MYSTERY SHOPPER
Tottenham Court Road
Renowned for its vast amount of independent consumer electronics shops, Tottenham Court Road seems the perfect place for techheads. But how will our Mystery Shopper fare when given the tricky task of finding a laptop capable of gaming for under £500? Let’s take a look…
7/10 GIGABYTE ELECTRONICS
I SCANNED the neat shelves of laptops, lost in statistics. “Can I help?” a member of staff asked softly.
I explained that I was for
looking an all-purpose laptop for under £500 that could also play PC games at a reasonable level of detail. “You should probably
look for an i5 or i7 processor, but you’ll struggle at that price,” he said, before disappearing to check. Another staff member
returned, although he seemed as clueless as the
54 | PCR January 2014
first, and was unable to understand my example of Skyrim as a popular game I wished to run. “You need to go to at least £600 to get a 2GB GPU,” he suggested, without seeming to understand what a GPU was or what difference 2GB of video memory would make. However, he seemed to
realise that nothing in stock was correct and offered me a business card – it’s just a shame he wasn’t able to help me himself.
MICROWORLD 2000
A MAN IN A Mackintosh approached me as I looked up and down the rows of open laptops. Despite my initial
impression, the raincoat- clad stranger was a member of staff, and offered his help. I explained what I was
after but it seemed futile as the man mumbled the details displayed on each screen with no explanation. I offered him a second
chance, asking again if there were any laptops that could game at a reasonable level.
This time, the message
connected, and he focused on a £400 Asus laptop with an i5 and dedicated graphics – ideal for me. Despite the sudden burst
of help, he then began advertising another laptop completely unsuitable for running games. While the laptops were
organised, my helper was all over the place, and came across as someone desperate to sell me anything, rather than the product I was actually after.
www.pcr-online.biz
7/10
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