did the quality of hardware vary so much or was it simply too unlucky?

I bought a samsung computer screen in early 2008 and I remember it suddenly went wrong one day after servicing 2 years and 6 months, in the mid of 2010, before the warranty expired. The technician came to my home and replaced the part and it is still working today perfectly, in 2018.

I bought an iPhone 5S in Dec 2013 and in Dec 2014, 15 days before the warranty expired, the screen went wired, without falling or dropping to the ground, without letting into water. I used the iPhone with care. At that time, Apple gave me a new iPhone as replacement. It's still working totally now Oct 2018.

I got a MOMAX portable charger yes again, in less than half a year, it went wrong totally, couldn't charge or discharge at all. No lights again. I went to the customer service and they gave me a new one, and than in the next 3 years, it's still working fine now.


Why was that?
Was I simply too unlucky to get problematic products always?
Or was it just expected and understood in the industry that the quality of electronic hardware varies SO MUCH?

Probably unrelated (especially the iphone) but a lot of products that contained electronic capacitors made in Taiwan between about 2000 and 2008, failed prematurely. Apparently they got hold of a bad recipe for the electrolyte or something. I believe it caused one of my motherboards to fail. My main tv and two other lcd monitor/tvs are from about 2003 and still going strong, I almost want them to fail so I can get something more up-to-date but they just keep going and work fine.

Boulder said:

Probably unrelated (especially the iphone) but a lot of products that contained electronic capacitors made in Taiwan between about 2000 and 2008, failed prematurely. Apparently they got hold of a bad recipe for the electrolyte or something. I believe it caused one of my motherboards to fail. My main tv and two other lcd monitor/tvs are from about 2003 and still going strong, I almost want them to fail so I can get something more up-to-date but they just keep going and work fine.

Did you mean OEM parts made between 2000 and 2008 is more likely to get defected faster??

Tsw88 said:

Did you mean OEM parts made between 2000 and 2008 is more likely to get defected faster??

Just about anything made during that time if the manufacturer happened to use capacitors from Taiwan. At a consumer level, generally tvs, power supplier, motherboards, even washing machines etc. The good news is you can often see when a capacitor has "blown" and replace it, if you are ok with a soldering iron, although sometimes there are few signs and by the time the capacitor has failed it may have taken out other components of the system.

Capacitor plague - Wikipedia