Lets face it, no one wants to pay more for anything. Things are already expensive enough as it is and prices just seem to keep going up. This has made it easy for retailers and manufacturers to create these low end, low powered, and low price devices and computers that people are picking up hoping for a good deal. This is almost never the case though. While they list the specs for these things, there are important differences that show what corners were cut to get to that low price. Many of these make the device not really worth the purchase unless you like things that perform very slowly, not made to last longer than a year, and have no upgrade path in mind. Today we will talk about low end phones, PCs, and tablets.
First up we have cheap cell phones. These things have all sorts of caveats. A phone priced at below $200 is usually a very bad deal. They almost always come carrier locked and not to a good one. The carriers they use will have sneaky fees for any sort of service. Tracfone is one of the worst. The carriers will fee you for using the devices data, minutes, texts etc but also for things like the "convenience" of paying your bill online or in a store (usually both). Other fee include if you get a new phone because your old phone broke. The charge is usually about $25 to add the new phone to your plan and give it your number. Any major carrier does not charge for this and you can usually just put your old SIM card in the new phone and it will work. Some of these phones are not made by major manufacturers so finding accessories like cases and screen protectors for them can be difficult. This makes them more prone to being damaged. If they do become damaged it is not worth it to fix them. If you can even find the parts for them, the labor and cost of the part to fix them is usually the same a whole new one. Lastly, these phones are many generations old and have very low storage and power. They also run older versions of the operating system and can not be updated to a much newer version. This leaves them vulnerable to malicious apps and malware.
The best advice here is to save yourself in the long run and get a phone you can afford from a major carrier. Save up for a phone that is atleast $200 and is a brand you recognize and the carrier has accessories for. Insurance is also not a bad idea for any phone you can not afford to break.
Next up is low-end laptops. These will not just be underpowered with bare minimum specs for whatever it is running but also do a few devious things that make them absolutely not worth it. The main thing that happens with the laptops is putting the RAM and storage directly on the motherboard with no upgrade slots or just a single RAM slot. If the storage isn't soldered onto the motherboard they will also use cheaper storage technologies like eMMC with low storage capacity. These work about as well as a regular SD card. Upgradeablilty is usually non-existant. You will not be able to change out much of anything in most cases. The biggest problem is when these ship with Windows and the laptop only has a few gigabytes available when it is brand new. The problem comes when the operating system needs to update and fills that little bit of space to the point where it has no more room to even do that, let alone let you install your own apps.
Desktops are generally better but they also have issues. They usually come packed with sub-optimal hardware, especially the power supply. They will put in a no name PSU with barely the wattage needed for the system, meaning you will have to get a new PSU for just about any upgrade later on. It is also not very good quality and dies easily. These at least have standard slots for upgrading an can be made into a decent system if the case that they put everything allows for the expansion. All-in-one PCs are the worst for this though as any repair or upgrade could be more expensive because of the difficulty of removing the screen from in front of the components but also the possibility of damaging that same screen in the repair.
Tablets are in a class of their own. They have many of the same draw backs as phones but are usually even easier to break. The cheaper tablets almost never have available parts and in cases like the Amazon tablets, are sold at a loss. This makes any repair on them not cost effective even if parts are available. It is sad to see how much e-waste is generated by lower cost devices. People realistically have no option but to try to recycle them. Some states waste management will recycle them but do so with a fee. All these have lithium-ion batteries and need to be properly recycled, not thrown away due to the very likely chance of them combusting and creating larger fires. Some states even make throwing them away illegal and can even fine you for doing so.
The take away with this post is to let you know that you absolutely get what you pay for when it comes to any electronics. Spending a little bit more to get better quality can actually save you money in the long run and also generate less waste. Instead of having to spend $300 on a laptop once a year is not cheaper than spending $1000 for a laptop that will last you for 7 years. Your experience with it will be better and it will perform more like you would expect with fewer gotcha moments in the future.
We invite you to comment or talk about bad devices you have had that you thought at first was a good bargain only to find out later what that savings ended up costing you.
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