Windows 7: Changing OS language to Brazilian Portuguese

Hello everyone
I am from Cambridge in the UK and am pleased to have discovered this forum.
My Brazilian friend is visiting the UK in December and I am going to buy her a new laptop as a Christmas gift (much cheaper in the UK than Brazil).
The laptop will come pre-installed with Windows 7 Home Premium in English. I would like to set it up for her so that the OS will be in Brazilian Portuguese. I understand, from reading advice in the Forum that I will have to upgrade Home Premium to Ultimate to install the relevant language pack. There appears to be two ways to do this? Either buy the licence key for an online upgrade (less expensive) or buy the Ultimate CD? My concern is that if a re-install of the OS is required in Brazil due to a computer breakdown would it be best if she had the disk to take back with her? Maybe the registration of the product with Microsoft would enable recovery in another way?
Advice much appreciated.
Regards.

Yes you have to upgrade to ultimate, I would go for the CD to be safer. How much is the price difference?
When you have upgraded, you will see the language pack in the windows update/ optional updates.
Here are the ones available for me: (click on the image)

She'll be happy I bet

But do consider two things: if she ever needs to reinstall Windows from scratch, probably from a recovery partition on the laptop, it'll be in English again until she can get it upgraded to Ultimate via the CD you're planning to get and switch it back to Portuguese. If she doesn't understand any English at all it could be a bit difficult for her.

But most of all...the keyboard will be an UK layout. It might be hard for her to type the accents that Portuguese AFAIK uses...unless you can actually order the laptop with a different keyboard, that is...

Thank you speedgamer01
Quite a difference in price from Amazon UK. The upgrade licence key cost is 97 UK pounds (approx $150) and the DVD is 160 UK pounds (approx $249). Chuckle, the nice little Samsung laptop I am thinking of buying her would only cost 340 UK pounds (approx $529)

Very true Corazon - you are correct about the accents. On her last visit she used my UK layout keyboard to email to Brazil without major problems. Very interesting to know about the re-installation being back in English. Laughing. Guessing another answer is that she will have to improve her English to overcome that obstacle if it happens. Thank you for your response. Seems like buying the CD pack is the best route.

Also take a look at AnyTime upgrade.
Windows Anytime Upgrade - Upgrade your Windows 7 edition - Microsoft Windows

No install files needed.
Only the Upgrade key is need.
Anytime upgrade only adds-on the Programs & Features from version to version.
Windows Anytime Upgrade - How to

Information appreciated theog. This is the least expensive option. Not sure what to do. Doesn't give my Brazilian friend a disk in case of a need to re-install. Maybe a system backup would make a CD unecessary? Thanks for replying.

You will be able to do a backup, but you can't install windows from there.
When you purchase the online upgrade (only from the official microsoft page), they should give you a file and a key.
All you have to do is save the file / burn it on a dvd and write down the key to one or more papers and be sure to keep them safe.

With the Fujitsu UK install of Windows 7 Home Premium, you can install with Portuguese.
So check before you buy.

Acknowledged with thanks theog.