Snake oil salesman.

VW where rightly punished for Dieselgate yet seems like the Texan is getting away with it (again). I also blame the US media. Remember to this date Tesla has never spent a cent advertising in America, their entire hype machine has been fuelled by sites like The Verge (until they eventually woke up a few years back - by which point Tesla had already sold gazillions of shares and took customers deposits). This is why we need real journalism more than ever, the bodies that regulate these cowboys are no longer fit for purpose.

On most of the fediverse, I find discussions really great with no idiots/trolls… apart from technology. Here it seems some get triggered by any tech from outside the US.

This announcement would be seen as a massive breakthrough anywhere else. China has its problems, I’m fully aware of the red flags and government influence. But only a fool would question their technological advances at this point. They are moving ahead at lightning speed, especially in energy and battery tech.

Even on the consumer side, Huawei invested more in R&D last year than Samsung or Intel. Huawei consumer division could have been expected to be dead by now with the chip ban, yet survived and are thriving again. Not because the Chinese were forced to by their phones, Apple still sell in China, but because they innovated like hell. A Chinese buyer has the option today of buying a tri-folding tablet phone with super fast charging or an American designed device with 3 year old tech (chip aside). Americans don’t have that choice.

Its also the reason why traditional European car brands are tanking in China. VW can no longer expect to sell on prestige alone. Here in Britain, our consumer tech offering is already almost non existent. We no longer have a true British owned car company. Our famous Mini was sold to the Germans. Jaguar/Range Rover to the Indians. MG to the Chinese. Its depressing. But I do feel fortunate to at least have choice (we can buy a BYD or Xiaomi here) and that I’m not subject to only American tech reporting. BYD will later this year have 7 different car models on sale in Britain vs 6 (soon to be 5) from Ford. This is a paradigm shift, considering for almost the last 20 years Ford had at least 2 cars in the top 5 best sellers in the UK.

Apologies for going off on one. But i’d highly recommend US readers check out Chinese tech sites from time to time (eg carnewschina/huawei central etc) rather than just relying on the verge. Sure not all Chinese tech will be successful, sure some designs may be clones, but the shear scale of investment from China will make them unstoppable. I believe the changing of the guard happened a while ago, where about to see it play out in all industries…

Thanks for sharing your experience. I believe the F6 is likely expected by autumn and was considering this as my next. I often wondered about parts as time goes by, as I suspected the company wouldn’t want a huge inventory of spares and the costs involved. If I do get one, I’ll likely buy a spare screen at the least.

The UI stuff is disappointing, however maybe not a deal breaker as I’m trying to reduce my usage. Perhaps a buggy smartphone could be a decent dumbphone alternative.

Chinese tech (hardware) is already better than most US (chips aside). The no. 1 smartphone camera ranking on Dxomark for the last 5 years has been owned by Chinese brands, who also dominate all top 10 places for battery scores. The reason Chinese cars have blown up locally in china isn’t just lower prices, younger Chinese seek better tech and connectivity than VW or Audi can offer.

Huawei invested more in R&D last year than either Samsung or Intel. Software is their next target. HarmonyOS NEXT is now completely decoupled from Android and can power everything from watches to cars. I’d say US still has a 5-year lead in Chips/Software but after that my moneys on the East.