Mistakes and design flaws that made you NOT buy a device

Community Tech Talk | Hardware
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Who hasn’t experienced this: There are like billions of devices out there, but there is always this one thing, error or massive design flaw that you just cannot live with. This is especially sad if you waited for a certain device only to realize that they did XYZ just so wrong.

So the purpose of this thread is that everybody can write down what bothered him/her so much that he/she did NOT buy a certain device. And to most OEMs: You can read here why many of your devices are just electronic waste from the beginning.

It would also make sense to post a short list of things that are very important to you and how a certain device is incompatible with these requirements.

Maybe it may be helpful some day in the future when Eve is designing another device. So I guess it makes sense to highlight knockout arguments.

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I’ll make the beginning and start by pointing out my basic requirements:

  1. bright screen (good sun readability, high contrast)
  2. min. 16 GB RAM + 512 GB SSD
  3. silent fan or passive
  4. can drive 2x 4k external screens @60Hz
  5. good battery runtime
  6. preferably with pen
  7. no 16:9

Shouldn‘t be too diffucult, uh?
But there are so few devices that meet at least my requirements 1-5.

Both current Microsoft devices seemed to tick all the boxes and I was ready to buy, BUT:

Microsoft Surface Book

  • …then I realized that it couldn’t drive dual 4k @60Hz.
  • Why on earth would they develop a new proprietary docking/charging port if Thundebolt 3 exists and can do more? Only to imitate Magsafe?
  • minor flaws that wouldn’t have hold me back from buying: (1) only one button on pen + (2) white/aluminium keyboard with white lightning??? Nice :wink:

Microsoft Surface 4 Pro

  • battery time a bit too short
  • same reason as Surface Book: no dual 4k @60Hz

Really sad, because apart from that I really loved the Surface devices.

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USB 2.0 is the first thing that comes to mind.

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What I’d really like to see in the future:
The idea behind the surface book is really good but it has to be well developed in order to be useful.
So an ideal laptop should be like the PF but with a dock/keyboard like the Surface Book which could include a fan and a Gpu. All with a 14 inch screen with a 3:2 aspect ratio.
So it should have:
1-Pen support
2-Detachable keyboard with integrated GPU
3-14 inch display (possibly a new oled one)
4-Lots of ports
5-Good audio quality
6- All this without sacrificing aestethic and portability

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Other 2-in-1 tablets that I discarded because of design flaws (my basic requirements are in my 2nd post):

Asus Transformer Book 3
2-in-1 knockout arguments

  • screen brightness too low
  • fan too aggressive

Lenovo Thinkpad Tablet X1 Carbon

  • screen brightness too low (~340 nits measured)
  • pen is Wacom, so it’s not precise in the corners

    _Screenshot from here: - YouTube

Apart from that the Lenovo is a cool device, it even has LTE and a big additional battery.

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  • lack of thunderbolt 3 for eGPU
  • lack of driver update support
  • lack of ports
  • screen resolution below 2k
  • w/o premium construction
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To be honest, my main reason to never buy a Microsoft-device after this SP4 again, is their customer service. No matter how many good experiences other people had, mine was crappy, they completely disrespected me as a customer and that’s why I’ll never go back again. I can handle most other stuff, because I’m not a very picky person (although I have to admit that after the SP4-screen any ‘normal’ laptop screen looks like a crappy screen to me xD ). I don’t need twenty hours of battery life or all different kind of ports in my PC or screens so bright they’ll end up giving me a migraine anyway. I just want good customer service and to be treated with respect. If a company can’t offer me that, I’m out the door. If they can, I’ll probably even buy a device from them that isn’t ‘perfect’ to me, just because I know that I can at least count on the company’s customer service, which isn’t really a given just anywhere (obviously).

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  1. Short battery life (less than 6 hours of web browsing)
  2. Low resolution/quality screen (250+ ppi or more please)
  3. No touchscreen (on a laptop)
  4. No pen input (on a tablet)
  5. No removable battery (on a phone)
  6. CPU/GPU throttling
  7. Crappy WiFi performance
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[quote=“Nikolina, post:7, topic:3677, full:true”]
To be honest, my main reason to never buy a Microsoft-device after this SP4 again, is their customer service. No matter how many good experiences other people had, mine was crappy, they completely disrespected me as a customer and that’s why I’ll never go back again. [/quote]

Is it an experience only with one person, or over multiple times with multiple persons?

