I saw this post and wanted to ask the opposite. What are some items that really aren’t worth paying the expensive version for? Preferably more extreme or unexpected examples.

      • DerisionConsulting@lemmy.caEnglish
        151·
        11 months ago

        I do not think that the user above you is being brigaded by GrapheneOS.

        Look into their history to see if they might’ve said to see if there was anything in their “most controversial” that could elicit a retaliation, and I found nothing.

        I did find them often strongly saying unpopular opinions (or sidestepping a question), which people then downvote, and them sometime blaming the downvotes on outside actors.

        “I didn’t say something that wasn’t true or not well received, I am clearly being attacked!!!”’

        I’ll copy the comment you are replying to so it can’t go away:

        I will go the opposite route here, and tell people to instead make an exception for certain things, and never go for cheap unknown brands.

        highly reputed Oxymeter in medical establishment (do not buy inaccurate smartwatches, Apple is 20x ripoff and still subpar)
        Victorinox for Swiss army knife
        Victorinox or Leatherman for multitool
        reputed branded batteries (Maxell, Duracell, Sanyo, Sony, Eneloop et al)
        reputed battery/device chargers
        PSU/SMPS and UPS for computer (APC, Emerson, Schneider and other brands) reputed brand watches (Casio, Citizen, Seiko have affordable BIFL options)
        ThinkPad for laptop (user repairability, third party parts, open schematics)
        Levis for jeans, they are almost BIFL
        a good weighing machine for kitchen/home use
        a good mixer grinder WITH safety lock (atleast 750W)
        quality stationery pen, mechanical pencil, leads, eraser and other items (Uni, Pentel, Sakura, Staedtler et al, refer to JetPens website)
        Edit: fuck you GrapheneOS, for almost 2 months now, they are mass downvoting my comments, and doing voting manipulation, also abusing federation

        Reasons people might downvote:

        • They are not answering the question that was asked
        • They give lots of brands/products that people may disagree are high-quality.
        • They recommend products that are outdated
        • They gave a website that people should buy from (which may be seen as spammy)

        Reasons people are probably not downvoting:

        • They are GrapheneOS
      • 0x2d
        2·
        11 months ago

        he told people to buy cheap ass china phones and run some adb commands to disable google stuff, instead of buying a pixel and installing graphene or calyx

        • Keith@lemmy.zipOP
          4·
          11 months ago

          That’s like objectively far worse, especially when used Pixel + LineageMicroG (which is admittedly worse than Graphene) is probably even cheaper than Chinese phone

        • otp@sh.itjust.works
          12·
          11 months ago

          I mean, you did do the opposite of what an AskLemmy post asked. And the post itself is a follow-up or response to a previous post that asked the question you wanted to answer…

    • Vlyn@lemmy.zipEnglish
      7·
      11 months ago

      ThinkPad for laptop (user repairability, third party parts, open schematics)

      My fully decked out ThinkPad T16 Gen 1 I got for work last year is a piece of shit. Lenovo keeps messing up the BIOS (sometimes it took up to 2 minutes to reach the Windows loading screen), it sometimes has trouble with the Lenovo Monitor (which has a docking station with USB-C), or a colleague who had the same model it refused to charge.

      Don’t get me started on thermals, that thing either sounds like a jet engine or throttles down to 1.4 GHz on a damn 6 core CPU. That’s partly Intel’s fault too of course (The AMD counterpart would likely run cooler/faster).

      I always thought ThinkPads are awesome, now that I actually use a $3000 one I’d never buy one myself.

        • Vlyn@lemmy.zipEnglish
          2·
          11 months ago

          Well, my new workplace selected it and paid for it, I just have to use it.

          Personally I’d have gone with the AMD CPU, at home I rock a 5800X3D :)

          Intel’s power consumption is off the charts unfortunately. Those e-cores didn’t help at all.

            • Vlyn@lemmy.zipEnglish
              2·
              11 months ago

              Yep, even “efficiency” cores are a scam. They were forced to go that way because their current process simply can’t support all full cores without drawing 300W+ and taking too much space.

              Cut down E-Cores aren’t even efficient power wise, just space efficient so they could fit them on the die.

              Besides power consumption my trust for Intel is down the gutter with half a dozen security issues. Which were patched with performance degradation. So they fucked up, patched it in software, now your hardware runs slower than when you bought it.

    • r00ty@kbin.life
      6·
      11 months ago

      I’d say for the oxymeter it depends on what you want it for. If your health depends on it, yes spend more for a good one. If it’s just for general interest the cheaper ones will likely be “good enough”.

      For batteries, generally true. Except the Kirkland non-rechargeable packs are very good batteries and good value too. Not that I often need non-rechargable. Just for those few devices that are not happy with the lower voltage of rechargeable batteries.

      Otherwise, definitely a good list. I’d also say in general for electronics, be very wary of Chinese brands you’ve totally never heard of selling items for less than half the price a reputable brand sells the same thing for. They are generally putting fake CE/FCC labels onto devices that are definitely not certified and will almost certainly be underrated for the requirement in a best case scenario. I am currently especially suspicious of the 100w+ PD supplies that are ridiculously cheap compared to known brands for the same rating.

        • r00ty@kbin.life
          4·
          11 months ago

          Yeah it’s why I qualified it with the “too good to be true” prices and names you don’t recognise. The odds are far greater that a brand name you’ve never heard of undercutting at more than half the price of a brand you do recognise is very likely cutting corners somewhere and stamping invalid certifications. With electronics that can end pretty badly.

          Not writing off all Chinese companies. Just the ones that have a new name every month and are selling at too good to be true prices. I think they’re suffering the same as Japanese electronics did in the 80s. There were enough bad examples to make people assume it was the same for all (you’ll see it in movies of the era, with people referring to “jap-crap”). But as we know, some very big companies today rose from that situation to be extremely trusted today. I suspect over time the same will be true in China.

            • GreyEyedGhost@lemmy.ca
              3·
              11 months ago

              Huawei has also been found to have back doors in their 5G towers. Now, I’m not saying western companies don’t have back doors, but since I live in a western country (which has also likely suffered from political interference by China) I’d rather not be tracked by yet another nation more than I already am.

                • GreyEyedGhost@lemmy.ca
                  3·
                  11 months ago

                  There were numerous articles in 2020 and earlier talking about vulnerabilities in their products, including hard-coded encryption keys. Vehement denial isn’t a good look with such flagrant and obvious failures. I have yet to see any announcements or articles saying this has changed. Until I do, I will assume Huawei doesn’t have anything substantial to add to the discussion.

    • ShouldIHaveFun@feddit.ch
      5·
      11 months ago

      Maybe the downvotes are because you wrote your post in the opposite route. Of you read OP again, you will see that there is a whole post for that.

      Thank you for your quality post anyway!

        • CallumWellsEnglish
          61·
          11 months ago

          Well, you’re doing an admirable job at making it look like that.

            • CallumWellsEnglish
              3·
              11 months ago

              Your last sentence isn’t helping you any.

              EDIT: Making it explicit; making derogatory remarks towards others does not make people seem less like a lunatic. And claiming that a group of people are downvoting you to make you look like a lunatic is itself more likely to make you look like a lunatic than if the group actually were downvoting you.

    • taladar@sh.itjust.works
      3·
      11 months ago

      In general, never go for the cheap option on anything where flaws have the potential to destroy something much more valuable (either more expensive or your health, life,…).