(I’m trying to adjust my shopping habits for quality, long-lasting goods from reputable brands. This isn’t some hailcorporate thing)
You must log in or register to comment.
This might sound weird, but Apple. I was NEVER disappointed by any of the products I bought. Sure, they are fucking expensive. Sure, they sometimes release really dumb products that most people probably shouldn’t buy (e.g. the 2015 MacBook). But if you make all the right considerations before your purchase, I’m pretty sure you will have a product that won’t disappoint you. At least that’s been my experience so far. That doesn’t mean that I’m perfectly happy with everything, for example I’m trying to switch away from an iPhone (I will definitely keep using macOS laptops/desktops though) for privacy reasons. I wasn’t really disappointed here, when I bought this phone, I knew what I was getting myself into, but Google isn’t much better.
Proton for secure email/calendar/whatever they offer now. I’ve been a subscriber to their paid plan for years, really happy so far.
IVPN and Mullvad for a trustworthy, private VPN provider
Anker. Every time I buy one of their products, I’m impressed by the quality. It’s come to the point that I’m seeing knockoff brands inserting the Anker keyword into their product descriptions, hoping a search will put their product up in view.
Brother printers. I have 78k pages printed on my 15 year old color laser printer from them, and it’s still going strong. They still sell OEM toner and even replacement parts for it, although the only part that ever needed to be replaced so far was the drum.
Lush, specifically their shampoo. I would use other stuff of theirs but I live in a country which they do not sell in, so the shampoo (which lasts for ages) is something I buy a lot of when I can get it.
Apple I generally trust (computers, not phones, those are too expensive and limited).
I don’t trust brands, I trust their customer support.
Any device/product can fail, no matter how excellent it is. To me, what matters is how efficiently the issue is dealt with by the support.
Like, I trust Apple customer support and now, after approx. 40 years being their customer, their customer support is the sole reason I’m still buying Apple stuff (I don’t like at all what they became and how they make their device unfixable on purpose, it’s a shame for a company that so much pretend to care about being eco-friendly). I’m also a fountain pen user and a collector, but the brands I trust the most are not the most hyped and expensive, far from it, they’re TWSBI and Lamy, because of their amazing customer support. Or, say, I mainly wear Merrell shoes for hiking (because they fit me well, obviously) because they have a fine customer support. And so on.
I have zero brand loyalty beyond that, and will not hesitate to change brand if they ever cut on their customer support.
Any device/produce can fail
“Um, sir? This banana has failed.”
:)
Thx, fixed
Better call customer support.
Of course, they’re just going to tell you to turn it off and back on again.
I used to pay for LeekSquad to manage my produce related issues but their customer service has really been poor lately.
I’ll never forget when the internal speaker went on my first iPhone, a 3GS. I put off getting it repaired because I was so used to having to send my previous Nokias and HTCs back and being without my phone for a couple of weeks. But the warranty was about to expire, so I bit the bullet and booked an appointment to get it sorted.
Walked in to the appointment and walked out ten minutes later with a brand new phone.
That sold me on Apple’s customer support.
I will say though, that the support seems to have tanked over the past few years. That they’ll jump on any blemishes on the device as a reason to not honour the warranty. Like how the screen in my XR had a tiny burn right at the edge (I was a welder at the time and stupidly had it in the top pocket of my overalls), which they used as reason to not work on it when it kept freezing. They demanded I pay £150 for a replacement screen first, which I refused, so they returned it to me. They’d taken off the screen protector, so I then had to argue with them for weeks to get them to replace it.
To be clear, Apple’s Support has its fair share of drawbacks and always had — I’ve been their customer since the mid-80s, there never was a magical period where they were perfect ;) — but what matters (to me, at least) is that while the product is under warranty a customer doesn’t have to worry too much on average (because, once again, there will be cases where support will fail the customer).
Outside of warranty, that’s an other story but then the real issue is in the way Apple designs its machines to not be upgradable or not easily fixable, if at all. That’s the real shame and that should be outlawed.
deleted by creator
Shout-out to Raritan Engineering. I accidentally cracked the porcelain bowl of the head that was original equipment in my 1974 sailboat, and needed a new one. Not only is the company still in business, the parts from a model they still sell are compatible, 50 years later! Their support techs were able to tell me exactly what parts I needed to buy.
