6 ms·

These brands are quite well known in Europe, but not in a good way. When my Matebook stopped charging after two months people called me dumb for buying a Huawei

by Pimpus 8y ago

These brands are quite well known in Europe, but not in a good way. When my Matebook stopped charging after two months people called me dumb for buying a Huawei product. Just an anecdote. I likewise have Xiaoimi products and their Mi Home app for smart home products is awful and a far cry from Apple's polish.

a11595 8y ago
Completely agree. Also, lenovo phones are also well known in Europe, not in a good way. the dual-sim one I had while living in Kiev was dirt cheap, plastic screen, as fast as the samsungs out at that time but about 2mm thicker. that plastic screen was awesome and saved me many replacements. the problem with the chinese crap, not just phones but TVs, pads, whatever, is they literally dump a bunch of decent hardware in there, and just stop. no QA, no support, nothing you can find online - so in a few months when any little thing breaks, or there's no way to fix an annoying feature, it goes in the trash. lots of stories, but here's a couple. got a chinese phone so I never have to put a chinese sim into my real phone. pretty popular in china, good specs. root it and put a non-chinese OS? nothing, and I've searched in chinese. About 4 years ago got a xiaoimi tablet. quad core, 2GB ram, mini-hdmi output, $70 on amazon. first month perfect. then - wifi started turning off after about 5min, only fixed by a reboot. no support, no documentation, nothing on forums - and it was sold for about 3 months and then they started selling some identical crap with a different model#. seriously, I have no problem paying $1-2k for a phone or pad. What I don't want is useless crap that wastes days of time and gets me pissed off so I can't fall asleep, a year later on a Tuesday. The thing is, the Chinese culture is used to half-working crap, and they think it's normal. They pump shit out of the sewers, boil it, then use the oil floating on top to dilute cooking oil. At most restaurants. Phone has awkward interface, security holes, and 1 security update after release? who cares - your thoughts are on rent in a dirty apartment and food. If you order your steak medium - it's well done, because yes, they don't toss the beef when it goes bad - they serve it to you, everywhere. Buildings use a bunch more cement and reinforcement than normal countries. Why? Because the construction workers eyeball all measurements and just don't care - if you don't account for error, it'll collapse. Not knocking on the Chinese race (my wife is Chinese), but I am knocking their culture. Zero attention to detail, zero cares, zero pride in what you do. It works there, because life is shitty and you don't care about a UI bug when you're broke, there's no law, and an oppressive police force that puts you in jail to harvest your organs for the rich.
- markdown 8y ago
  > They pump shit out of the sewers, boil it, then use the oil floating on top to dilute cooking oil. At most restaurants. Citation needed. My understanding was that there are some crooks producing the sewer oil, but that it's used as an adulterant in cooking oil and the restaurants aren't knowingly cooking in sewer oil.
  - tinus_hn 8y ago
    > Citation needed This is not Wikipedia.
    - robjan 8y ago
      It's not Wikipedia, but if you are going to judge a whole culture by one news story you had better proove that the problem is widespread
      - tinus_hn 8y ago
        You can certainly request a source if you disagree with the statement but it is not helpful to shout ‘citation needed’ as if this is an encyclopedia and everything you post needs references. You could say ‘I don’t think that is true, do you have references for that?’
    - mango7283 8y ago
      I fail to see how your alternative way of phrasing differs in any meaningful way from "citation needed"
    - pdpi 8y ago
      It isn't, no. But that comment came as a reply to the sort of extraordinary statement that demands substantiation. Due to Wikipedia's cultural impact, "citation needed" has become a popular way to request exactly that.
      - tinus_hn 8y ago
the_mitsuhiko 8y ago
> These brands are quite well known in Europe, but not in a good way. They are very popular and desired in many EU countries. Xiaomi / Ninebot dominate the electric scooter business and the phones and home appliances are very popular and desired. I just bought the xiaomi vacuum robot for instance which blows all others out of the water. Similarly with the Huawei P20 Pro which is one of the most desired phones right now here.
Al-Khwarizmi 8y ago
I guess it depends on country. In Spain I'd say Xiaomi and Huawei have a very good brand image. Especially Xiaomi. They recently opened a store in my city and there were people queueing all night for the opening day. On the other hand, Apple has its minority but staunch followers, but it's rather common to diss them or see them as brainwashed fools for spending 1K € on a phone. This is a neutral opinion, I'm in the middle ground with my 500 € HTC.
rchaud 8y ago
When it comes to high-value products like laptops, always go with a vendor that has in-person support services in your country. By 'high value', I mean things you'd be utterly screwed without. I could lose my phone, but there's nothing critical on it. My laptop on the other hand.... I once had a Toshiba laptop purchased in Singapore. When the motherboard died and I looked for a replacement, the only option was to ship it back to Singapore, which was of course a no-go. Since then, I've only purchased Apple or Dell laptops, as both of them have fast turnaround times, since they're actually available in my country. Definitely costs a little more, but you can't beat that peace of mind.
cloverich 8y ago
I'm not sure if there is a perception in US for Huawei in general, but I'd bet many people know them from the Boot Loop issue the Nexus 6p had. Unfortunately both me and my wife had that phone and we both had to purchase new phones (13, 18 months).
amanaplanacanal 8y ago
My prediction: Eventually the Chinese companies will be known as premium brands. When I was a kid, I remember my parent's and grandparent's generation talking about the cheap Japanese crap, and they would only buy American. A few decades alter the Japanese stuff was the good stuff, and the American's couldn't compete.
- steve_adams_86 8y ago
  Interestingly, Japan still has some stellar products, but they are falling behind as Americans have in many types of manufacturing. It's a shame to watch countries lose touch with the importance of strong domestic manufacturing; particularly when they have a history of excellence.

