Shopping for a professional thin and light laptop in Singapore? There are a few deals worth checking out at the IT Show bazaar happening now at Suntec City.

Most interesting are a number of new models sporting Intel’s new energy-efficient and faster Sandybridge technology unveiled in the past couple of months. Also worth checking out are slightly older Core i5 and Core i7 models that are now going at attractive prices to make way for the newer designs. …

More flat-screen TVs, portable hard disks, printers and laptops were what I expected when I joined the mass of humanity that had congregated at the IT Show at Suntec Singapore yesterday.

Arriving just before noon, I could still find many lots in the carpark. And there weren’t so many people carting away large-screen TVs and printers on trolleys. Is it because everyone already has two TVs and three printers at home, thanks to spending crazily at previous shows?

My tiredness of the bargain-hunting, however, soon disappeared when I saw how cheap these new Intel Core i3 and i5-based laptops were going for.

I’m talking about prices from S$999 for an entry-level Dell Inspiron with a 14-inch screen. Cute with bright colours like cherry red and ice blue, it comes with enough horsepower from the dual-core processor to crunch everyday work. It helps too that Windows 7 now doesn’t suck up as much resources as Windows Vista previously. …

Are we in the worst recession since the 1930s? Doesn’t seem like it when you see the long lines of people waiting to sign up for a StarHub line or those snapping up LCD TVs like there was no tomorrow at the IT Show.

When I turned up at around noon, the Suntec area was was already a nightmare to drive around. Was going to give up after being stuck in my car, when I finally managed to enter Marina Square from the back (near Ritz Carlton), and guess what, there were dozens of empty carpark lots. Amazing how the security folks just happily block off all the carparks in the area and list them as “full”.

Anyway, I walked around and found some bargains – not downright dirt cheap, but somewhat tempting, especially if you are in the market for some of these gadgets. …

Do check out Part I if you haven’t done so!

At every computer show I always check out memory card prices just to see how much they have fallen. Here’s what I spotted at the Kingston booth at Hall 6.

For a comparison, look at some of the memory card prices from last November’s Sitex.

Prices of memory cards, especially the 8GB and 16GB varieties, have fallen. The 8GB micro SD has dropped from around $32 to $25 and the 16GB micro SD from $112 to $84.

…

It’s that time of the year again when the biggest consumer computer show — IT Show ’09 — hits Singapore.

Running from March 12th to 15th (today to this Sunday), the IT Show takes up floors one to six of the Suntec convention centre. The show opens daily at 12pm and ends at 9pm during this four-day period.

IT Show is really huge this year. All three Singapore telcos have big booths. M1 and SingTel are on floor 2, and StarHub is on floor 3. Floor 4 is the main hall with all the big consumer brands like HP, Canon and Samsung, whilst floor 6 hosts all the small chapalang IT gadgets vendors, from computer games to memory cards to GPS gadgets.

It might be a down economy, but it sure didn’t seem like it as the place was thronged with people this morning when I went. In certain places — especially on the fourth floor near the popular booths — you will get stuck in a human traffic jam trying to squeeze past the milling crowd. This weekend will be a nightmare to find parking if you’re visiting the show, so public transport is advised.

…

It’s been a long wait, but Wi-Fi buffs here are finally going to get their hands on D-Link’s DIR-855 Xtreme N Duo Media Router at the IT Show, which runs from this Thursday to Sunday.

This is a simultaneous dual-band router, which means it runs both 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands at the same time. This gives you both the compatibility of good, old 2.4GHz Wi-Fi and “freedom from unfriendly neighbours” with the less congested 5GHz airwaves.

So far, Wireless N routers have mostly not come with “simultaneous” dual-band operations, except for Linksys’ WRT610N, launched here some months back.

To be sure, I was tempted by Linksys’ “UFO router” at the last Sitex show in November. But being a D-Link DGL-4300 gaming router user for years now, my target was always the DIR-855 - even if I had to buy it from the United States, where it was launched last year. …