Earlier quoted context omitted.
You'll be happy to know that the InCase Sculpt is being sold again, if you can buy one before they sell out. They're nearly identical to the old MS Sculpt, down to the obscure bug with the keyboard matrix. The only difference that you can tell from a side-by-side comparison with new old stock is that the key caps feel slightly coarser, and less velvety. The palmrest is actually updated to the original, plusher MS scu…
I ended up getting the mWave from Kinesis which seems at least 85% great. My problem with the InCase version of the sculpt is that for the price, it would have to be much better build quality than the original. Incidentally, I gotta give credit to Matias on the palm rest upgrade in their version; despite the rest of their troubles, the palm rest material is way better than the original. Problem with the original, is…
Ask HN: What tech purchase did you regret even though reviews were great?
101–110 of 156 posts
Re: Ask HN: What tech purchase did you regret even though reviews were great?
#102Earlier quoted context omitted.
Robot vacuums are the worst. I have to help it every thirty minutes. And anytime I close a door or move something it wants to create a new map. The old randomized ones were actually better.
What kind of Robot Vacuum did you have? I had mine map the house once downstairs, and once upstairs and it's been fine navigating around stuff ever since. It comes into the kitchen area while I'm cooking and will eventually just come around for a second pass after my feet are out of the way. I have the roborock Q5+. The only complaints that I have are: 1) I have mine set to notify me when it's done cleaning. Sometime…
Check your mobile's app settings/battery optimisation? Sounds like the app doesn't keep running properly in the background
Re: Ask HN: What tech purchase did you regret even though reviews were great?
#103SteelSeries Arctis Nova Pro headset. Microphone quality is just worse than it should be for the $320 I paid, and the battery doesn’t last as long as I hoped. This was after reading many reviews.
Gaming headsets, especially the expensive ones were a trap I fell into for a long time. They’re overpriced for sure, quality varies but they usually last a few years. They’re always all so uncomfortable too. I broke out and ended up getting a DAC/AMP, some good cans and a mounted microphone and I’ve never looked back. I miss the wireless part a little, but taking the headphones off to get up is a cheap price compared…
Re: Ask HN: What tech purchase did you regret even though reviews were great?
#104My wife Steam Deck. She used it in the beginning,but she ended up playing mostly on the pc. I used the Steam deck extensively,I thought she would do the same,but she prefers to read when waiting for stuff.
Same. My steam deck ended up being a “donation to Linux gaming fund for valve”.
Maybe as he gets older. Until then, I'm just periodically charging it up.
Re: Ask HN: What tech purchase did you regret even though reviews were great?
#105Re: Ask HN: What tech purchase did you regret even though reviews were great?
#106Not sure I'm at the regret stage, but the 3D printer has been sitting mostly unused, and I'm not sure that'll change. There have been a few things that were good to print, but mostly used to print fidget toys for the kids and their mates.
I’m actually surprised I didn’t hit this problem. My 3D printer has been wildly useful. I seriously thought it would be another fad hobby that I drop immediately. But now I’ve gone as far as learning 3D modeling which I never really expected to do. I actually have more projects going on than I have printing capacity for sometimes. I wish I had perfect advice for getting the most out of it. Maybe this one will help: r…
Holy hell that's genius. I know what I'm printing tomorrow! :D
Re: Ask HN: What tech purchase did you regret even though reviews were great?
#107Earlier quoted context omitted.
I ended up getting the mWave from Kinesis which seems at least 85% great. My problem with the InCase version of the sculpt is that for the price, it would have to be much better build quality than the original. Incidentally, I gotta give credit to Matias on the palm rest upgrade in their version; despite the rest of their troubles, the palm rest material is way better than the original. Problem with the original, is…
Can you write a short review comparing to the sculpt in terms of shape and tactile feel? The mwave seems to have a more pronounced bump just eyeballing it. And as someone who is comfortable with scissor switches, whether on a laptop or MS sculpt, I'm not sure how mechanical ones would feel.
