Zit Seng's Blog

A Singaporean's technology and lifestyle blog

Back to School with Pricey Gadgets

The university semester in Singapore is already underway for a few weeks. But our American counterparts are only just getting started. Looking through all the Back to School write-ups, I’m finding myself rather surprised at the kind of paraphernalia marketeers feel are right up the alley of college (i.e. university) students. I know they could be spending parent’s money, but aren’t they still a little too pricey?

The Strietman ES3 Espresso Machine for a dorm room? That’s some US$1670, or some S$2085! For an espresso machine! Unimaginable. At least to me, anyway. Maybe if they were a postgraduate earning their own keep, and really have some spare change, and I mean sufficient amounts of it, that may be a justifiable luxury. Now, I’m a coffee drinker myself, so it’s not like I don’t appreciate the caffeine fix.

I agree a 3D printer is really cool. But unless you truly require one, of your own, for your course of study, and I’ll highly doubt that, this is US$3299 (S$4123) of luxury that could easily buy many other more useful stuffs. Obviously there are other more affordable 3D printers, although perhaps not so cool as this Form 1+.

What got me ranting on these Back to School items is Engadget’s suggestion of the Sony DSC-RX100 III camera. Now, it’s a really good camera, I must say. I do own the older generation model. But US$798 (S$998, but it costs S$1199 in retail here) seems too much for a college kid. In my opinion anyway.

Maybe I’m in the wrong world. Apparently Engadget also speaks of Nikon D610 with 28-300mm lens, which costs US$2797 (S$3496). Has going to school gotten so expensive these days? I gotta start saving up for me kids.

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