Laptop:
It is a definite choice to buy laptop from Canada. There are various programs within the universities that offers special price for the students. Like some universities have affiliation with Apple while others have with Dell, Toshiba, etc. So you should check out the university affiliation once you reach Canada. There are vast discounts at the end of the year till the beginning of the new year.
People mostly use MAC over here because most of the things are actually optimized for MACs. Like if you are an engineering student and you need to access remote UNIX/Linux servers, you can easily do it with MAC while for windows, you will have to rely on 3rd party software. And MAC is just awesome to hold
Mobile:
Mobile phones are somewhat the same price over here. I think its cheaper in counties like UAE. Like Galaxy S II/ Iphone 4S costs around $700 + TAX if you go for the unlocked ones. So you do your calculation. But it is better to buy cell from here because I have heard numerous people complaining that phone (which they bought from back home) doesn't work over here. But if you can get a world phone (works on both CDMA/GSM) network, then you are good to go.
About lovely_16's last comment on the pricing of Iphone 4S and its availability. It is already available in Canada (since 14th Oct) on all the major carriers. And about the price, its $159.99 on most of the carrier BUT with a "THREE YEARS CONTRACT". That means, you will have to stick with the network for 3 years!!!!!! And that's also with a $50+ plan (with any Iphone or superphone, you have to have $50+ plan, no exception). Now let me show you a small calculation:
Price of the phone: $159.99
$50 plan for 3 years: 50x12x3 = $1,800
So you have to pay around $2000 to get the phone and a plan with loads of limitations (like 200mins local + limited access to provincial and long distance calls + no caller ID + 500mb data)
But if you get a Iphone 4s unlocked one for $599 and get a plan for like $30 (you can get unlimited packages), so over the 3 years, you will be spending around $1600, thats a $400 savings.
Now, you may think, HEY I CAN TERMINATE MY CONTRACT! Yes you can but you will have to pay termination fee which is equal to $10 x (number of months till 3 years).
My point in this elaboration was, not to be excited by the looking at the price of the "contract" based phones. There are loads of catches!
There are carriers like Virgin whom you can pay back the price of the phone in installments but then again, you will have to have a $50+ plan if you get a smartphone. I took a $75 plan with Galaxy S II and every month, 10% of the bill goes towards adjusting the price of the phone and I can terminate the plan anytime I want by just paying the remaining balance of the phone. If you ask me why I took this plan, well I got the phone for free from virgin by taking this plan so instead of paying $599.99, I m just paying $450.
Carriers are hell expensive over here (there are some which offers unbelievable rates but HEY, their network is so bad that you won't be able to use their "awesome" plans) and I had my fair deal of trouble of going through all these so I thought of helping out
