Christmas is only 12 days away - and many of you might just be pulling out that Christmas shopping list which includes gifts for your family or friends. And while there are many things to choose from, who doesn't love cool gadgets? Today we stopped in at 3 popular electronic stores around the city, to check out some of their latest gadgets and to beg for some Christmas promotions.
Juan Burgos -Store Manager, Cellular World
"We have several products to offer this Christmas. We have gaming consoles, we have options of PS3 which come with kinect, and it's a motion wireless. Its works with facial recognition and body motions, requiring no more remotes - that's before, now the future of games is all wireless. We have handheld games like the PSP, there is the Nintendo 3DS."
Kenrick Richard - Store Manager, Cellular Plus
"We have all the latest electronics. We have items that are on the market right now like the video game consoles like the Nintendo Wii, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 with Kinect, NDS for kids, iPad tablet. We also have the latest Samsung Galaxy tablet; the Galaxy Note which is great for a reporter like yourself, iPhone 4S, Galaxy S2 and all the Blackberry models in stock also."
Carlos Guerra - Store Manager, Courts Belize
"We have LCDs and LED televisions. We always brag about having the best prices when it comes to LCDs in the country and we have our price guarantee that backs it up basically saying that if you find this product somewhere else and you purchase it, we give you double the difference in cash. Let's say you walk somewhere and you buy this television for let's say $4,000.00 you bring in the receipt and we ensure that its official and we give you the difference, so it's about $2,000.00 we are going to hand over to you. We have had some customer challenge us and actually get the opportunity to do it and then after that we change the prices. But one of the key things that I wanted to mention when purchasing an LCD television especially if you are in Belize City you need to ensure that your TVs have a QAM Tuner because the new hot thing is now is your digital channels and your high definitions channels. If you look at these televisions you can see the quality that is coming off in terms of the picture quality. But if you look at this you are seeing an Analog signal. These televisions have in it what is called a QAM Tuner. It will allow you to go beyond the 125 channels which then give you digital and high definition channels. So indeed you will be purchasing an LCD television but when you get home you will say it's not working. it's that it's not working, it's doing what it's supposed to do
but it didn't come with that QAM Tuner, so if you are purchasing TVs anywhere that's one of the things that I would like you to ask the person that you are purchasing it from. But of course we will definitely let you know what you are buying and you are getting when you are going home."
Ryne Vernon - Sales Rep, Courts Belize
"This is the Sony LED; it's a very thin TV because it uses a different technology from the LCD. It also has a plastic screen similar to the LCD, it give you very good contrast. It's a 1080p so its full high definition and you are also able to browse the internet, you are able to go on Facebook, YouTube, Netflix to view videos and we have it hook up right now to a home theater system which plays Blu-ray disc you get very high quality videos on it."
Juan Burgos -Store Manager, Cellular World
"Also available are flat screen TVs, LED TVs, popular cell phones like Motorola Droid Razor, we have the iPhone 4S which has a built in personal assistant on the phone. We have a special edition phone from HTC, there is the Galaxy S2."
Kenrick Richard - Store Manager, Cellular Plus
"The tablet has on the latest Android software, it can be used for e-readers, downloading applications, you can watch movies on it and you can store practically anything on it. It's like a mini computer."
Monica Bodden
"How about the phone with the notebook?"
Kenrick Richard
"The phone with the notebook is like a notepad where you can take a pen and actually write down your notes as you go along and it does documents on the go."
Ryne Vernon
"For the Christmas we do have some nice packages starting at $1,199, we have a full notebook computer. It's an Acer 2 gig, it has an AMD processor and 320 gigs hard drive which are pretty adequate for someone going to high school or someone just learning to use a computer and very competitively priced. It also has a DVD burner, a microphone, webcam and speakers built in, so it has just about everything you need. We have a great value computer which is the Toshiba; it has an Intel i3 processor, it's one of the newest processors right now. It has a built in webcam, DVD burner, microphone and speakers also and its very competitively priced at $1,599."
Juan Burgos
"We have a mobile truck which actually commence today in Belmopan and it commences in Belize City on the 16, 17`, 21, 22 and 23 December. On the mobile truck you can get really excellent prices on all brands like Samsung, Nokia, Ericsson and LG, so there is a big variety that you can look out for on the mobile truck."
"In store we have special deals available all month long on all our products. Our TVs, gaming consoles, Apple products, phone, if you really want a good deal just drop by at Cellular World."
Kenrick Richard
"Basically we have phones starting from $59 and up and we are giving a discount of 10%-15% on everything in the store."
Ryne Vernon
"These are some of the more popular items for Christmas, we have the PlayStation, we have different bundles starting at $999.00 and going up, depending on how much features comes with it and we also have the PSP which is very competitively priced also. We have the resistance bundle which gives you a lot more fun because it comes with the remote control and it also has a gun that goes with it, so you are able to actually use it like 3D."
Monica Bodden
"You are having a competition. Tell us a little bit about that?"
Ryne Vernon
"We are having a competition this Saturday, the deadline for entry is Friday at 12 but it will starting on Saturday at 10am and we will be doing a tournament to see who is the best PS3 player right now and if you win you get a PS3 as a gift."
Monica Bodden
"So far have people been signing up?"
Ryne Vernon
"Yes we have quite a few sign up so far, so it's pretty full. We need people to come in as soon as possible because it's a first come first serve type of thing."
Later this week, Monica will look at more affordable gift ideas for those of us who on a 20th Century budget who can't afford those 21 century gadgets.