The palm rest is a more comfortable softer pad than the the o.g sculpt, but I find for me it does get a little sweaty. I take Adhd meds during the day and drink a shit ton of coffee, so tend have very sweaty hands. I can't yet speak to durability, but the sculpt palm rest starts looking tattered around the ~2 year mark, while the Matias palm rest is a replaceable piece of rubber with a fantastic velvety feel (I use it when I'm at the office).
Connectivity is way better than the sculpt, but it's a little finicky when switching between devices on Bluetooth, which I feel I might just be doing wrong and haven't tried to learn about yet.
I find that the keycaps have low quality printed characters on the mac version, and when the backlight is on, some keys are hard to read or don't shine through properly.
My biggest problem with this keyboard is that it has a small right shift key, a normal size left shift key, and arrow keys that I find less preferable to the sculpt. The small right shift key means it's harder to position my shoulders in an ideal way compared to the sculpt for my ridiculously large hands, and I have to contort my wrist a bit more than I'd like. I also just can't feel my way around the board as easily, since I used the shift keys and arrows as anchor points.
As I've gotten used to it a little more, this is becoming less of an issue.
For portability, the overall build feels more solid than the sculpt, which would sometimes get stuck keys if I'd throw it in my backpack and get a piece of dirt in there or something. The better connectivity is a huge relief, since I don't need to worry about a dongle for wireless, and/or can use a usbc cable if the batteries are dead. It seems a bit shorter but chonkier, and maybe weighs less.
So that's my review. 8.5/10, since some of these lean toward preferences rather than quality. I'm not as confident touch typing with it yet, maybe 70% as confident, but I think I'll keep it and refine that skill.
Additionally, although the printed/etched characters on the keycaps are low quality, I'm glad there's mac variant. I did use the sculpt overwhelmingly on my mac, and had to remap keys, which I'll now do if necessary on my windows PC for the minority of time I'm using it there.
Re: Ask HN: What tech purchase did you regret even though reviews were great?
#108Oh wait, reviews were not great, never mind.
Re: Ask HN: What tech purchase did you regret even though reviews were great?
#109Matias Sculpted keyboard. I definitely didn't expect it to be good, and since I got the first shipment, reviews didn't exist yet. Now they seem to accurately describe its problems. Although it was a decent effort, their overall build quality is pretty cheap, and it's not good enough to recommend. I took a chance on their 2nd revision and it was at least good enough to keep for periodic use, but it really isn't worth…
Matias Sculpted keyboard… Although it was a decent effort, their overall build quality is pretty cheap, and it's not good enough to recommend I concur. I thought I'd save a few bucks by buying the Matias keyboard that looks like the Apple Magic Keyboard with Numeric Keypad. After all, there are thousands of people on the internet who swear that Apple's prices are disconnected from build quality. It turns out the chat…
Re: Ask HN: What tech purchase did you regret even though reviews were great?
#110Earlier quoted context omitted.
Matias Sculpted keyboard… Although it was a decent effort, their overall build quality is pretty cheap, and it's not good enough to recommend I concur. I thought I'd save a few bucks by buying the Matias keyboard that looks like the Apple Magic Keyboard with Numeric Keypad. After all, there are thousands of people on the internet who swear that Apple's prices are disconnected from build quality. It turns out the chat…
I think Matias is sort of notorious for stuff that looks good in theory, but is plagued by reliability issues they just can't seem to sort out. I didn't know it was possible to mess up a scissor switch keyboard, but apparently Matias found a way to do so. They've also been trying for 10 years to make a 60% keyboard (see the infamous thread on geekhack). Granted they do seem to refund anyone who wants it, but it's har…
That indeed does seem to be the sentiment, and seems true, but to be fair, Apple also botched their laptop keyboards to the point of class action for years. But the current Macbook Pro keyboard seems fine so far.