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Comment by KaoruAoiShiho | Hacker News Reader

Chinese brands do the same QA just fine. There's nothing wrong with brands like Anker for example.

I believe you pointed out the exception, not the rule

I think it's part of a broader trend of Chinese brands competing on equal terms.

Xiaomi and Huawei make phones that are quite comparable in quality to any of the established western and Korean brands; Xiaomi also apply their brand to a lot of very good electronic stuff that's very good value - electric scooters, air purifiers, smart home equipment etc. Rigol and Aneng make consistently good test equipment at a fraction of the price of western equivalents. Japanese brands used to dominate the radio control hobby industry, but they have been almost completely displaced by Chinese brands.

Yep, there are a few great brands based in China who sell on AliExpress/Amazon, another is ugreen. Everything I've bought from them so far is high-quality gear at a great price. Just wish there was an easier way to find other brands like them, other than randomly buying stuff from diff brands and testing the products your self.

I would argue Chinese brands have probably already overtaken non-Chinese ones at this point. Many of them just aren't really available outside of China. But if you started with a blank slate today and could buy either only Chinese or western products I think the Chinese ones would be the better deal for consumer products. And not necessarily only on price. As you said Xiaomi has a very appealing ecosystem that is hard to match.

Perhaps the problem is not China in particular, but the substitution of trusting brands for trusting reviews. Great Chinese brands exist, like Anker, but people still seem to go straight for that 5-star (probably fake) lorem-ipsum-esque brand at half the price.

Distributors in China certainly know the quality they’re dealing with. If they are establishing a brand, they are seeking repeat business and a good reputation. That’s opposed to ordering unreliable labeled or generic goods from an unknown seller on Amazon who could disappear at any time, and may operate ten another store fronts. So, like the principle I concluded with, a known brand will provide a higher quality.

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