What are the differences between US and EU?

If you will have to pay any import duty or other tax/fee/impost when bringing a machine into the Netherlands from the USA, be sure to deduct that cost from the $800 saving you are expecting.

I don't know whether a standard keyboard in the Netherlands differs from the standard US keyboard, but you will certainly want to find out.

Of course the printed documentation will be in English if you buy here, but that may not matter to you.

If you plan to pay cash for the machine in the USA, that's fine; if you plan to use a credit card instead, you may need to use one that has a US billing address. That will definitely be true if you order from the US Apple Online Store.

He SHOULD pay import tax, but he doesn't HAVE to. Something like a MBP can easily be brought home as carry-on luggage while boarding the plane. If you don't want to open it til you get home, stash it in your suitcase.

I wouldn't EVER pay import tax on anything that fits in my suitcase.

He's going to have to pay sales tax when he buys it. Then to pay import tax ontop of that? ** it.

I would suggest bringing the equivalent amount of cash from NL and asking a US friend to have his/her bank convert it for you to USD. I know CHASE bank will do this for free. (Only for their customers)

"but I heard that the voltage differs."

Indeed it does. However, the MBP power adapter accepts input AC voltage from 100-240, so it'll work anywhere and should not be a concern. What sort of problems do you think will come with buying a computer in the US? I bought mine in the US, and I live in Thailand.

{quote:title=Davinovic wrote:}I heard that the voltage differs.{quote}
AC voltage in the US is different from Europe (~110 v ~240v).

In terms of power, the MBP itself is the same everywhere. It takes DC current supplied by the external MagSafe Power Adapter. The Power Adapter is designed to take AC voltage input in the US and EU but is shipped with modular physical plugs suitable for the country in which it is intended to be sold. So if you buy a UK model, you get plugs to fit UK power outlets. In the US you get US plugs. Even though the plugs for the power adapter are modular, I've never seen them for sale separately (that doesn't mean they aren't). A new Magsafe Power Adapater is ridiculously expensive, one of mine packed in recently and I was shocked by the £58 price tag.

As someone else pointed out, the difference in physical keyboard is the most significant physical difference. If you regularly type in a language other than US English, you are likely to be used to a different keyboard layout. You will be able to type all the characters with various modifier keys but it will be awkward in comparison to having a keyboard designed for your language if one is available. I use British English and find a US keyboard annoying even though the differences are minor. If I primarily typed in a language that uses lots of accents (e.g. French), I'm sure that I wouldn't put up with it.

As others have pointed out, by the time you factor in local US sales taxes and import duty, the price advantage doesn't seem so significant but of course that is for you to judge.

Enjoy your new computer no matter where you choose to buy it.

eu keyboard: QWERTZ

Only some countries in the EU use that. For info on the different keyboards Apple provides in various countries, see

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2841

us keyboard: QWERTY

eu keyboard: QWERTZ

It's a little more complicated than that: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keyboard_layout.