The Issue With "Shiny Tech"

[Dude]

In this day and age, we get progressively better technology and new innovations on a weekly basis. One of the things we also like to look for are new gadgets and things which also look really nice. Unfortunately, this "quest" for good looking tech with LEDs all over the place and branding means that we aren't really paying for good stuff. In fact, with some of these, you end up paying for just the looks instead of quality. 

 

I'm looking at companies like Razer and Turtle Beach who use flashy "gamer imagery" to peddle their products to the average consumer who may or may not have a clue what they're looking for. Personally, I've fallen for this so many times when I was younger. For my fourteenth birthday, I received a Razer Naga Hex, which at the time I thought was an absolutely great mouse and for RPGs, it was. But it had serious issues with durability. Until I replaced it once and for all, I was on my fourth mouse. I'll give them this, the mouse was comfortable and the pinky rest was a nice feature, but it had serious issues with it's awful sensor and honestly, I'd rather not use Synapse because in my opinion, it's slow and clunky. 

 

Another time I got burned was with my Turtle Beach Earforce P11s. I thought these were going to be great headphones, especially for gaming. When I got it for Christmas, I got super giddy and immediately hooked it up to my TV to experience surround sound gaming. The problem with them was that they were uncomfortable and broke easily. I ended up buying two pairs before I gave up on them. The reason why I was sold on them was just because they seemed shiny to me at the time. This makes Turtle Beach another prime example of a company who just want to sell headsets without giving a damn about the people buying them, regardless of the fact that these people made the company successful.

 

However, that is not to say that tech has to be ugly to function properly. I currently use my favourite mouse of all time, the Logitech G402. It feels great in the hand and looks great too, it doesn't scratch easily and has customisable LED lighting settings, on-the-fly DPI options and a button which you can hold to temporarily reduce the DPI in order to make your shots or whatever else more accurate. Corsair's mechanical keyboards look great and I'm even using one right now, they work great and just don't die. 

 

What we need is a compromise. Laptops, mice, keyboards and whatever else which can look great while focusing on great product design. We need companies to step away from this approach of pandering to the young gaming audience by selling them £50+ headphones which sound bad and just break in a few months.

 

[Or don't, in the event that I accidentally broke the rules]

[MrDynamicMan]

Not news

[RollinLower]

honestly tough, if you look a bit further than you usual tech store/site, you can definitely get good quality tech that's also good looking. 

i'm talking about headset by audio technica and sennheiser, and mice by companies like finalmouse.

there is ofcourse still lots of room for improvement in this market tough, and usually the 'mainstream' gaming orientated products are just generally bad and cheap for the sake of selling to the young gaming crowd.

[Dude]

Not news

Didn't really know where else to put this article.

Marketing a bling works. Good to hear your opinions but that link in the end makes it look like self advertising.

 

My bad, I'm just trying to get myself "started". I didn't really intend to self-advertise however.

honestly tough, if yopu look a bit further than you usual tech store/site, you can definitely get good quality tech that's also good looking. 

i'm talking about headset by audio technica and sennheiser, and mice by companies like finalmouse.

there is ofcourse still lots of room for improvement in this market tough, and usually the 'mainstream' gaming orientated products are just generally bad and cheap for the sake of selling to the young gaming crowd.

I really do agree. We need consumers to change their perspectives on certain products such as those with "shiny gamer swag" on them.

[DigitalFruitcake]

 

In this day and age, we get progressively better technology and new innovations on a weekly basis. One of the things we also like to look for are new gadgets and things which also look really nice. Unfortunately, this "quest" for good looking tech with LEDs all over the place and branding means that we aren't really paying for good stuff. In fact, with some of these, you end up paying for just the looks instead of quality. 

 

I'm looking at companies like Razer and Turtle Beach who use flashy "gamer imagery" to peddle their products to the average consumer who may or may not have a clue what they're looking for. Personally, I've fallen for this so many times when I was younger. For my fourteenth birthday, I received a Razer Naga Hex, which at the time I thought was an absolutely great mouse and for RPGs, it was. But it had serious issues with durability. Until I replaced it once and for all, I was on my fourth mouse. I'll give them this, the mouse was comfortable and the pinky rest was a nice feature, but it had serious issues with it's awful sensor and honestly, I'd rather not use Synapse because in my opinion, it's slow and clunky. 

 

Another time I got burned was with my Turtle Beach Earforce P11s. I thought these were going to be great headphones, especially for gaming. When I got it for Christmas, I got super giddy and immediately hooked it up to my TV to experience surround sound gaming. The problem with them was that they were uncomfortable and broke easily. I ended up buying two pairs before I gave up on them. The reason why I was sold on them was just because they seemed shiny to me at the time. This makes Turtle Beach another prime example of a company who just want to sell headsets without giving a damn about the people buying them, regardless of the fact that these people made the company successful.

 

However, that is not to say that tech has to be ugly to function properly. I currently use my favourite mouse of all time, the Logitech G402. It feels great in the hand and looks great too, it doesn't scratch easily and has customisable LED lighting settings, on-the-fly DPI options and a button which you can hold to temporarily reduce the DPI in order to make your shots or whatever else more accurate. Corsair's mechanical keyboards look great and I'm even using one right now, they work great and just don't die. 

 

What we need is a compromise. Laptops, mice, keyboards and whatever else which can look great while focusing on great product design. We need companies to step away from this approach of pandering to the young gaming audience by selling them £50+ headphones which sound bad and just break in a few months.

 

[Or don't, in the event that I accidentally broke the rules]

 

Your sig still shows your old Naga mouse.