What did you end up doing? Prices for new electronics are practically the same when I was looking at mobiles. Both countries have good deals if you buy used and know where to look. eBay in the States and maybe somewhere in those tech malls of Taipei.

Idk about cheaper but you may have access to different models. Also a Taiwanese laptop will have a Taiwanese keyboard (basically US qwerty but with bo po mo fo characters also printed on the keys).