Wither the Low-End Device?

You may have noticed that I recently bought a new tablet/2-1 device in the shape of the Microsoft Surface Go 2. I’m currently writing an article about my experience with that device a few months down the road, so yes, I’m going to milk that particular subject for all it’s worth! However, while working on that particular article, and indeed while researching the Surface Go 2 before purchasing it, I couldn’t help but notice a certain pattern amongst most of the reviews on YouTube, as well as on the web in general.

You could find hardly any reviews of the baseline model that I was looking into, no matter how hard you looked. Even reviewers who titled their reviews with the $399 price of the baseline model actually ended up reviewing the mid-range or even the top-of-the-line Intel M3 model. These reviews, while certainly interesting, don’t help anyone who’s labouring under budget limitations and may not be able to afford anything more than the baseline model. And that’s before you dive into German language reviews, which is a whole different kettle of fish that I won’t dive into until later on. Oh, and to preface this whole thing, while I will be referring to my observations with regards to the Microsoft Surface Go 2, I have noticed this particular phenomenon with a whole host of other devices.

First though, let’s stick to English, which gives me a larger target audience anyway. The question remains. Why is there such a focus on the high-end modules? Where does this seeming bias against low-spec devices come from? Partially, this is undoubtedly due to the manufacturers themselves. When Microsoft sends out their latest and greatest devices to the likes of iJustine, you can bet that they’re going to send out devices that are most likely to gather a glowing commentary, and the same goes for pretty much every other hardware manufacturer. And honestly, if I get a device dropped in my lap like that, I’m going to use that, especially if I’m more of a lifestyle-centric reviewer, such as the aforementioned iJustine. So those reviewers get a pass from me, at least to a certain degree. 

Then, there are the more technically minded reviewers. Now granted, some of them may also be getting sent review devices by manufacturer. However, if you’re running a dedicated review channel that only does reviews, and detailed ones at that, it shouldn’t be too much to ask for to spend that extra cash to get a baseline model in, especially if, as I mentioned above, you actually use the $399 price tag in your title. I get that this might not always be a viable option, particularly for higher priced devices, but when you lead with a price tag that doesn’t apply to the device you’re testing, that’s at best lazy journalism and at its worst deliberately misleading.

What’s even more interesting is what those reviewers that actually did end up reviewing low-end models had to say. Many seemingly had an aneurysm just by reading the specs of the device. Okay, I did a double take myself when I saw the Intel Pentium name pop up in the spec sheet of the Surface Go 2, having not had an actual Pentium CPU since the very early 2000s. Still, many reviewers were openly dismissive of the device, not really taking it seriously as an everyday device. I find it interesting that many based their disdain on the results of performance benchmarks, which admittedly aren’t impressive to put it diplomatically. Still, very few reviewers actually seemed to use the device in question for any extended period in time. Of those that did, the consensus was that yes, the Surface Go 2 had rather anaemic hardware, but that there was a very definite use case for which the device was well-suited. In a way, this dismissive nature reminded me of the debate around netbooks oh so many moons ago, which was led along similar lines.

Where does this bias against low-performance devices come from? I’m pretty sure there’s a pretty hefty research grant hiding somewhere deep in that question, but I’ll try to answer it from my own perspective anyway. From what I can see, this bias springs from the fact that even a lot of budget phones these days are pretty powerful multi-purpose machines, to say nothing of higher-end devices. When your phone can play high-quality games one moment, only to seamlessly switch into a camera, followed by a photo-editing machine, you kind of expect all devices to deliver a similar performance. With its limited hardware, devices like the Surface Go 2 run completely counter to that expectation, providing instead a device that is far more limited in its use. It absolutely excels in the use cases it is designed for, this blog post, like pretty much all on my English blog since I bought this device, is being written on the Surface Go 2, for example. However, many reviewers may not be used to this kind of limitation, particularly when their own daily drivers are high-performance computers, which may lead them to believe that lower-powered devices are inherently flawed, even when they’re not. 

And then, there’s the language divide, which is massive. As many of my regular readers know, I’m German and I therefore look at reviews in my native language in addition to English language reviews. Sometimes I wish that I hadn’t. Seriously, where English reviews may be biased or dismissive of lower-powered devices, many German reviewers are openly hostile, describing them as junk, a slap in the face, a money grab, or similar niceties. Mind you, I’m not talking about Amazon reviews here, those often reach “News Article on Facebook” levels of vitriol and disgust, but about reviews by established magazines or YouTube channels. Even Heise Online, one of the most highly renowned tech websites in Germany, went all in on their performance bias in their review of the Surface Go 2. Now I know that we Germans have a reputation of taking everything to its ultimate extreme, that’s the only explanation I have for bands like Rammstein, but this level of open hostility is honestly quite jarring, even more so if you remember that many people in Germany will only use native language sources to inform themselves about devices they might consider buying. This isn’t the first time I’ve noticed this type of divide either, though things have certainly gotten more extreme in this matter over the last few years.

Leaving country specific mentality issues aside for a second, this performance bias, wherever it may come from, is beginning to seriously skew the impression of many devices in the eyes of the public. Not everyone needs a high-powered video editing or gaming machine, or needs that level performance, particularly not in a portable device. Don’t let this performance bias blind you to that.