Are Chinese electronics products rubbish?

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#960273 2-Jan-2014 13:35

Rikkitic: Are Chinese electronics products rubbish?

NO is more correct answer than yes here. Chinese industry is capable of very high quality manufacturing. iPhone for example. There are very few consumer items which are not either assembled or manufactured in China or which do not contain components made in China.

How about naming the brands and what you paid for each item?

Back when Japanese products came on the market there were similar issues. Japan now has an extremely mature manufacturing base and produces almost exclusively high quality branded products. This maturity did not happen overnight. Japan no longer manufactures cheap consumer electronic items for export and that is where I suspect the error arises.

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#960274 2-Jan-2014 13:37

I have to agree with Jpoe I think there is a certain amount of snobbery and its been going on for years. I recall the same comments on Japanese, Taiwanese and Korean products ,m granted some are junk and suitably priced so maybe its just our expectations and perceptions.

The examples have been given with Apple being the best one and how many would say that is junk!

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mattwnz

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#960276 2-Jan-2014 13:38

Yes and no, just as you can get good and bad trademen, or good and bad businesses in NZ. Most electronic stuff is now made in china due to that being the only way companies can compete, including apple. But a rule I follow is only buy top brand products, so you have got their quaility control and technology behind it, but make sure it isn't a knockoff. Chinese brands can just be copies, and bad ones at that, and they may use old technology. See many cheap tablets being sold as an example..

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#960282 2-Jan-2014 13:47

jeffnz: I have to agree with Jpoe I think there is a certain amount of snobbery and its been going on for years. I recall the same comments on Japanese, Taiwanese and Korean products ,m granted some are junk and suitably priced so maybe its just our expectations and perceptions.

The examples have been given with Apple being the best one and how many would say that is junk!

Japanese stuff started off pretty junkie and poorly made but overtime it improved. Just like chinese stuff. Same with Korea, the first korean cars were pieces of crap, but they are now nearly as good as Japanese ones.

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#960283 2-Jan-2014 13:47

mattwnz: Yes and no, just as you can get good and bad trademen, or good and bad businesses in NZ. Most electronic stuff is now made in china due to that being the only way companies can compete, including apple. But a rule I follow is only buy top brand products, so you have got their quaility control and technology behind it, but make sure it isn't a knockoff. Chinese brands can just be copies, and bad ones at that, and they may use old technology. See many cheap tablets being sold as an example..

Actually they are up there with technology, unlike the past. In the past it was produce, produce, produce, but now they are as state of the art as anyone. I watched a doco a while back, a dude bought a copy of a top end golf club set, but an expert could not fault it. They can do it but there is a snobbery as mentioned, and a long standing reputation, but the quality and cost is there. A $9 jug at the Warehouse is up for sale, but you can buy a $189 jug as I bought recently, made in China. I will note that my wife is Chinese but that in no way biases my comments.

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#960326 2-Jan-2014 14:48

Klipspringer: The answer depends on the ethnicity of the person reading the question.

It... it does?

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#960328 2-Jan-2014 14:53

tdgeek:
mattwnz: Yes and no, just as you can get good and bad trademen, or good and bad businesses in NZ. Most electronic stuff is now made in china due to that being the only way companies can compete, including apple. But a rule I follow is only buy top brand products, so you have got their quaility control and technology behind it, but make sure it isn't a knockoff. Chinese brands can just be copies, and bad ones at that, and they may use old technology. See many cheap tablets being sold as an example..

Actually they are up there with technology, unlike the past. In the past it was produce, produce, produce, but now they are as state of the art as anyone. I watched a doco a while back, a dude bought a copy of a top end golf club set, but an expert could not fault it. They can do it but there is a snobbery as mentioned, and a long standing reputation, but the quality and cost is there. A $9 jug at the Warehouse is up for sale, but you can buy a $189 jug as I bought recently, made in China. I will note that my wife is Chinese but that in no way biases my comments.

"The West" has spent the last 25 years sending all their design and manufacturing expertise to China in the name of cheaper labour. All the way from refinement of raw materials to robotic final assembly, China has it all, because it was given to them. At the moment, most Chinese factories are geared for cheap production rather than quality. The fact that almost all the brand-name stuff is made there is a good indication that China *can* achieve quality if there is demand. If at any time the factories were to stop making rubbish and instead start manufacturing only quality products it would be the end of what's left of everybody else's manufacturing industry.

Or to put it a slightly different way, the reason they build rubbish in most factories isn't that they don't know how to make good stuff, it's that we buy the rubbish.

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Hammerer

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#960331 2-Jan-2014 15:10

When I was a kid Japan was losing the low quality tag and Hong Kong was picking it up. Almost every decade another Asian country picked up the low quality tag and a couple of decades later left it behind just as China is doing.

I've been most impressed with all the trouble-free Lenovo computer gear and software that comes out of China.

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#960332 2-Jan-2014 15:16

tdgeek:
sonyxperiageek:
vexxxboy: bought 2 Ainol Tablets and after 2 years they are still going with no problems and would but the brand again without question, remember people said the same thing when Korean products came onto the market years ago.

You must have been one of the very lucky ones!