Actually, quite a few marine brands are always reliable. The harsh environment at sea tends to out cheap crap in a hurry.
Darn Tough Socks, made in Vermont USA and guaranteed for life. If you get a hole in one, send it back and they give you a credit to pick any pair you want on their website.
That’s amazing. I’m going to look into this. I suppose they make this work because most customers actually find it inconvenient to send their destroyed socks back or the terms to do so make it difficult.
The socks are $20-27 pair, but they’re the most comfortable sock I’ve worn. I’m switching my whole wardrobe or socks over as I can afford.
Thanks for the recommendation. I’m definitely going to take a look.
Lands End clothing has gone way downhill in recent years, but it is still generally more durable than typical stuff you’d get at places like Target. I can typically wear their items for five years or more. My experience is with the men’s side.
Hottest take on this site: Apple.
I use my 2011 MacBook Pro to manage my 80k photos. My phone is six years old. My iPad Pro is five? (Edit: I lied, it’s a 2017 model) Years old.
I don’t use their desktops, I use Linux for my servers and windows for playing games. But my Apple shit for casual use has all lasted me an insane amount of time.
My 13 year old MacBook Pro still gets through 1.75 playthroughs of Beetlejuice on max brightness! Full disclaimer, I originally bought it for games and used Windows 7 always plugged in, and only now it has an SSD and OSX and the battery has 30 cycles. BUT STILL
I’ve been using MacBooks for work as a developer for over 15 years. They are ridiculously reliable. Earlier models would have key paint rub off. Mostly cosmetic stuff. But I’ve literally never had one not work.
I don’t like that you can’t switch out batteries, ram or hard drive anymore.
Also, they’re not cheap so for personal use I don’t buy apple products (especially since I don’t want to switch from an android to an apple ecosysten) but its to the point where if work tried to make me use a Dell windows laptop for my daily driver id go find another job. That’s how much I like the MacBook pro.
Until you realize you can’t replace ram or batteries…
I replaced my RAM and the battery is easily replaceable… but that’s on my 2011 model.
Lucky for you, but the truth is, Apple isn’t that great or reliable. Here is a list of all the MacBook recalls, and it’s a list from 2021. Battery issues of possibly catching fire, screens cracking, logic board failures, etc…
Here is another list that is from 2023 of different Apple devices.
Apple Watch Series 6 – Black Screen Issue iPhone 12 and 12 Pro – No Sound Issues iPhone 11 – Touch Issues AirPods Pro – Sound Issues iPad Air 3rd gen – Blank Screen Issue Smart Battery Case – Charging Issues iPhone 6s and 6s Plus – No Power Issues 15-inch MacBook Pro – Battery Overheating/Fire Risk MacBook lineup – Keyboard Issues 13-inch MacBook Pro – Display Backlight Issues Apple Three-Prong AC Wall Plug Adapter – Electrical Shock Risk iPhone X – Touch Issues iPhone 7 – No Service Issues iPhone 6 Plus – Multi-touch and Display Flickering Issues Apple European AC Wall Plug – Electrical Shock Risk Beats Pill XL – Overheating and Fire Risk Apple 5W European USB Power Adapter – Overheating Risk Apple Ultracompact USB Power Adapter – Electrical Shock Risk
deleted by creator
And you had anything beyond saying it to back it up.
Hardware I’ve already proven, you, well… You made something up and hoped for the best.
Software, as we are talking more about macOS at the beginning, it’s a joke that you are claiming macOS has more and various software than Windows. There is a reason even Apple uses Windows and not macOS.
Security, again, you made a quick claim and nothing to back it up. But here is a list of iOS exploits just from 2022-2023.
