The Death of the Specification • Hacker News Board

Re: The Death of the Specification

#21

Post by bryanlarsen » Tue, Nov 15, 2011, 1:59 AM UTC

kstenerud wrote: post #13

News flash: Consumer Reports is not a cheerleader for the top selling products. They are an organization concerned over what you get in actual fact for your money. Consumer Reports is read by people who want to know all of the quality issues and hard facts about a product before making a purchasing decision. Such consumers always have, and always will be, a small market segment. This "credibility rant" reads like a s…

I love Consumer Reports. I won't choose my phone based on their reviews, but they did save me over $500 on a vacuum cleaner.

Re: The Death of the Specification

#22

Post by jseliger » Tue, Nov 15, 2011, 4:02 AM UTC

bryanlarsen wrote: post #21

kstenerud wrote: post #13

News flash: Consumer Reports is not a cheerleader for the top selling products. They are an organization concerned over what you get in actual fact for your money. Consumer Reports is read by people who want to know all of the quality issues and hard facts about a product before making a purchasing decision. Such consumers always have, and always will be, a small market segment. This "credibility rant" reads like a s…

I love Consumer Reports. I won't choose my phone based on their reviews, but they did save me over $500 on a vacuum cleaner.

they did save me over $500 on a vacuum cleaner

So what did you get? Sorry to threadjack, but I don't have one and may need to buy one shortly.

Re: The Death of the Specification

#23

Post by Fluxx » Tue, Nov 15, 2011, 8:03 AM UTC

Another way to look at this is that raw specs don't matter because it's execution and quality that matter. Every Apple product I've ever owned has cost 2x as much as the "equally spec'd" rival, but Apple products last longer and work better because they're better designed and made to a higher quality. I've had the same Macbook for 2+ years and it's still working great, while the EEEPC netbook is slower, full of bloatware and has had it's AC adapter plug fail.

Re: The Death of the Specification

#24

Post by dubya » Tue, Nov 15, 2011, 1:42 PM UTC

kstenerud wrote: post #13

News flash: Consumer Reports is not a cheerleader for the top selling products. They are an organization concerned over what you get in actual fact for your money. Consumer Reports is read by people who want to know all of the quality issues and hard facts about a product before making a purchasing decision. Such consumers always have, and always will be, a small market segment. This "credibility rant" reads like a s…

CR definitely does have an affect on the market for some things, but maybe not such a large effect for phones and computers. Try ordering their top-pick refrigerator or washing machine about a month after the review comes out to see.

Re: The Death of the Specification

#25

Post by bryanlarsen » Tue, Nov 15, 2011, 3:16 PM UTC

jseliger wrote: post #22

bryanlarsen wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I love Consumer Reports. I won't choose my phone based on their reviews, but they did save me over $500 on a vacuum cleaner.

they did save me over $500 on a vacuum cleaner So what did you get? Sorry to threadjack, but I don't have one and may need to buy one shortly.

Hoover Windtunnel. Am very happy with it.

Re: The Death of the Specification

#26

Post by Dylan16807 » Tue, Nov 15, 2011, 5:12 PM UTC

pkulak wrote: post #12

ChuckMcM wrote: post #4

TL;DR version - the relative popularity of technology gizmos doesn't correllate well with their specifications. Somebody rolled out from under a rock that they ahd been in since 2000 and woke up apparently. The history was that with x86 flavored personal computers, there was a 15 year period between 1985 and 2000 where you could take two machines, compare the specs of the ram/processor/video and come up with a 'good,…

Exactly. You can't put out an article like this while spewing our countless reviews talking about how one camera is so many megapixels better than this other camera.

I don't know, I think specs still work fine for cameras. Not the megapixel number but the resolution of what it actually picks up. Also noise levels and shutter speed.

Re: The Death of the Specification

#27

Post by PotatoEngineer » Tue, Nov 15, 2011, 8:53 PM UTC

dubya wrote: post #24

kstenerud wrote: post #13

News flash: Consumer Reports is not a cheerleader for the top selling products. They are an organization concerned over what you get in actual fact for your money. Consumer Reports is read by people who want to know all of the quality issues and hard facts about a product before making a purchasing decision. Such consumers always have, and always will be, a small market segment. This "credibility rant" reads like a s…

CR definitely does have an affect on the market for some things, but maybe not such a large effect for phones and computers. Try ordering their top-pick refrigerator or washing machine about a month after the review comes out to see.

Until I saw this article, I never realized that CR reviewed computers. It makes sense (they review everything else), but I turn to CR for appliances and cars, not computers and smartphones. There are plenty of other sites that are better for reviewing computers and computer-like entities.

Re: The Death of the Specification

#28

Post by jseliger » Wed, Nov 16, 2011, 4:30 AM UTC

bryanlarsen wrote: post #25

jseliger wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

they did save me over $500 on a vacuum cleaner So what did you get? Sorry to threadjack, but I don't have one and may need to buy one shortly.

Hoover Windtunnel. Am very happy with it.

Looks great, and it's much cheaper than Dyson et al. Thanks for the tip.