Laptop buying in Pakistan is a literal rabbit hole! You’ll come across a decent model but then discover three different stores selling it at five different prices. Way to confuse a poor Pakistani.
Now, there are two kinds of people dealing with this situation. The first kind just picks the retailer offering the same variant at the lowest price. But the second kind is the overthinker. He doubts. He hesitates. He gets nowhere. And it’s a fair feeling considering that notebooks are expensive as hell and some local retailers are better scammers than shopkeepers.
If you’re part of that fussy lot, it’s better to understand why the same laptop variant has various prices in Pakistan. It’ll help you make a better decision. So, let’s get into it.
Reasons Why the Same Laptop Models Cost Differently In Pakistan
Finding the same laptop at a variety of prices is more common than you think in Pakistan. The reason? Majorly, our local tech market! Partially, our country’s economy!
Seasonal Price Hikes
In Pakistan, there are a few months when notebook sales peak all year. Most commonly, this time is right after the HSC board exams. This is because middle and high school students in Pakistan aren’t really that dependent on notebooks for their studies. It’s after getting into universities that they start feeling the need for notebooks.
Retailers are well aware of this demand hike. So naturally, they tend to cash it. This is why an HP 15 variant costing around PKR 115,000 back in December would be much higher (say, PKR 125,000) during the months of April to June. This same thing can happen around Eid (not always, though).
New Stock vs Used
In Pakistan, it’s pretty common to buy used laptops (thanks to the sh*ty economy). Not everybody can afford brand-new ones. So by the definition of most Pakistanis, new could be open-boxed, refurbished, and also slightly used. Obviously, the price of sealed-boxed new and open-boxed new are going to be different for the same variants.
Now the main question is, what’s the price gap between new and used? It depends on the seller (no fixed margin). Some retailers position their devices as ‘almost new’ and charge nearly as much as the new ones. It happens all the time with the high-demand versions of MacBooks and ThinkPads. At Paklap, though, there are used options starting from PKR 15,000.
PKR vs USD Rates
‘Dollar went up again?’ - a common catch phrase among Pakistanis. At this point, it’s the norm, but we’re coping with all aspects of this dollar-infused inflation. Except for when it comes to tech buying. Because every big notebook brand in Pakistan is globally sourced (in dollars, of course), our local market takes the hit brutally.
Now the basic math is that whenever the dollar goes up (rupee goes down), imports become expensive. So retailers who have stocked up the same versions at different times are selling at different base costs. Sure, whenever the dollar surges, every seller bumps the price, but it’s the margin that differs.
Citywise Variation
The city you’re getting your device from also matters a lot. It’s pretty common for the same model to be priced inconsistently in the local market of major cities. Like Karachi, being the wholesale hub of the country, sells notebooks at the lowest cost. This is also because the fresh imported pieces reach retailers without any heavy transportation and insurance costs. Lahore follows a similar pricing approach (though not identical).
But you’ll find the heaviest price tags in the local markets of Islamabad. This is because A - the Islamabad/Rawalpindi market is pretty small, so there’s no such pricing competitiveness. And B - by the time the stock reaches Islamabad from Karachi, it has incurred a ton of toll taxes, handling costs, and fuel surcharges. Lastly, the local demand can push or pull the rates, resulting in varied pricing of the same models.
Warranty & Customer Support
There are two kinds of warranties - local and international. Now, you’d think international is better, but it’s actually the opposite. If you have a MacBook with an international warranty only, how would you avail of it when there's no official Apple service centre in Pakistan? A no-brainer is what it is. And that’s when local warranties save the day.
Paklap, for instance, offers the option of a 9-month local warranty at an additional cost of PKR 10,000. In the same way, not all local retailers provide good customer service. And, it’s more important than most people think. If you’re facing a problem with your brand-new laptop, would you prefer Googling or asking the experts? The local warranty and trained customer staff are hefty expense areas, which various sellers include in the model price.
Various Margins
In the end, the price of the same versions differs because of the seller’s will. Now, we’re not saying that sellers hike up prices based on their mood. But they derive the original device cost plus all fixed overheads of their tech business. Just think about it; there’s a flagship store which is centrally air-conditioned, located at a prime location and is extremely staff-centric.
On the other hand, there’s an online store with only two or three small shops. There’s not much labour or rent to pay. And the major overheads are website-related. Obviously, they’ll incur lower fixed costs than the flagship stores. And that’s why such online retailers would charge a more reasonable rate for the same variant PCs comparatively.
What Affects the Pricing of The Same Laptop Models In General?
Even if you don’t take the Pakistani market factors into view, model rates vary because of the hardware differences. Below, we’ve mentioned the common specs that affect the pricing of the same versions.
Processor Generation
A notebook of the same version can feature processors of various generations. It’s quite common. The thing you need to understand is that you’re not just paying for the name and model, but the entire specs sheet, and the processor tops that sheet.
For example, you’ll find the same device priced differently because one has the new Core i7 (better performance, hence more expensive). The other one has an older Ryzen 5 generation (slightly less efficient, hence cheaper). So, because the processor affects performance and performance is different, the prices of the same versions will also vary.
RAM & Storage
Memory and storage variants play a huge role in the pricing of the same models. It’s common manufacturer practice to launch the same version with multiple configurations. You’ll come across a model with 16GB, 32GB, and even 64GB RAM. Similarly, you can find all the different capacity configurations of SSDs (from GBs to TBs).
What matters is how much capacity you’ve chosen. Obviously, the higher the capacity, the heavier the cost burden. Another thing to note is the RAM and storage type. The pricing will change based on whether you opt for DDR memory, LPDDR variant, and for storage, you can choose between SATA or NVMe.
Display Differences
We bet you didn’t see this one coming! Contrary to what most people assume, the displays can be different in the same version. And no, we’re not talking about just the screen size. From panel type to screen resolution and even refresh rate, all these configurations matter in a particular model.
And these are just the tip of it. There’s a lot that goes on behind the screens. Factors like brightness levels, colour gamut, and touchscreen impact the overall device pricing. Sure, not many take these differences into account when choosing a model, but they affect your visual experience, hence justifying the cost swap.
Dedicated vs Integrated GPUs
The choice between a dedicated and an integrated GPU is perhaps the second most important (after the processor) reason for the pricing difference in the same versions. Some notebook variants come with dedicated GPUs. The graphic quality of dGPUs is far superior to that of iGPUs. The reason is that dedicated chips have their own VRAMs.
VRAM is like RAM, but dedicated to graphics workload only. It stores videos, frames, textures, and the various elements used to handle visuals. iGPUs, on the other hand, have to use the same old RAM for graphics as well as general workload. And that explains the price gap in the same models.
Final Word
Pakistan's tech market is full of gaps (and greed). You never know when someone's being genuine and when you’re being scammed. So the best precaution one can take is being well-informed.
The price difference of the same laptop version you keep seeing isn’t random at all. It’s because of the season, dollar, stock type, warranty, and customer support. Most importantly, the weight of this difference falls on the different retailers. Where you’re buying your PC from matters the most. So, choose your retailer wisely, but don’t trust them blindly!
