QOTW: Which electronics brands do you favour?

[AndyM2012]

PC-wise, I've only built about a dozen systems where I selected the components, and upgraded RAM in a few laptops, but...

● Asus motherboards have always worked for me.
● Kingston RAM has never let me down, although I used Corsair for the latest office PCs.
● WD HDDs have seen better longevity than other makes.
● Samsung SSDs work well.
● I use be quiet! and Seasonic PSUs.
● Stock CPU coolers have been fine for what the computers are used for. The only one to wear out was in this PC, and I replaced it with a Noctua and (eventually) replaced its fans with Noctua PWM ones.
● For cases, I just choose something that looks OK, is in aboout the £80 price range, and gets reasonable reviews - the manufacturer isn't important there, and it isn't really an electronic component. Replacement/additional fans tend to be Noctua.

Other electronic goods I have where I actually had a preference (usually influenced by reviews) for the brand are:
● Hakko soldering station (got fed up with the cheap Antec soldering irons, my fault - they are made well but I should have gone for temperature-controlled in the first place).
● A Sony LCD TV (which needs replacing after ten years).
● A Philips electric toothbrush which seems not to know it only had a two-year warranty.
● Replacement capacitors? Japanese: Rubycon, Panasonic, Nichicon.
● Vacuum cleaner: Sebo - I expect it to last forever.

[Spreadie]

Not really - I tend to read a lot of reviews on items I'm thinking of buying - nobody gets a free pass with the possible exception of EVGA for their grown up approach to warranties.

There are brands I avoid, but very few I actually favour.

[lon3wolf2002]

TV - Panasonic - My original HD tv from Panny 13 years old and still going strong (it's now in the kids room)
Monitor - Not fussed but needs to be ok for gaming using a Dell u2715h at the moment
Motherboard - usually Gigabyte but have have Asrock at the moment
GPU - MSI/Sapphire - MSI at the moment
PSU - Seasonic
Ram - Using Crucial at the moment
SSD's - Sandisks
HDD - WD
Cooling - Noctua

[WyldeStile]

I am not brand loyal. First I get a set of specs that I need. I then look for the brands/models of equipment that meets those specs. I then look for reviews of the that list.

[el_raberto]

I'm no "fan boy" of any brand, always do research to get the "best bang for the buck", or pound sterling in my case. In saying that, if it was purely down to a toss of the coin decision for a consumer device / gadget, then Sony would get my money. Over the years they have had their name on so many products that have not let me down. O.k., there was that 1 time a CD player developed a slight fault with the drawer after about 7 years of service but come on! ;-)

[thrasir66]

I tend to not "trusting" any brand, I tend to trust a certain product after some research, that's why I never buy the latest product.
PC:
MB - Gigabyte
RAM - Geil
GPU - HIS (AMD)
PSU - Corsair
CPU - Intel i7
CPU-Cooler - Enermax AiO
Fans - Enermax
SSDs - Toshiba/OCZ
HDDs - WD
Case - Lian Li
Monitor - AOC
PC-Audio - Creative
Notebook:
Lenovo Thinkpad
CPU - Intel i5
RAM - G.Skill
SSD - Toshiba/OCZ
SSD-mSATA - Crucial
Misc:
Printer - Canon
Scanner - Canon
Camera - Canon
Smartphone - Lumia
USB-Sticks - Kingston, Samsung
Memory-Cards - Sandisk, Toshiba
Headset - Sennheiser
Headphones - Sennheiser, Creative, Sony

[FRISH]

I do have a little extra trust in certain brands, but I don't use that as a final decision. If other people seem to like certain products then that will factor into my decision along with other things such as price. Though I spent a fair bit on a corsair headset that stopped working, have had a lot of issues with corsair RAM, and my crucial m4 didn't work as long as I'd hoped so brand loyalty isn't everything.

[Noxvayl]

Asus, Corsair, Gigabyte, Noctua, Fractal Design, Sapphire, AlphaCool and Akasa

[Saracen]

Well, this is a quite nuanced question.

I'm not brand-loyal perse but .... I am certainly influenced by my own past experience and, to a lesser degree, by that of fsmily and friends whose opinion I trust. That includes some 'friends' on here that I've never even met, but known for years.

But I will do my due diligence before buying. Or at least, before any significant purchase.

That said, experience leads me to trust some brands, and to not trust others. Once bitten, twice shy, as the saying goes. Or .... fool me once, shame on you, but fool me twice, shame on me.

So, brands. Computer-wise, no real preferences .... except to avoid "cheap" PSUs. For domestic goods, you're unlikely to go wrong with Miele ... but at a price. Current TV? Ssmsung, and so far (several years), no complaints. Camera? For SLR, Canon for compatibility purposes, and for macro options hard to find elsewhere. But for non-SLR, I have Olympus, Panasonic, Fuji, Nikon etc.

Kitchen gear? I tend to work on the basis of getting what you pay for, and buy right, buy once. If a company gives a 20 year motor warranty on a blender, it's because they don't expect to gave to honour it very often. That works for me.

On the other hand, some stuff (like tooks I expect to use once in a while) I tend to bug cheap, like a £20 angle grinder. It did the job I bought it for, and anything extra is a bonus.

So I don't really care about brands, but they a factor, one of many, I take into account.

Re: non-electronics, there are some brands I stick to, like Wilkins and Sons for jam and marmalade. Why? I like them better than everything else (not home made) that I've tried.

