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How much should I look at negative reviews?

Shadow9857

So after I  upgraded my PC recently, I currently am at a crossroads of what monitor to buy.

http://www.amazon.com/Acer-XB270HU-bprz-27-inch-Widescreen/dp/B00UPVXDA8/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top?ie=UTF8

 

This is the monitor that seems to fit the bill of everything I would want in a monitor, minus price sadly but hey, that's technology (Gaming mostly, but also doing mostly coding and VM work when not enjoying my time off).

 

Now for the monitor as far as YouTube goes, I find a lot of positive reviews. But in those comment sections I see a lot of people that have issues with this monitor in terms of QC and dead pixels and bad panels that die after a month of use.

To be fair these reviews were from when the monitor launched and a short time later, so I don't know how well ACER corrects mistakes  in new batches and RMA's things to fix the problems people had when they returned everything. Back light bleeding and dead pixels being the major ones, with back light bleeding in the lower right corner for most people being extremely disruptive when doing anything productive or game play related, and was supposedly horrible in a darker environment. 

But I guess my question is this:

 

How much of the negative side of reviews should I still take into consideration when it comes to purchasing a monitor like this? Should I still be afraid of the QC being lackluster according to people, or should I assume that a more positive outcome will occur to the purchase after it's been released for awhile?

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I usually go by at least 60%+ 5 star ratings

also no increase in % as you go below 3 stars

 

this monitor only has 54% 5 star reviews, so i would personally go with something else for less risk of problems

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I would take positive reviews with a grain of salt cause they're largely dominated by fanboys and sponsored/paid reviews. However, do read all the reviews as some positive reviews are form genuine users that are objective. Negative reviews are the most important as it gives you an expectation of the quality of the product and any known issues that the manufacturer chooses to ignore. 

Edit: Oh and another thing, most people don't leave reviews if the product is working fine, so keep that in mind as well.

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I would take positive reviews with a grain of salt cause they're largely dominated by fanboys and sponsored/paid reviews. However, do read all the reviews as some positive reviews are form genuine users that are objective. Negative reviews are the most important as it gives you an expectation of the quality of the product and any known issues that the manufacturer chooses to ignore. 

Edit: Oh and another thing, most people don't leave reviews if the product is working fine, so keep that in mind as well.

 

Guess I never thought of the last part but it makes more sense now that you reminded me.

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I take both the negative, as well as the negative reviews with a grain of salt.

 

The ones who rate it in-between, those are the review that you want to check out. They are those who most often gives the positives and negatives with the device.

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I mean, there should never be a set rule of how much weight you should specifically put into "positive" or "negative" reviews. That's counter-productive, and just foolish. (That goes for "ignoring positive reviews" too.)

 

Rather, just take into consideration the things people have experienced with their product, and think about how that might affect you. It is important (as mentioned above) to remember that most people happy with their product won't go leave a review, and a lot of negative experiences are isolated events.

But there can't be a general rule, because the potentially negative reviews could be caused by a million different reasons.

 

If it seems to be QC, definitely keep in mind the timeframe of the reviews, and look into the company's RMA policy. If the monitor is perfect for you and the company has decent RMA (also keep in mind you have short return time on Amazon to avoid RMA for super quick replacements), then as long as you don't mind the potential hassle of swapping it if it ships dead/damaged, then you're good to go.

If people have serious issues with specific functionality of the device, that's something to consider.

 

Often positive reviews seem skewed because the negative things other people have problems with are things the positive reviewer never messed with. Same thing with negative reviews - often certain people have specific problems with a part of the product that most people never try/use/notice.

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I would take positive reviews with a grain of salt cause they're largely dominated by fanboys and sponsored/paid reviews. However, do read all the reviews as some positive reviews are form genuine users that are objective. Negative reviews are the most important as it gives you an expectation of the quality of the product and any known issues that the manufacturer chooses to ignore. 

Edit: Oh and another thing, most people don't leave reviews if the product is working fine, so keep that in mind as well.

 

I agree with this. The majority of people who are going to leave reviews are people who are unhappy. The biggest thing I gleam from negative reviews is patterns. One problem that keeps getting mentioned again and again. If the gripes are just random, I would go off of the reviewers. Professional tech reviewers (those who can be trusted not to be bought out by the manufacturers) have the best basis for comparison because they review a lot of tech so they know how good of a product you're getting for your money.

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I mean, there should never be a set rule of how much weight you should specifically put into "positive" or "negative" reviews. That's counter-productive, and just foolish. (That goes for "ignoring positive reviews" too.)

 

Rather, just take into consideration the things people have experienced with their product, and think about how that might affect you. It is important (as mentioned above) to remember that most people happy with their product won't go leave a review, and a lot of negative experiences are isolated events.

But there can't be a general rule, because the potentially negative reviews could be caused by a million different reasons.

 

If it seems to be QC, definitely keep in mind the timeframe of the reviews, and look into the company's RMA policy. If the monitor is perfect for you and the company has decent RMA (also keep in mind you have short return time on Amazon to avoid RMA for super quick replacements), then as long as you don't mind the potential hassle of swapping it if it ships dead/damaged, then you're good to go.

If people have serious issues with specific functionality of the device, that's something to consider.

 

Often positive reviews seem skewed because the negative things other people have problems with are things the positive reviewer never messed with. Same thing with negative reviews - often certain people have specific problems with a part of the product that most people never try/use/notice.

 

I guess it's just hard for me because I had only 1 issue when building my new computer, that I just don't want my luck to run out when I decide to buy something I will be looking at for a long time in the future. 

 But as you suggested I'll do more research and ask on some more forums for people that have had good and bad experiences with it then makes my decision based on that.

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