A look at Hong Kong's Wan Chai Computer Centre featuring ASUS Padfone 2

I was away at Hong Kong last week for holidays and decided to give one of the local Computer "shopping malls" a visit to do some comparison between Singapore's Sim Lim Square and Hong Kong's Wan Chai Computer Centre. Wan Chai Computer Centre is one of the more popular computer mall in Hong Kong.

How did I know about all these travel places? I was thankful that I had my Padfone 2 with me when I was in Hong Kong. All I did was to download TripAdvisor and various other travel apps to get me roaming around the whole city. Best of all, I did not have to worry anything about the battery life of Padfone 2 because it lasted me 2 days straight without charging with the tablet dock. That even when I was doing 3G WiFi Hotspot on the go, sharing the connection within a few devices.

Wan Chai Computer Centre is conveniently located at 130 Hennesy Road, and is highly accessible by public transport. The Computer Centre is just next to their subway(MTR) station named "Wan Chai" which lies on the "Island Line" of Hong Kong's MTR. Please do not mistake "Wan Chai" Station with "Chai Wan" station both stations are miles apart. I mistook the train station names and wasted quite some of my precious overseas shopping time.

Entrace to WanChai Computer Centre -Photo taken by Padfone2

Floor Plan giving an idea of how complicated WanChai Computer Centre is -Photo taken by Padfone2

Probably because of its popularity, prices are said to be a bit more expensive (at about 5%) as compared to other computer malls in Hong Kong. However, all prices are negotiable and one can bargain the prices down to prices found at other malls.

As compared to Singapore's Sim Lim Square, Wan Chai Computer Centre is much disorganized and cramped. Their walkways are narrower and it is easy to lose your way as a first timer. An interesting trend to see at the mall is that there aren't any shops doing specifically PC DIY business. They have all ventured into other products as well and DIY PC hardware is probably one of their secondary sales area.

DIY Hardware are kept deep in shops -Photo taken by Padfone2

Most of the shops are selling more profitable products such as notebook laptops, tablets, mobile phones, networking devices and printing devices. It will be common to see shops solely selling mobile phone accessories too. If you are looking specifically for iPhone casing for uniquely designed USB drives, Wan Chai Computer Centre is probably the place to go. As seen from the trends in the mall, it can be safely concluded that this is a more mainstream consumer dedicated mall, unlike Sim Lim Square which targets every consumer. Sim Lim Square is nicely organized into different floors for different consumers. Wan Chai Computer Centre is the mix and match of all these shops in Sim Lim Square, put into 2 floors, making it not a pleasure for an average system builder to visit.

Laptops/Tablets everywhere -Photo taken by Padfone2

Mobile phone accessories are popular with shoppers -Photo taken by Padfone2

Wan Chai Computer Centre is a place where you can find all your electronics and computer needs, but you will need to know where to go in the mall to get the best deals. As a Singaporean who has been a frequent visitor to our local Sim Lim Square, I would probably say that Wan Chai Computer Centre is not my cup of tea. It's just not geeky enough.

Totally not relating to the topic, here's a video taken at Hong Kong Disneyland's fireworks session. 720p 60fps in a low light environment by the Padfone 2 What do you think?