User friendliness: this reeks of desperation. And has been proven in the past to be wrong, but keep trolling. I’ll keep laughing 🤣
deleted by creator
Debate is over? You come here, attempt very poor attempt of a flood of BS, and call that a debate? 🤡
Bonus points for linking to the well known and debunked “claim” that macs are cheaper over the long term than Windows. Wow, that sad attempt took me back (and I knew you’d use it). I can see you never looked into that claim. It claims that Windows needed AV, a $100+ a year, but macOS some mhow doesn’t, even though macOS malware was on the rise even then. Combined with how they claimed half the enterprise security suites somehow weren’t needed for macOS showed it wasn’t a serious attempt (a lot like your messages).
deleted by creator
It wasn’t a debate not because I wanted a thesis, it’s because all you wanted was to troll. Your entire comment was “lol, trust me bro. Here’s a well known lie to back me up”. And you were terrible at it. Go back to Reddit.
If you’re much of a tech person, you must have been living under a rock if you think all apple products are good. Several of their laptops and desktops have been large misses, some have had critical flaws that burn them out after a few years, one of their iPhones had a battery/processor combo flaw that had the batteries not deliver enough voltage after like a year and instead of doing a recall, they put out an update that undercooked the apu so the phone ran shittier but wouldn’t rando restart anymore. Then there was the iPhone that lost reception if “you were holding it wrong”.
Also, there’s a reason they were about to go bankrupt in the mid 90’s. They got saved by Bill Gates and got lucky with the Ipod, that saved their company.
I just give my experience.
What is the phone with the undervolting? I do not know that thing.
Oh yeah, the thing that all devices do so they don’t just shut off randomly. Apple was just punished cuz they weren’t transparent about it. Would you rather your phone slow down as the battery is almost empty, or shut off at 15%?
Lol. That is 100% not true, Fan Boy. My four year old samsung still pulls the same test numbers and frequencies as when it was new. Apple was using flawed batteries with a processor that couldn’t cope and just tried to cover it up.
My almost six year old iPhone XS Max also has a very healthy battery. But if we kept our phones for a long time, when your and my batteries aren’t healthy, both of our phones are absolutely going to throttle when voltage drops. If they don’t, they’ll just shut off at 15%. It’s how batteries work.
Notice that your phone is 6 years old, and not one year old. There’s your hiccup.
Also, I’d rather replace a battery in a 6 year old phone, than put up with it only being at half capacity and being underclocked so it runs like shit.
Further also, you aren’t quite understanding the issue with the phones. Most phones manufacturers leave some “wiggle room” for their power demand and don’t need a full 3.6v for stability (lithium batts are 3.7v nominal). Apple screwed up their power draw and screwed up their battery manufacturing.
Hottest take on this site: Apple.
That’s because there’s such a huge and biased fan base, and they drown out the actual objective opinions.
deleted by creator
I notice that here as well. I use tech products from all companies, but the frothing hate for everything Apple brings me back to my teens, in 2003, when I also felt that way. I started coming around when Apple started putting Intel processors in their machines and giving them decent specs for the price.
I originally bought my first Apple product, a MacBook Pro in 2008 for playing video games! All the PC laptops at the time were huge and had terrible battery life, while a 2008 MBP was tiny, light, and the battery lasted twice as long as GAMING LAPTOP. All I had to do was install Windows. That died in an unfortunate sticky spill and was replaced with my 2011 MBP, which is still going.
Now I just have that, my original first-Gen Apple Watch, a six year old iPhone, and an old iPad Pro. And they’re all still fast (well, not the watch) and work fantastically.
Better late than never, but I really like Nokian Tyres. They are fantastic.
Toyota
Roland + Yamaha + Steinway (Musical Instruments)
Sennheiser (Headphones)
Roc-N-Soc (Drum Throne)
SmartWool + Darn Tough (Socks)
Khul + Prana (Clothing)
Seasonic (Power Supply)
AsRock (Motherboard)
CloudFlare (DNS Registrar)
PrivateInternetAccess (VPN)
I’m curious if anyone would vouch for a TV manufacturer? Are there any good dumb TVs anymore? I have a Samsung smart TV and it is an absolute pain in the ass to use the remote UI. I have resorted to running KODI on a Linux box instead.
ASRock is the only mobo I ever used that died on me for no reason at all and I’m hardly the only one.
