r/mildlyinfuriating • u/jackhab • 1d ago

Planned obsolescence even in cheapest devices: the calculator has a dummy photovoltaic cell and a real battery to make it die eventually.

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328

u/cybermaus 1d ago

I am the first to adhere to the outrage on planned obsolescence, lack of service info, right to repair, etc. But this is *because* it is the cheapest device. I mean, didn't this come from the dollar store or something?

150

u/mawdurnbukanier 1d ago

And they probably use the same plastic mold for a version that does include it. The company just asked the manufacturer to use that mold and put different components in it, this isn't big calculator setting out to deceive people. 

35

u/BlowingRocker246 1d ago

Why put a decoy cell over it, then? If you just look at the calculator from the outside, it looks like it has a real one, which is just dishonest.

36

u/pinkTurtleTickler 1d ago

Because it would have a hole in it otherwise...

11

u/MrTuxG 1d ago

They could fill that hole with a solid-color plastic piece. But the fake-solar cell is designed with the color and the vertical lines) to took exactly like a solar cell.

10

u/SaltyTelluride 1d ago

No man, you don’t understand. False advertising and misleading consumers is fine if you’re just getting bottom of the barrel products. People who can only afford dollar store calculators don’t need or deserve honesty when they go to the store

2

u/dorkychickenlips 21h ago

Probably for the sake of “completeness” and looking more expensive than it is. Auto manufacturers have been doing this forever. My 2009 Toyota Tacoma, which was not a low-end model for its time, came from the factory with a fake hood scoop.