The reason why we are saying that the cheap stuff from China is bad is because we (and people) have literally experienced it is bad, not because of some rumor which is probably why people started saying the same thing about Korean products, which turned out to be not true I guess..

Actually the OP raised the thread about Chinese products in general, not cheap stuff from China.

True.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that all Chinese products are bad.

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#960336 2-Jan-2014 15:29

tdgeek:
mattwnz: Yes and no, just as you can get good and bad trademen, or good and bad businesses in NZ. Most electronic stuff is now made in china due to that being the only way companies can compete, including apple. But a rule I follow is only buy top brand products, so you have got their quaility control and technology behind it, but make sure it isn't a knockoff. Chinese brands can just be copies, and bad ones at that, and they may use old technology. See many cheap tablets being sold as an example..

Actually they are up there with technology, unlike the past. In the past it was produce, produce, produce, but now they are as state of the art as anyone. I watched a doco a while back, a dude bought a copy of a top end golf club set, but an expert could not fault it. They can do it but there is a snobbery as mentioned, and a long standing reputation, but the quality and cost is there. A $9 jug at the Warehouse is up for sale, but you can buy a $189 jug as I bought recently, made in China. I will note that my wife is Chinese but that in no way biases my comments.

It depends on the product. Their cars still aren't up to much, as they have purchased old designs and they are using old technology, and they have done a buy up of some of the brands that collapsed in the GFC. Some of their cars still use asbestos parts, which are banned in Oz, but allowed to be sold in NZ.

robjg63

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#960338 2-Jan-2014 15:40

China can (and does) make both the best and worst of electrical products.
Most of the big Japanese companies get stuff built there (and in other countries).
As has been noted it depends on quality control.
Someone like Panasonic/Sony will ensure that their products are built to spec or the chinese factory will lose the contract.
If a Chinese company wants to be known for quality and reliability - then thats what they will probably turn out.
That said I cant offhand think of any Chinese 'brandnames' - I suppose the cars that they are starting to push to the rest of the world may start some brand awareness.

That said they have that odd capitalist/communist clash - and a huge number businesses competing to make a buck at all costs - and they can churn out some real crap.

It was reported a few years back that the Chinese government officials wanted to move Chinas reputation away from cheap and nasty to quality - but cloning/copying is still rife and to be honest we seem to like to bring in the cheapest possible products into NZ.

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robjg63

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#960341 2-Jan-2014 15:48

mattwnz:
tdgeek:
mattwnz: Yes and no, just as you can get good and bad trademen, or good and bad businesses in NZ. Most electronic stuff is now made in china due to that being the only way companies can compete, including apple. But a rule I follow is only buy top brand products, so you have got their quaility control and technology behind it, but make sure it isn't a knockoff. Chinese brands can just be copies, and bad ones at that, and they may use old technology. See many cheap tablets being sold as an example..

Actually they are up there with technology, unlike the past. In the past it was produce, produce, produce, but now they are as state of the art as anyone. I watched a doco a while back, a dude bought a copy of a top end golf club set, but an expert could not fault it. They can do it but there is a snobbery as mentioned, and a long standing reputation, but the quality and cost is there. A $9 jug at the Warehouse is up for sale, but you can buy a $189 jug as I bought recently, made in China. I will note that my wife is Chinese but that in no way biases my comments.

It depends on the product. Their cars still aren't up to much, as they have purchased old designs and they are using old technology, and they have done a buy up of some of the brands that collapsed in the GFC. Some of their cars still use asbestos parts, which are banned in Oz, but allowed to be sold in NZ.

Re the brakepad/exhaust seals - it seems we got cars that werent the AUS/NZ standard and did have small amounts of asbestos in them - I understood the imported arranged a recall to get those components changed (cant recall the exact details). Apparently the vehicles were actually to standard in many other markets - someone just didnt check the standards properly for this market.

There was a good article about car assembly in Mexico late 2013.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11164159
A large proportion of US makers build cars in mexico. The production line makes cars for export back to the US -these are loaded up to the eyeballs with the mandatory safety features for the US market. The same production lines also make a heavily stripped down version for the local Mexican market. No ABS/Airbags etc. Apparently to add insult to injury the label price of the cars in Mexico is often a few dollars more than the US price.

I have no idea how good/bad the Chinese cars are at the moment - but As I mentioned on the previous post I expect that as the brand names get established they will improve no end.

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#960343 2-Jan-2014 15:55

Chinese vehicles aren't up to scratch... YET.
BUT look at the Hyundai of many years ago.
Now look at Korean cars. Most are better than Japanese these days and they're even trying to out do the germans.

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#960348 2-Jan-2014 16:26

I have had some superb quality hand tools off aliexpress and dx for less than the locally available "cheap" brands cost.

It comes down to what the buyer will accept. If you keep buying the overpriced bottom of the barrel crap that most retailers bring in with insane markups the you are only helping the problem.

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#960354 2-Jan-2014 16:48

There was a doco on tv a few years ago. I think it was about knockoff products - but a buyer went to a huge market - they went into a hall that sold torches/flashlights. There were hundreds of manufacturers - Many of the products looked identical - the prices and quality varied hugely - they sold by weight - not number of items. The more you bought the cheaper they got...

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