[Shane74]

TV's - Sony Bravia high end, That's a non negotiable for me.
Motherboard's - Asus Rampage Extreme series
GPU's - EVGA
SSD's - Samsung pro series
Mouse/Keyboard/ (pc)Headset - Logitech
Headphones music- Sennheiser
Camera - Canon Digital SLR with L series lenses only(yep fanboy detected)

Now here are some brands/products I have been put off from bad experience,
Gigabyte Motherboard's DOA!
Samsung washing machines fire hazard
Samsung air conditioners( inverter type) small lizard fried pcb on the outdoor unit, Now have Panasonic which has pcb protected. Pity as I liked the Samsung look and features more, This Panasonic is the typical plain ugly white unit.
Fisher and Paykel dish washers

Could be just unlucky and maybe all those brands have fixed issues on newer models, But once bitten twice shy, Hard to go back when some items are in the thousands of dollars worth.
You don't always get what you pay for!
Only advice is research before buying, Only go off the 1 star ratings not the paid for 4-5 star ratings hyping the product.

[Saracen]

....
Camera - Canon Digital SLR with L series lenses only(yep fanboy detected)

...

Could be just unlucky and maybe all those brands have fixed issues on newer models, But once bitten twice shy, Hard to go back when some items are in the thousands of dollars worth.
You don't always get what you pay for!
Only advice is research before buying, Only go off the 1 star ratings not the paid for 4-5 star ratings hyping the product.

I completely agree that paying loads is no guarantee of quality, and that there are budget bargains. It is certainly possible to pay loads of cash, and end up getting an expensive 'brand'. For my money, many fashion labels fall into that category and, for my money, certain labels suggests more that the wearer is an impressionable, gullible idiot than a discerning buyer of quality. On the other hand, there are brands where you know you'll be getting top quality materials, and high quality manufacturing/workmanship.

Perhaps a better interpretation of "getting what you pay for" is that if you buy cheap, you won't get high quality and therefore usually expensive materials. And those high quality materials are often extensive because of limited supply, and because other features, be it comfort, durability, etc, make them desirable.

So you could pay £3 for a wool scarf in a market, or £30 (or more) in a decent shop for cashmere. I've had wool scarves that were cheap, and warm, but so scratchy that wearing them was a form of self-imposed torture, and cashmere ones that are 20+ years old and still giving good service.

The same principle applies to electronics and electrical goods. Buying high priced doesn't guarantee high end components or build, but buying budget does ensure every practical corner has been cut, and that it won't be using expensive components. However, some budget goods are still good value, and last.

For me, the sweet spot is often in-between. That is, buying expensive enough, but usually neither cheap nor premium. And yes, ALWAYS do your research. That's what I meant by "due diligence".


As for SLRs, they're a special case, IMHO.

It is advisable, IMHO, for anyone starting down the SLR road to be extremely careful, because once you buy into a brand, incompatibilities between hrands pretty effectively lock you in, due to your previous investment. Unless, of course, you can afford to sell all those L lenses and effectively start again buying, say, Nikkn versions that, generally, will be no better and no worse.

My choice of Canon was vased primarily on two features :-

1) A desired lense (specialist macro) that nobody else does, and
2) Having handled all major competitive models, I just like Canon ergonomics.

I probably could get around the lens issue, though not quite as elegantly, so it really came down to 2).

But having committed, I'm kinda locked in. There's not many product groups with that kind of tie-in, and I'm not happy with camera manufacturers over it. But, they do it 'cos they fet away with it, and (largely) because the 800lb gorilla in the market, Canon, deemed it so.

[Jowsey]

Like most people in this thread I've not particular brand favoritism, but if it comes down 2 products that I've researched and are nominally the same price/spec, I'll tend to chose the brand that I have a good experience with. Or visa versa, avoid the brand I've had negative experiences with.

To reiterate a little more, I can agree that I have positive experiences with Corsair, EVGA and Noctua.

I'm currently 'evaluating' my Logitech CM Quickfire TK and my Logitech G600. I feel peripherals should last a long time and should therefore be measured against that period. (In case anyone was wondering they're doing very well so far! Nothing so much as a blip).

I've had pretty bad experiences with HTC though, so I will probably avoid future phones from them. Similarly I'm having a torrid time with LG regarding the G4 motherboard issue. Mine was sent back for repair and repaired under warranty (though I'll note they had the cheek to describe my phone as in 'Moderate' condition, it was spotless.) but when my fiances went back for the same reason they returned it as out of warranty as it was water damaged. We didn't deny the water damage, we actually knew when it had occurred, but the fact they were turning me away from a manufacture approved repair caused by a production imperfection, ie, a defect that was ALWAYS going to effect the device one day, it just being a matter of when not if, because of a completely unrelated incident, really boiled my blood.

The phone has worked perfectly fine for some 6 months before it had to go for repair and it was just LG saving a buck. Sadly, I'll no longer buy ANY of there products because of it. That could prove a little more costly for them...

[Myss_tree]

Apple .... oops, thats a brand i avoid.

[WyldeStile]

Apple .... oops, thats a brand i avoid.

I agree. You pay more for the Apple brand than for the product.

[Presto86]

Don't favour any. I look at the price, looks and reviews.

[Gunbuster]

I've had good luck with:

Samsung HDDs when they made them
Minolta old lenses, they tend to be better than their specs suggest
Func mouse pads
Canon printers (seperate ink type, 4000 series) they can sit idle for years and then come back to life when needed, they also tend to be good with 3rd party inc
Moto G4 working out great for both my parents
Sony earphones
Casio Watches, well until I got a Miband 2

I am generally quite mercenary, I tend to look at reviews first, but bare that you can't review how long things will last.

Also most brand's budget offerings are often nothing like their mid to high end parts.

Samsung must get the Jekyll and Hyde award for making simultaneously some of the best and worst devices known to man. My Samsung Plasma only just developed a flaw after 8 years. Samsung HDD still trucking after 5 years easy. Samsung Fridge Freezer needed repairing after 2. My Note 3 is great, out of OS upgrades, but still getting security patches every other week. I never know with them.