Same for me. Shutdown the PC at night and went to bed, next morning it won’t turn on anymore.
I think Philips are pretty decent for smart tvs
Sennheiser
Just FYI, Sennheiser’s consumer audio department got bought out a few years ago. I can’t say as to whether that has affected the quality of their products, but brands being purchased rarely works in their favour.
I’m a Sony kid these days.
To be fair, Sennheiser’s consumer line have always been pretty mediocre. Their pro audio line have always been solid and what their good rep is based on.
deleted by creator
Fuckin ASRock, my childhoods nightmares.
Best friend and I got 2 ASRock boards in highschool, both failed for no reason within 10 months and then months of sending it back and forth multiple times for repair.
Never buying anything ASRock since.
I have had great success with ASRock personally.
I’ve had two boards from them and both have worked without any issues and my last one was in service for 10 years.
I have an ASRock Mobo rn! their software is kinda shit but the mobo itself is great
Asrock used to be budget boards, did that change? When? I never consider them unless on very tight budgets for that reason.
Redwing
deLonghi
I’m going to name a few as I do a lot of different hobbies.
For tools (hand\power) Milwaukee brand is hard to beat, and for hand tools I’m a fan of Husky generally. Underrated.
For Music equipment: Boss and Roland are always a safe bet and worth at least comparing to whatever you are looking at. (amps, pedals, drum machines, synths… etc)
For inflatable water craft (rafts, kayaks, fishing boats): Sea Eagle is the shit.
For computer components (motherboards, video cards, etc): ASUS, Gigabyte, MSI. (ASRock is an honorable mention) I’ve built PC’s for over 30 years now. Thousands of systems. I stand by this.
For computer accessories (hard drive docks, adapters, misc) Startech makes great stuff for the price and all kinds of useful equipment.
For 3D Printers - I love Ender’s due to the amount of easy upgrades\hacks\upgradability to turn a $200 3d printer into a printer that can rival anything out there for it’s type. And a lot of the parts you can just print with the printer you bought. You can do this with many brands but I found Ender to be very accessible with a lot of ready made parts on the web you can get started with immediately. Not to mention upgrading the motherboard\step motors and what not. It’s a great hobby if you like to tinker.
Cars (vehicles): I’ve owned many brands at this point in my life. From high end Volkswagen sports cars (2008 Rabbit modded out) to low end beater 96 Ford Escort, Dodge Dakota pickups and Chevy SUVs. And at this point in my life, with all the money spent, accidents, long road trips and broken parts, I’ll never buy anything besides a Honda or Toyota. They are the best value out there. Period.
Seconding Startech - I bought a DP to DVI-D adapter for my MacBook Pro and while it worked flawlessly with my PC, macOS was only showing me 1280x800 resolution instead of the monitor’s full 2560x1600 resolution. I found that under Windows on Bootcamp it fully worked on the same hardware so it was clearly a macOS thing.
Emailed their support about it and within a day, got a guy who immediately gave me very technical and specific advice and suggestions, clearly very experienced. We weren’t able to solve it (chalked it up to a weird macOS limitation and work gave me a different adapter that worked) but he was still incredibly helpful, and I’ll have confidence in buying from them in the future that their support should be excellent.
For 3D printers I think prusa is the bramd that can be trusted with quality.
They are expensive but made in Europe and very reliable out of the box. I’ve been printing tons of parts for the renovation of my house and tools organization with no issues. I just start the print and come back once it done. Now I even do it remotely from work.
Compared to my brother who had a Ender 3, tinkered quite a lot with it but was constantly baby sitting the prints and eventually just gave up on it.
So far, Gorilla brand stuff has been good.
Have yet to wear out a Honda.
Madewell jeans are actually made well.
Smartwool socks. I replaced mine this year because they were getting holes, the ones I was replacing were purchased in 2014 and I wore them daily, had enough pairs to last a week, washed them weekly, they lasted ten years.
Not a brand but cast iron skillets. Some of mine are over 30, they will last essentially forever. And get a big knife you can sharpen, mine wasn’t even a good brand and lasted almost 30 years.