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Well, like I said, this was my experience. But if a customer service spokesperson disrespects me as a person (to the point of being downright degrading towards me, even though I did nothing to deserve that - and I know that’s what they áll say, but I’m not really one to lash out or be rude, haha), and refuses to help me with a problem that they even kind of admitted was théír fault to begin with, I don’t care how many people have good experiences with the company anymore: they’re not going to see me again. xD From what I’ve read I’m definitely not the only one who has had these kind of problems with the customer service in my country. But I’m honest enough to say that it is, of course, a problem with a specific customer service (the Dutch one), so the rest might be good (I think their service, especially in the stores, is pretty good from the many, many stories I’ve read about it, but unfortunately we don’t have stores here). That just doesn’t help me. :stuck_out_tongue: So yeah, for me, good customer service is everything…

I spoke to two people, by the way. One was downright rude and degrading, the other one just didn’t listen and kept talking over me and wouldn’t let me explain my problem. In the end it came down to the fact that they both kind of admitted that it was their fault (damaged typecover in sealed box), but they didn’t wanna do something about it. I still don’t understand the logic, but whatever. I just let it be because it wasn’t worth the headache. :frowning: And I also just didn’t have the courage anymore to try a third time after these two people, hahaha. Oh well, at least my typecover does work, so not áll is bad. But it was the first reason for me to wonder if the Eve keyboard fits the SP4. Unfortunately not!

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For me it was lack of 16GB RAM option, or no thunderbolt 3. XPS 13 came close, but in the end I decided that I want a 2 in 1 device.

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The one thing that made me not order the SP4 was the lack of LTE. As I have no great expectations of seeing an LTE version of SP5 either my hope is for the moment pinned on a future LTE version of the Eve.

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Uhm… let’s see:

Flaws/shortcomings that made me NOT buy a device:

  • too little RAM memory
  • too little storage memory
  • clearly insufficient battery
  • lack of connectivity (full-size USB, in particular)
  • why the hell all high end phones are bigger than I can comfortably fit in my pocket when sitting?

Flaws that made me REGRET of a purchase I made:

  • (very) poor performance
  • proven insufficient battery
  • driver issues (not functioning, updates unavailable)
  • wrong size (either too big or too small for its intended use)
  • instability (a phone that dies randomly at least once a week is no use: I miss calls and messages)
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Amazing thread you made! Great idea @hellBENder!

For me I hate when devices look terrible and don’t have enough battery life. I like everything top notch at the most affordable price possible :slight_smile:

But the main idea is not to get a mediocre device for a crazy cheap price but rather the best designed and engineered product with top notch specs that comes at affordable price:)

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Try the support page from GB, DE, or other European countries. Personally, I have had experience with GB and DE, and they are all very nice and helpful, and they will do replacement in any country in Europe.

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I had a similar experience when going to the Microsoft Stores near me (Dallas, Texas, USA). Their techs are friendly, but that’s about it. They don’t know a thing about the products their trying to sell, and seemed to be very “cold” to the idea of me purchasing a Windows phone, as if they didn’t really like their product. No passion. Then, later this year, I went back to ask some questions about Windows Mobile functionality and Windows phone devices - they didn’t know a darn thing about ANY of it! I was better off looking online for information. (Keep in mind I’m pretty tech-savvy and have a Computer Science degree).

When Nokia was around, I had the COMPLETELY OPPOSITE EXPERIENCE. The phone I had before I bought my Lumia 950XL was a Lumia 920 which I got new a few months after they came out (and happened to be my first smartphone). About 9 months into owning this phone, I had some sort of software/hardware issue. There were no Microsoft Stores at the time near me and Nokia was still an independent business. They had Nokia Support, which spent over an hour on an IM chat with me in order to fix issue.

You can’t BUY customer service like that anymore, yet alone get it for FREE. Apple “Genius’” try, but their main purpose seems to be to replace your device (preferably with an “upgrade”) to get you to shut up so they can move onto the next customer. It didn’t used to be this way.

