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Ask HN: What tech purchase did you regret even though reviews were great?

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Re: Ask HN: What tech purchase did you regret even though reviews were great?

#91

Post by xethos »

reaperducer wrote: post #82
brailsafe wrote: post #81

Matias 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…

Maybe I got lucky - my Matias Quiet Pro has been fine (though I did have to replace one failing switch >10 years in) since ~2013 - possibly earlier, but at least since 2013.

Re: Ask HN: What tech purchase did you regret even though reviews were great?

#92

Post by krackers »

reaperducer wrote: post #82
brailsafe wrote: post #81

Matias 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…

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 hard to understand why on earth a keyboard would take 10 years to develop.

They're really good at identifying niche products and designing things to fit the target market, but not so good on actually manufacturing them.

Re: Ask HN: What tech purchase did you regret even though reviews were great?

#94

Post by krackers »

brailsafe wrote: post #81

Matias 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…

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 sculpt design (it was changed in a later revision)

Re: Ask HN: What tech purchase did you regret even though reviews were great?

#95

Post by John23832 »

Fire-Dragon-DoL wrote: post #89

My 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”.

Re: Ask HN: What tech purchase did you regret even though reviews were great?

#96

Post by foogazi »

Aurornis wrote: post #41
RebeccaTheDev wrote: post #27

Nest thermostats. They were an endless source of frustration for me.

Nest started out great for me as an early adopter. The recent iterations are just frustrating. The apps are laggy. It’s always prompting me to join an energy savings program no matter how many times I say no. We had to disable the home/away detection because it went from working well to thinking we were away 5 times per day. Nest stands as my example of a product that went from great to terrible through complete mism…

I added energy savings to my thermostat but later added Solar panels

It will still go energy saving but now I don’t care

Although it makes sense not to pull more from the grid during high usage times

Re: Ask HN: What tech purchase did you regret even though reviews were great?

#97

Post by QuiEgo »

reaperducer wrote: post #85
lesuorac wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 lea…

smart lights are pretty nice… I made sure to buy zigbee ones The connectivity doesn't matter when it's the actual filaments/LEDs that burn out after only a year or two. Even buying a big name like Sylvania doesn't help. I had eight Sylvania smart bulbs burn out or go into endless flicker fits in under a year. They're all in a landfill now. Of course, that's better than when Feit Electric sent out a firmware update th…

Smart switches > smart bulbs

Re: Ask HN: What tech purchase did you regret even though reviews were great?

#98

Post by gitaarik »

Aurornis wrote: post #33

I’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 Al…

I think Home Assistant is when you want to connect multiple IoT devices together and have automations around them, that you normally can't do because the devices are using different protocols because they're from different manufacturers.

But if you don't need that it's probably a useless overcomplexification.

Re: Ask HN: What tech purchase did you regret even though reviews were great?

#99

Post by brailsafe »

krackers wrote: post #94
brailsafe wrote: post #81

Matias 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…

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 that it's a perfect shape, but it wears down too quickly and becomes a paperweight if the dongle is lost. The price is insultingly high for the almost exactly original

Re: Ask HN: What tech purchase did you regret even though reviews were great?

#100

Post by beingfit »

Aurornis wrote: post #48
tgdn wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I cannot agree more. The battery not even lasting a day is what prevents me from using it. When I want to go for a run with it, it's always out of battery.

My Apple Watch is now so old that it’s unsupported by new WatchOS, but the battery still lasts a day without problem. It probably helps that I disabled the always on screen. Lasting all day has never been a problem, though.

Do you use it for workouts, especially for longer periods everyday? I’m a constant Apple Watch user and workout everyday, but I do find the battery life lacking when I’m out on hikes for a few hours. My watch is only a few years old and is supported for watchOS upgrades.

My guess is that the sensors use a lot of energy (even when the display is normally off) and that the longer one uses it for workouts within a day (with the sensors continuously on [1]) and the older the watch is, the lower the battery life.

[1]: there is a setting to in the workout app to reduce the frequency of GPS and heart rate readings during walking, running and hiking workouts when low power mode is also turned on

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