4 ms·

Wouldn't it be nice if that was illegal? Sell whatever, but label it accurately, it's different hardware so it needs to have a different version label in the li

Wouldn't it be nice if that was illegal? Sell whatever, but label it accurately, it's different hardware so it needs to have a different version label in the listing or something. We see this all the time with SSDs, where a high-spec model is released to reviewers, then a low-spec model is mass-produced and sold under the same model number. That's fraud, isn't it? Shouldn't it be?

cesarb 11mo ago
> but label it accurately, it's different hardware so it needs to have a different version label In my experience, TP-Link always has the hardware revision on a label on the outside of the box.
- forinti 11mo ago
  It's small text on a small label that online vendors don't bother to check.
  - tremon 11mo ago
    Then don't buy online, if you can't trust the vendor?
tpmoney 11mo ago
It’s only fraud if they sold you or marketed to you on those specs. But at least for things like reflashing your router, short of a few explicit opener vendors (like glinet) and Linksys AFTER releasing the WRTGL version, router manufacturers aren’t usually advertising on how much ram or flash memory space they have, any more than car manufacturers are advertising how much flash memory is in their ECUs. It’s not an intended or marketed purpose, so they’re not going to be changing model numbers just because they made an internal update.
- Dylan16807 11mo ago
  Changing the flash in a router is pretty understandable. Changing a router's CPU is going to affect core performance, and so does changing parts in an SSD, and core performance should totally count as being used to sell the product.
  - necovek 11mo ago
    But you can optimize software and use slower hardware to maintain the same performance, as an example.
    - Dylan16807 11mo ago
      In theory. It doesn't happen often past initial launch of a product.
      - necovek 11mo ago
        If you can build a plausible case that you did this (eg. simply making your fw image smaller justifies using a smaller eMMC chip), and provide a few benchmarks that demonstrate equivalent performance in those scenarios, you'd be of the hook in any legal mandate to keep the performance the same even if your new hw revision ships with weaker hardware. This is even a common product development strategy: ship to market asap, optimize the margins later.
  - tpmoney 11mo ago
    “Core performance” only matters relative to what the company is selling you though. For example let’s say a company sells 2 tiers of switch. One does 10G and the other 1G. For whatever reason when they start selling these, it’s cheapest for them to sell the same internal hardware, but with the internals underclocked in software. Some hardware hackers discover this and start unlocking the 10G capabilities of the 1G units. Later down the road, the company finds a cheaper implementation of hardware for the 1G that still can do 1G but even if up-clocked can now only do 2.5 at best. That’s a change to “core performance” but it’s also not fraud. They didn’t advertise or sell you a “switch that starts at 1G but can be unlocked for 10G”, they sold you a “switch that can do 1G”. As long as that’s what they’re still selling you, everything else is ancillary.

cesarb 11mo ago

> but label it accurately, it's different hardware so it needs to have a different version label In my experience, TP-Link always has the hardware revision on a label on the outside of the box.

forinti 11mo ago
It's small text on a small label that online vendors don't bother to check.
- tremon 11mo ago
  Then don't buy online, if you can't trust the vendor?

tpmoney 11mo ago

It’s only fraud if they sold you or marketed to you on those specs. But at least for things like reflashing your router, short of a few explicit opener vendors (like glinet) and Linksys AFTER releasing the WRTGL version, router manufacturers aren’t usually advertising on how much ram or flash memory space they have, any more than car manufacturers are advertising how much flash memory is in their ECUs. It’s not an intended or marketed purpose, so they’re not going to be changing model numbers just because they made an internal update.

Dylan16807 11mo ago
Changing the flash in a router is pretty understandable. Changing a router's CPU is going to affect core performance, and so does changing parts in an SSD, and core performance should totally count as being used to sell the product.
- necovek 11mo ago
  But you can optimize software and use slower hardware to maintain the same performance, as an example.
  - Dylan16807 11mo ago
    In theory. It doesn't happen often past initial launch of a product.
    - necovek 11mo ago
      If you can build a plausible case that you did this (eg. simply making your fw image smaller justifies using a smaller eMMC chip), and provide a few benchmarks that demonstrate equivalent performance in those scenarios, you'd be of the hook in any legal mandate to keep the performance the same even if your new hw revision ships with weaker hardware. This is even a common product development strategy: ship to market asap, optimize the margins later.
- tpmoney 11mo ago
  “Core performance” only matters relative to what the company is selling you though. For example let’s say a company sells 2 tiers of switch. One does 10G and the other 1G. For whatever reason when they start selling these, it’s cheapest for them to sell the same internal hardware, but with the internals underclocked in software. Some hardware hackers discover this and start unlocking the 10G capabilities of the 1G units. Later down the road, the company finds a cheaper implementation of hardware for the 1G that still can do 1G but even if up-clocked can now only do 2.5 at best. That’s a change to “core performance” but it’s also not fraud. They didn’t advertise or sell you a “switch that starts at 1G but can be unlocked for 10G”, they sold you a “switch that can do 1G”. As long as that’s what they’re still selling you, everything else is ancillary.