I still enjoy using Windows Mobile, and more specifically, Lumia hardware, better than any other choices on the market, but the recent Microsoft experiences I’ve had have made me rethink buying hardware from them.

Sorry for the rant. In short, I agree 100% - customer service seems to be a forgotten aspect of selling a product nowadays.

To respond to @hellBENder’s original discussion, I feel that electronics companies have become lazy in the design of both hardware and software. It all looks the same. That’s one reason I jumped on the Windows bandwagon back in the Windows 8 days - it was a new idea (didn’t look like Android/iOS square icons) with distinctive hardware (Lumia) that had great quality (Nokia - I had prior experience with their phones).
One key thing that makes me not buy 95% of smart phones out there is the drop test. If I have to put an Otterbox on my phone just to get it to withstand a fall, I’m not buying that phone. Hardware quality means a helluva lot to me!

One more edit: Something else I’ve been very careful on after getting burned by Windows RT and now Microsoft Lumia, is customer support - is the company ACTUALLY going to stand by their product for future support? I’ve gradually been shifting back towards the idea of Apple devices not because I like their OS, but because the company (not the sales associates, necessarily) genuinely has a lot riding on the line to treat it’s customers well and engineer decent hardware.

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Prioritising high numbers in the specs for marketing purposes, and not caring about how it will be used and perform for real world tasks.

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Absolutely. This is so common. And they even do so if it harms the result and the real world usage.

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Keyboard:
A computer’s keyboard is more important than most companies seem to care about. I was all set to buy the Eve V, and then I saw the keyboard:( Typests, and developers, use all the keys on a keyboard. Most keyboards don’t have the application key (the one between the Alt and Ctrl on the right side that brings up the right-click menu). Many keyboards put the F keys behind an Fn modifier key, which turns hard-refresh into a three-key press (Ctrl-Fn-F5). The shift key belongs next to the typable characters on a keyboard (Lenovo, I’m talking to you). Every keyboard should have a Home, End, PageUp, PageDown, Delete, and Insert. Paste, cut, and copy is also Shift-Insert, Shift-Delete, and Ctrl-Insert. Ctrl-Home takes you to the beginning and Ctrl-End to the end. So it would really be ideal if Home, End, Delete, and Insert weren’t hidden under a Fn modifier key as all those shortcuts become painful. Also, I actually like when the arrow keys fall a little below the rest of the keys as that makes finding them without looking very easy. Finally, there is no reason to not have the keys go nearly to the edge of the keyboard. My fingers don’t fall off the edge of the keyboard, so I don’t need a bezel around my keyboard.

I know it may be hard to fit all that in a 13" space, but let’s be realistic, if one actually mapped out how much of the right-shift or enter is actually pressed, they would probably find room to shorten those keys. Additionally, the spacebar needs to only be about as wide as F-J, it certainly doesn’t need to be D-K, and a hand naturally sitting on the home row will have their thumbs at about V and N, so there is all sorts of wasted space there.

I would love to see a community collaboration of a keyboard for the next 13" or 15" device the Eve puts out. I would love to participate in it.

Pretty good examples of keyboards:


Battery:
All day battery when browsing the web (which includes many tabs in Chrome, with ads, many of which are those auto-play videos). Just to be clear that is all day browsing the web, not a few hours of browsing the web and a few hours of sleeping or reading a long document on a single web page. My days are longer than 4-7 hours (HP).

Screen:
I have not purchased computers because they wash out or are too reflective. Most people have lights in their home or a window. I shouldn’t have to angle my computer just right to use it. Also, if it can be folded or held like a tablet, it should support a digitizer for a real pen, not a capacitive stylus. Full HD is fine, less than that isn’t.

Ports:
USB Type A, USB Type C (with all it supports, Acer): remember the past; consider the future. I keep my machines for several years. Also, micro HDMI isn’t that useful, since I need an adapter to use it anyway. Go DVI, go full HDMI, go USB C, go Miracast, or go without.

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I find it really interesting which keys people find vital. The only one in the Home, End, PageUp, PageDown, Delete, and Insert group I use is delete. And that is usually only when I put the cursor in the wrong place for a backspace. Insert is wholly unhelpful.

How it types would definitely be a factor though.

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