Everybody knows what they're getting when they buy a Macbook, but not every product is familiar as a Macbook, and not every brand is as concerned with protectin

Everybody knows what they're getting when they buy a Macbook, but not every product is familiar as a Macbook, and not every brand is as concerned with protecting their reputation as Apple. The existence of Chinese-made Macbooks proves that the Chinese are capable of making good products, but it doesn't prove that they habitually do so. With a lot of products, you're not going to find many reviews online, and even if you do, you don't know if the product has changed since the reviewer purchased it (unlike the situation with Macbook, where we read about it on HN every time there's a refresh). Here's an extremely long thread at a website for toolheads that attempts to address this issue by reviewing harbor freight tools (mostly cheap no-name Chinese imports), but it's a long way from solved. The sheer size of this thread gives you an idea of how many people face the dilemma of buying cheap, risky products or expensive safe products. http://garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=27192 http://garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=27192 Often, you're forced to rely on the reputation of the country of origin or the brand (and the good brands are mostly American, European or Japanese). That said, I have bought some Chinese made no-name products that turned out to be perfectly good for a much lower price than their USA-made counterparts.