> I'm going to get a trimmer, so I want a thoughtfully designed and well made version of that. This has been my mission around my home since the start of the COVID pandemic. Upgrade all the little things around my home that annoy me or that would make my day a little bit better if they were upgraded.
The problem I have is that many things don't have a well made or thoughtfully designed version. They just have a more expensive version.
There's nothing more disappoint then spending good money on a "quality" product only to have it fall apart as fast or faster than a cheap version.
Even more infuriating is when the more expensive version is the same object but with extra unnecessary features added via software, to the detriment of usability.
That's honestly how most products are these days. The base version is lacking one feature that is present in the "premium" version and a bunch of useless add-ons are piled on to justify the expense of the "premium" version.
In a lot of cases, the base version is excluded from certain markets and only the premium is available (e.g. YouTube Premium).
One heuristic I use is to find out where the item was manufactured. If it's China or some other place where they probably chose because of cost, it's a signal that they may have made other concessions as well. That podcast talked about this a bit. The good trimmer is made in Japan. The crappy ones are "made in a country that is arguably known for some lower quality production methods". I was guessing China, but I really don't know for certain.
That said, China can make some great things as well. For example, millions of iPhones and Macbooks are manufactured in China.
These days I either buy a specific name branded product that really doesn't have an equivalent competitor, or I go find the cheapest thing on AliExpress because most of what's available on sites like Amazon is just rebranded tat from China.
The problem I have is that many things don't have a well made or thoughtfully designed version. They just have a more expensive version.
There's nothing more disappoint then spending good money on a "quality" product only to have it fall apart as fast or faster than a cheap version.