I’m Disgusted With China’s Cheating

This is not how any tablet screen should be:

That’s the screen of the Teclast P89 Mini, which I posted about here.

I dismissed that as something wrong with the Kindle software.

Nope.

Chinese vendors are cheating on the color depth and quality of their screens, despite all the hype that some claim they’re using the same screen as the iPad Mini.

It might be the same screen, but their tablets aren’t like an iPad Mini if they’re decreasing the color depth!

Look at this:

That’s a screen color test of three iPad Mini clones. Top left is the Freelander, which I’ve never heard of before now. Top right is the Cimi/Simi X8. Bottom by itself is the new Onda V819 Mini.

Only the Freelander is displaying true color depth.

To continue, look at this image on the Onda V819 Mini screen:

In isolation, you’d think that was pretty good.

Now compared to those other two clones:

Look at how washed out the color is. It simply lacks color depth!

Again all three screen compared:

And again:

That final image is very telling, with everything so washed out.

All of those images are from a long in-progress post about the Onda V819 Mini [Google English].

I’ve seen these color tests in the past but I can’t recall being bothered by them until the news of the Teclast P89 Mini’s screen came to my attention — and then made me pay attention when I saw this latest test.

I know many people are interested in Chinese iPad Mini clones — but I don’t think anyone is so desperate for Android in that form factor that they want to pay money for something sub-standard.

As I’ve read through Chinese forums these past months, little bits of information dribble out here and there that now combine to create a damning mosaic from the chipmakers to the component suppliers to the tablet makers.

When each and every one of them think they can get away with cheating, they will do it.

Chipmakers find a way to make their chips detect AnTuTu and then run a certain way to produce a better score. They also claim their chips will run at a certain speed but tablet makers must downclock them because of chip yield problems — which the chipmakers paper over by simply discounting their chips.

Component makers get customers not on the basis of quality but by cutting deals on price.

Tablet makers hype their products without full and honest specs and with abysmal warranties, return policies, and repair policies.

One investigation into tablets revealed a defect rate of one in three!

I cannot in good conscience recommend any Chinese iPad Mini clone due to this rampant cheating — as well as atrocious quality control.

There’s a reason companies grow big.

They don’t cheat their customers.

They have commitments to quality control — including that of their suppliers.

They serve their customers instead of milking them.

All of you who have iPad Mini clones, go run some screen tests. I’d like to know how many of you have gotten screens without full color depth.

There’s still a big untold story about just how bad some brands are in China. I’ve seen forum posts where people have sworn never to buy certain brands after having bad experiences with them.

And even on the whole, domestic Chinese tablet makers — en toto — are held in low regard by the Chinese themselves.

Yet we outside of China think we’re getting some sort of bargain!

When the Japanese learned they were the laughingstock of the world back in the 1960s, they didn’t continue to produce crap. They made a commitment to improve and to be world-class. That bold move gave the world brand names such as Sony, Matsushita, Sharp, and many more.

As things stand now, it’s difficult for me to believe that on their current paths, Chinese brand names such as Chuwi, Onda, Teclast, and the others will ever become world-class.

For myself, my choice of tablet will be from a global brand name — either the LG G Pad 8.3 or the HP Slate 8 Pro.

Chinese cheating has driven me out their market and after a few more posts about them, I will be dropping coverage of them here altogether.

They really make the Ferengi look good and thoroughly subscribe to their first two Rules of Acquisition:

Rule 1: Once you have their money, you never give it back.

Rule 2: The best deal is the one that brings the most profit.

Additional:

Buying Advice!