by Pimpus 8y ago

a11595 8y ago

Completely agree. Also, lenovo phones are also well known in Europe, not in a good way. the dual-sim one I had while living in Kiev was dirt cheap, plastic screen, as fast as the samsungs out at that time but about 2mm thicker. that plastic screen was awesome and saved me many replacements. the problem with the chinese crap, not just phones but TVs, pads, whatever, is they literally dump a bunch of decent hardware in there, and just stop. no QA, no support, nothing you can find online - so in a few months when any little thing breaks, or there's no way to fix an annoying feature, it goes in the trash. lots of stories, but here's a couple. got a chinese phone so I never have to put a chinese sim into my real phone. pretty popular in china, good specs. root it and put a non-chinese OS? nothing, and I've searched in chinese. About 4 years ago got a xiaoimi tablet. quad core, 2GB ram, mini-hdmi output, $70 on amazon. first month perfect. then - wifi started turning off after about 5min, only fixed by a reboot. no support, no documentation, nothing on forums - and it was sold for about 3 months and then they started selling some identical crap with a different model#. seriously, I have no problem paying $1-2k for a phone or pad. What I don't want is useless crap that wastes days of time and gets me pissed off so I can't fall asleep, a year later on a Tuesday. The thing is, the Chinese culture is used to half-working crap, and they think it's normal. They pump shit out of the sewers, boil it, then use the oil floating on top to dilute cooking oil. At most restaurants. Phone has awkward interface, security holes, and 1 security update after release? who cares - your thoughts are on rent in a dirty apartment and food. If you order your steak medium - it's well done, because yes, they don't toss the beef when it goes bad - they serve it to you, everywhere. Buildings use a bunch more cement and reinforcement than normal countries. Why? Because the construction workers eyeball all measurements and just don't care - if you don't account for error, it'll collapse. Not knocking on the Chinese race (my wife is Chinese), but I am knocking their culture. Zero attention to detail, zero cares, zero pride in what you do. It works there, because life is shitty and you don't care about a UI bug when you're broke, there's no law, and an oppressive police force that puts you in jail to harvest your organs for the rich.

markdown 8y ago
> They pump shit out of the sewers, boil it, then use the oil floating on top to dilute cooking oil. At most restaurants. Citation needed. My understanding was that there are some crooks producing the sewer oil, but that it's used as an adulterant in cooking oil and the restaurants aren't knowingly cooking in sewer oil.
- tinus_hn 8y ago
  > Citation needed This is not Wikipedia.
  - robjan 8y ago
    It's not Wikipedia, but if you are going to judge a whole culture by one news story you had better proove that the problem is widespread
    - tinus_hn 8y ago
      You can certainly request a source if you disagree with the statement but it is not helpful to shout ‘citation needed’ as if this is an encyclopedia and everything you post needs references. You could say ‘I don’t think that is true, do you have references for that?’
  - mango7283 8y ago
    I fail to see how your alternative way of phrasing differs in any meaningful way from "citation needed"
  - pdpi 8y ago
    It isn't, no. But that comment came as a reply to the sort of extraordinary statement that demands substantiation. Due to Wikipedia's cultural impact, "citation needed" has become a popular way to request exactly that.
    - tinus_hn 8y ago

the_mitsuhiko 8y ago

> These brands are quite well known in Europe, but not in a good way. They are very popular and desired in many EU countries. Xiaomi / Ninebot dominate the electric scooter business and the phones and home appliances are very popular and desired. I just bought the xiaomi vacuum robot for instance which blows all others out of the water. Similarly with the Huawei P20 Pro which is one of the most desired phones right now here.

Al-Khwarizmi 8y ago

I guess it depends on country. In Spain I'd say Xiaomi and Huawei have a very good brand image. Especially Xiaomi. They recently opened a store in my city and there were people queueing all night for the opening day. On the other hand, Apple has its minority but staunch followers, but it's rather common to diss them or see them as brainwashed fools for spending 1K € on a phone. This is a neutral opinion, I'm in the middle ground with my 500 € HTC.

rchaud 8y ago

When it comes to high-value products like laptops, always go with a vendor that has in-person support services in your country. By 'high value', I mean things you'd be utterly screwed without. I could lose my phone, but there's nothing critical on it. My laptop on the other hand.... I once had a Toshiba laptop purchased in Singapore. When the motherboard died and I looked for a replacement, the only option was to ship it back to Singapore, which was of course a no-go. Since then, I've only purchased Apple or Dell laptops, as both of them have fast turnaround times, since they're actually available in my country. Definitely costs a little more, but you can't beat that peace of mind.

cloverich 8y ago

I'm not sure if there is a perception in US for Huawei in general, but I'd bet many people know them from the Boot Loop issue the Nexus 6p had. Unfortunately both me and my wife had that phone and we both had to purchase new phones (13, 18 months).

amanaplanacanal 8y ago

My prediction: Eventually the Chinese companies will be known as premium brands. When I was a kid, I remember my parent's and grandparent's generation talking about the cheap Japanese crap, and they would only buy American. A few decades alter the Japanese stuff was the good stuff, and the American's couldn't compete.

steve_adams_86 8y ago
Interestingly, Japan still has some stellar products, but they are falling behind as Americans have in many types of manufacturing. It's a shame to watch countries lose touch with the importance of strong domestic manufacturing; particularly when they have a history of excellence.