Estimated read time: 3-4 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
SALT LAKE CITY — Consumers would never buy something they cannot use and don't want. But when it comes to computer and cell phone technology, it seems many people are doing just that.
It's all about marketing and advertising. When an announcer says "faster speed" or "record memory," does that pique your interest? Who wouldn't want such things?
But do you understand what they're talking about? A Utah technology expert who does understand it worries that consumers are being talked into things they don't need.
Blazing speed. Ultimate wireless range. Those are promises made by many manufacturers of gigabit Wi-Fi routers. Is it something you can actually use?
"It's kind of like having a car that can go 150 miles per hour but the speed limit is 65," said Alex Lawrence, a tech expert at Weber State University. "You never really will get to use it."
He said while some Wi-Fi routers are technically capable of delivering one gigabit of data per second, there's a strong chance consumers won't come close to that blazing speed.
"A lot of times the computers you're using, they can't handle the speeds some of the routers are pushing out," he explained.
It's like having a car that can go 150 miles per hour but the speed limit is 65.
–Alex Lawrence. tech expert
Also, the internet provider would need to have capability for those speeds. So why even advertise a gigabit speed on a Wi-Fi router?
"The thing that's easiest to understand, myself included, is speed. So that's what they put on the box. That's what they promote," Lawrence said.
Battery life
Consumers may also notice that some manufacturer claims on battery life are not realistic. Lawrence said while battery technology is getting better, they're still being tested in environments that do not mimic real use.
"The best places to go are third-party consumer review sites where they do actual, real-world tests. They go, ‘Oh, you're actually going to check your email every hour? And you're actually going to use Wi-Fi? And you're going to surf the web? And you're going to send text messages and you're going to watch your video and you're going to do all the things that most people do with a phone?' " Lawrence said.
"'Well then, the battery life is actually three hours less than it says in the advertisement,' " he added.
Contrast ratio
TV manufacturers love to push the contrast ratio. The higher the ratio, the deeper the black and the brighter the whites. That sounds reasonable, but there is no standard in measuring contrast ratio. That's led to some wild numbers like a million-to-one and greater.
"There's a minimum bar, but once you get over a certain contrast ratio it becomes incredibly negligible, indiscernible to the eye," Lawrence explained.
HDMI cables
"You might be paying a premium for something because you want to have the latest, greatest version of it, but it might not actually be noticeably faster. It might not be a noticeably better picture. It might not be battery life that matters for you on how you use your stuff," Lawrence said.
One of the simplest components perhaps makes up one of the biggest tech lies: HDMI cables for HD TVs.
Some manufacturers claim if you want premium entertainment, you've got to buy their premium cable at $45 or more. That's a large mark up from the $3 it takes to produce a cable, according to tech news website Tech-Hive.
When it comes to a digital cable, it either works or it doesn't.
"A $6.50, 6 foot HDMI cable from Amazon is going to transmit picture and audio just as well as the $45 one," Lawrence said.
Memory
Another marketing gimmick that frustrates Lawrence involves the amount of memory on a phone or tablet. Here's a good example of that: Microsoft boasted 64 gigabytes of space on its Surface tablet last year. But because of the operating system and apps already loaded onto it, users only had access to 23 gigs.
