Japan office and the US tech reps have no information about it.

If you have a friend or someone you trust in the US to help you that would be the best scenario, as you will get a 21 day period (less that transit time to Japan) to use the unit and return it to HP if you decide not to keep it, for complete refund with no restocking fee.

Your warranty is still valid if you transport the unit to Japan, but I imagine HP would not cover shipping back to the US if you later need repairs performed, and I don't believe the Envy is available in Japan, so it is not likely they would have any local service hub.

Do not buy any refurbished Envy's, as there is a small but significant percentage of people who have experienced severe hardware problems (myself included) and you really want to have that HP warranty.

Bottom line: you will eat some extra shipping fees, but if you have someone in the US who can help you to order it from HP Direct, I would recommend that route, so you can take advantage of the 21-day return policy and 1-year manufacturer's warranty. You can try to place the order yourself directly from the website but I doubt you will be able to have it shipped to Japan this way. Also, most likely you would need to use a credit card with billing address in the US or a paypal account linked to a US bank.

If you decide to arrange to order from HP direct, I would do it soon, as there is currently 10% cashback available from bing, which would be calculated on the total order, including any extended warranty or extra batteries, etc. http://www.bing.com/cashback