Worst hardware ever?

Essential linkage: Discover the worst gear ever reviewed by five veteran Aussie tech journos...

Here's a fun article, thrown together by our pod-mates over at PC Authority - worst ever hardware.

As tech journalists, we get a lot of gear to go over with a critical eye, but some hardware, gadgets or components stick in the minds' eye. Every journo has a pet hate of a product they've reviewed, and PC Authority's just put together a list of these epically failed bits of kit.

And we gave them a hand - here's a portion of our rant...

It was a piano black glossy keyboard. Just think about that for a moment – all that shiny, bright plastic, showing off every smear, every fingerprint, every nano-particle of human filth that you weren’t even aware was dropping off you as you typed.

No surprises to anyone who works out what I'm talking about... but give it a read. It's a great piece about the best of intentions not always being enough.

And while we're at it - what's your worst hardware?

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11 Comments

tunksy Nov 30, 2010 2:39 PM	the KB, that razer lycosa mirror edition?
sirtrancealot Nov 30, 2010 2:49 PM	blackberry bold 9000 takes the cake for me, easily the worst piece of tech hardware i've used in the last 10 years. even the $80 ripoff android tablet from china I used the other week had superior build quality, and at least you don't have to wipe and restore it to fix every little niggling problem that pops up. I really don't understand how these ever got so popular with business. sure they do encryption which most other handsets are still only just adopting, but it still doesn't make up for the rest of the device.
Athlonite Nov 30, 2010 2:54 PM	I remember that fish PC plurk it was an ugly beast
lg9142 Nov 30, 2010 5:33 PM	Oh my god. I forgot about the Fish PC. Friends of ours had one when I was a kid for about a month. They took it back, because it broke, and the awkward design meant that it was easier for the manufacturer to give them a refund than fix it.
jdog Nov 30, 2010 6:36 PM	@tunksy:it sounds alot like it... fish PC?,what fish PC?
12345 Nov 30, 2010 8:19 PM	I don't know how you used your bold 9000, sirtrancealot but i've only had a good experience with mine only getting to the stage where I have no memory left for apps. Worst hardware I've had? I don't buy crap :P but one I've always complained about and never enjoyed at all for work or for study. Using a apple macintosh prior to OS X. any of them with a one mouse button. @#%@^@#^
Acintai Nov 30, 2010 9:50 PM	yes i have the shiny black mirror edition lycosa, besides my own ass ive never cleaned something so much.
Sparky Nov 30, 2010 11:45 PM	yeah I bought a lycosa mirror edition the month before you guys reviewed it. It's not that bad from the mirror treatment (I'm not that oily on the fingers apparently) but rather it is a poor keyboard as well. I just cant seem to ever hit the enter key, something is odd about it.
wayke Dec 1, 2010 4:42 AM	RAZER products, Seagate Hdds Schrodinger was given a Result from people using seagate drives if your wondering what that TINK TINK SCHH TINK TINK is when your seagate is apparently writting to disk it's not however there is an arm beating a cat to death in side that metal box and the cat is trying to claw its way out hence the sounds, MINI CATS CLONED INTO HDD ENCLOSERS Killed by SEAGATE.
Hawkeye Dec 1, 2010 7:49 AM	You don't have much of an internal voice, do you wayke?
sirtrancealot Dec 1, 2010 9:02 AM	only reason i say the bb9000 is cause we've had to send over 75% of them back for repair, the back cover pushes against the internal speaker and the ringer stops working. that and countless exception errors when accessing SMS/email. suggested fix.. wipe and re-activate. I wouldn't use one in a pink fit, just have to support them at work, which has been nothing but a pain in the ass. if only we could replace the lot with android or iphones.

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Atomic Magazine

Issue: 137 | June, 2012

Atomic is a magazine aimed squarely at computer enthusiasts, gamers, and serious PC upgraders.

Every month we bring you the latest reviews of new technology and PC components, in depth features on everything from overclocking to console hacking, and gaming previews and interviews.

What's in this issue?