Aeron chair - nothing special, could have done with a 10x cheaper ikea chair
Been some 'scam' for decades.
Ask HN: What tech purchase did you regret even though reviews were great?
31–40 of 156 posts
Re: Ask HN: What tech purchase did you regret even though reviews were great?
#32Apple Watch. I'm not even sure when I last wore it, but it was at least 18 months ago. Slighly laggy remote control for my phone, with widgets a little too small for my finger to reliably hit. When I do proper long walks, the battery reliably dies on me during the walk.
I wanted to buy my so an apple ultra watch, is it a bad idea? It seems like a perfect thing that someone doesn't need that would.make a nice present
Re: Ask HN: What tech purchase did you regret even though reviews were great?
#33I’m probably risking a lot of downvotes with this one, but for me it was a Home Assistant setup. Not really a purchase because it’s an open project, but I invested a lot of time into reading the docs and setting it all up only to realize I didn’t actually like it better than using the smart home products directly. It seems like a great option for people who like to tinker and get a thrill out of getting some cheap Aliexpress gadget or ESP32 project to work with their home, but I just wanted something simple that worked for my house without extra complexity.
Re: Ask HN: What tech purchase did you regret even though reviews were great?
#34Nest thermostats. They were an endless source of frustration for me.
Yep. I have an Ecobee currently and have had a Nest previously. Am totally perplexed why people like these things. Just opened the Ecobee app and literally at the top is an ad saying "The Holiday sale is here. Shop now." Irritates me to no end.
Re: Ask HN: What tech purchase did you regret even though reviews were great?
#35By far the most disappointing for me has been the Roomba x2. I love the concept and when the first one didn't live up to the hype I somehow convinced myself the newer version surely had the bugs worked out. Neither lasted working in my house for longer than a few weeks. Not because they were broken but I spent more time dealing with them than I did just vacuuming. Haven't tried another robot cleaning device since.
Roomba as well. Awesome at first when we bought our first home.
But then we filled it with stuff and got a doggo. Those hairs fast-track the process of jamming the wheels and sweeper. Why do we need a robot vacuum when we still have to vacuum by hand?
Re: Ask HN: What tech purchase did you regret even though reviews were great?
#36Aeron chair - nothing special, could have done with a 10x cheaper ikea chair
IMO they’re great - if you get it secondhand for cheap.
I have one I got from a coworker for $100 when he was moving. 13 years later it’s as good as it’s always been, and I don’t even know how old it was when I got it.
Comfiest office chair I’ve ever sat in.
Re: Ask HN: What tech purchase did you regret even though reviews were great?
#37Any home tech gadgets. Robot vacuums, smart lights, smart thermostats, internet connected TVs and appliances, most kitchen gadgets especially if they require power. None of it lives up to the hype and it's all e-waste in a couple of years if not sooner.
So true, why is that whole sector so bad?
Re: Ask HN: What tech purchase did you regret even though reviews were great?
#38Mysa thermostats - don't integrate well with Home Assistant and can't even reliably follow schedule.
Every Samsung phone I've ever owned - great hardware, but the software is a mess, especially with all of the Samsung apps that duplicate the Google apps.
Sony smart TV - was excited about running Android TV apps, but the onboard hardware is so bad that everything lags, and I actually ran out of space after installing 10-20 apps (it only has 4GB of flash storage). Also, its Ethernet adapter has a hardware bug that occasionally freezes up my entire network by spamming it with flow control frames.
Re: Ask HN: What tech purchase did you regret even though reviews were great?
#39Amazon Fire Tablet, one of the only things I've ever returned.
Re: Ask HN: What tech purchase did you regret even though reviews were great?
#40Any home tech gadgets. Robot vacuums, smart lights, smart thermostats, internet connected TVs and appliances, most kitchen gadgets especially if they require power. None of it lives up to the hype and it's all e-waste in a couple of years if not sooner.
Can't speak to most of those but smart lights are pretty nice.
I made sure to buy zigbee ones so that I'm just tied to home assistant which even if it goes out of business will still work with whatever binaries I've downloaded already (as well as it works locally so I can control them during internet outages). I'm sure somebody else can explain why you should get Thread or Matter nowendays but I never bothered to learn the differences.
But yeah, the average life of a company is what 1 year? Don't get any product you want for more than 5 years from a company younger than 5 years if you need that company to exist for it to work.