is this... just racism, actually? there are a million cool electronics on Amazon from random Shenzhen sellers and while I prefer that my electronics come from countries with better human rights records it's not flea market dreck, it's very much the best stuff you can buy, that you can't get anywhere else.
the attitude that stuff from brands you don't recognize from Shenzhen are "flea market dreck" is exactly why Chinese brands like DVI are winning
I don’t see what racism has to do with it. Most of my electronic components originate from China one way or another, but there’s a real difference in quality between established brands and the random stuff popping up on amazon in the last few years. To review a few experiences I’ve had:
- Wires I bought for breadboard prototyping turned out to not be made of copper after I noticed them sticking to a magnet on my workbench.
- A power supply module I purchased appeared to be using counterfeit chips. The switching frequency didn’t match the TI data sheet for the markings on the chip.
- I wasted several days trying to get an sdcard module to work. I gave up and ordered from adafruit instead and those worked on the first try.
Not to mention the well documented problems with counterfeit sdcards, etc.
With mini PCs, there are a million different ways bargain brands can cut corners that won’t show up immediately.
>is this... just racism, actually?
Perhaps but mostly a result of decades of bad consumer experiences. From Malware preinstalled to terrible software support and downright dangerous electronics, chinese hardware from alibaba amazon and ebay is rightfully regarded as questionable, potentially even dangerous until proven otherwise. And without a track record in software updates, any company selling any internet or god forbid cloud connected device is plain irresposible to use until proven otherwise.
Amazon doesn't show you the race of the product owner (and typing this I realise how fucking stupid that sounds)
However Amazon also doesn't care about what shit it sells you, so its perfectly possible to be scammed by some shady org out for a quick buck.
Even if you spend the time to research the right brand, Amazon doesn't actually guarantee that it'll sell you that brand, through a lot of weird bate and switch and "other sellers also offer", and just plain deceit, its not that hard to end up with expensive shite.
I have a bunch of n100s for both home and work. currently we have a 1/4 failure rate (combo and beelink and trigkey green, and others)
I still have all my Pis working, apart from the ones that got wet. (however, thats SD card dependent. Thats at least cheaper.)
> the attitude that stuff from brands you don't recognize from Shenzhen
Its not Shenzhen thats the problem, its Amazon/marketplace trying to make a fast one palming off shite as gold.
the attitude that stuff from brands you don't recognize from Shenzhen are "flea market dreck" is exactly why Chinese brands like DVI are winning