Everybody loves a bargain. Billionaire investors buy stocks when they are cheap while consumers buy products that are on sale. When it comes to electronic devices, there are plenty of cheap items that are turning heads and opening wallets. These include generic Android boxes which are much cheaper than the branded ones. While a few of these may be decent, most of them are questionable or downright terrible. Below are just a few reasons why you may want to stay away from them:
Quality Parts
These generics have improved their designs over the years such that you might mistake them for the branded ones. Although they look good, we have to consider what is actually on the inside. That is where you find the biggest differences. The quality of the components are often night and day. Cheap ones enjoy low prices because they also have cheap internals that may not perform as advertised. For example, the label might say they can play 4K but they actually stutter with some full HD videos.
Firmware Upgrades
Branded units benefit from long-term support from the manufacturer. If there are any bugs found, then they will quickly resolve this by coming up with a firmware update. Sometimes these are rolled out just to improve performance or security. They might also add new features as they see fit. Owners can thus have a unit that constantly improves while it’s in their possession. With generics, what you see is what you get. You are probably not going to see any firmware updates so bugs remain bugs, or you might need technical savvy to install whatever they put out.
Dedicated Forum
If you ever run into trouble with branded products, then you can call their hotline or go to their support forum to get assistance. This is an important thing as Murphy’s Law is always there to get us into panic. Anything that can go wrong will go wrong. Those who are familiar with how these work can probably manage on their own but not everyone can be described as a techie. Some will need a helping hand.
After-sales Support
Branded products are backed up by a customer service department that is staffed with people who can listen to your complaints. They can provide you refunds if the unit proves unusable, and make sure that the company honors the warranty. Those that sell cheap models probably don’t have this kind of support since they don’t make enough profits to fund it.
If you have a tight budget and you know your way around tech, then go ahead and pick whichever Android box model you like. However, most people will probably want to stick to trusted brands.
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