My comment from last time this was posted.
The most commonly cited monitor in recent years for this is “AW3423DWF”… Which is AlienWare 34" from 2023, DisplayPort, WQHD, Freesync.
Point is, people see a lot of characters and complain when in reality it is exactly what you are referring to. The name is an encoded version of its capabilities. Its just that the encoding isn’t always clear because if every company used the same encoding they would have the same name. and if there are 2 similar monitors you would need to have every feature in the name to differentiate them, so the shorthand encoding becomes necessary. (Eg, AW3423DW and AW3423DWF only really differ on freesync vs gsync, thus the F at the end)
i think bundling these features together in a brand name and incrementing it with version number would be more helpful.
having the “alienware porkchop 23” would allow people to become familiar with the branding and understand the featureset that this model comes with.
dwf does not mean anything to most.
That only works if you assume that there is something consistent to version. Some years it’s a 34" ultra wide, some years it’s a 32" 4k. Will there ever be another 34" ultra wide from alienware? Who knows! Not every monitor gets a revision. and if you have random names for 100 different monitors every year, that doesn’t really help make sense of things either.
Alienware Monitor 7… Well they release 100 different models a year, and every year thats going to increment, and consumers often conflate “bigger number better” so you better make sure you get the numbering right.
And “Porkchop” means absolutely nothing to anyone. DWF at least means something to some people. Going from 0% usefulness to even 10% usefulness is a good move.
Do monitors keep a stable amount of features from one generation to the next? I mean the only real reason to upgrade a monitor is for new features, not because it has incrementally improved on the features it already offered, or size maybe. What would be the basis for calling something a “porkchop” vs a “lizard milkshake”
I guess you could have like 3 tiers of features, going from Cheapest to most Expensive (i.e, lower end is 60hz, higher end 120+hz) and then each generation you know which monitor is “better”
I get the logic here but I just don’t think most people think like this. Products are called the “Honda Accord” and the “Apple iPhone” and the “Cordless handheld vacuum” for a reason.
Maybe these code names make sense for the actual engineers working on them. But only the nerdiest of the nerdiest of nerdy consumers will remember a couple of these names. In my line of work I’ve spent a couple decades with a ton of regular folks, non-techy people. You might be surprised how many of them can barely remember what number of iPhone they’re on, and don’t even think about asking them which version of iOS is installed.
TBC: This is not a knock against people who aren’t neck-deep in every industry of every product they own. I couldn’t tell you which engine is in my Hyundai Tuscon or which generation of motor is in my cordless vacuum.
I just think these names are gibberish, probably greenlit by people who don’t think about this stuff. But they aren’t effective names for regular consumers.
But the model number isn’t really the “name” either. That would be “Alienware 34-inch Monitor”, from that year, etc. That they don’t call that their “Mars” line of monitors is maybe a marketing issue, but the thing people want to know first/most about a tv/monitor is how big it is.
Cars and Phones have product numbers that break down the same way but like you say the general public doesn’t refer to them that way. Like the Samsung Galaxy S24 instead of “SM-S928U”, which is the North American (T-Mobile?) specific model.
Youre right. “Cordless handheld vacuum” is a descriptor and not “the name of a product”.
In fact, on the Alienware website, the product is called ‘Alienware 34" Curved QD-OLED Gaming Monitor - AW3423DWF’
Alienware 34" curved QD-OLED gaming monitor sounds a LOT like exactly what you described. And then the SKU is tacked on to the end because they sell multiple various models of of 34" curved QD-OLED gaming monitors, and people are going to want to get the right one, so they make it prominent.
Sure but the thing with TVs is a manufacturer will over 15 different SKUs of “a TV” that are all pretty different. Plus, a lot of the times (especially for TVs) they will still have a “normal” name.
Like Alienware sells a few different “Alienware 27 Gaming” monitors. But they only sell on “AW2725DM”
Just use the same common encoding and postfix it with the brand name (or prefix, depends on what you like to sort)
The official product page is an actual monitor name, and postfixed with the encoding to help differentiate similar models. So you’re right, but also, “AW3423DWF is a terrible name” is wrong, because AW3423DWF isn’t the product name, it’s just how people identify it, because there are so many similar monitors out there.
Sony and everything that isn’t a PlayStation
The naming pattern makes it easier to have different “models” per major retailer. This hinders consumer price comparisons.
Are monitors mattresses now?
Always have been. Or at least since the beginning of the world wide web.
Stores had long used the “low price guarantee” slogan to draw customers. And they had trained the average customer to believe that it meant they had the lowest prices. Back in those days price comparisons were hard. Sales ads changed every week or two but other than what was in the ads you had to go from store to store checking the price yourself. Yes, you could call around to different stores, but that was unreliable. Even just getting stores phone numbers was a hassle. Plus, most stores didn’t have their inventory computerized, and the ones that did were only close to correct once a year, right after they did their yearly inventory. So they just had to keep track of a couple of their closest and biggest competitors. If you tried hard enough you could save a few dollars, but it was rare and took a lot of effort. Most people would settle on what they thought was the “best store” and just stick with it. Even when a competitor had a sale at a significantly lower price that was simple enough for them to deal with, they would just pull their stock from the shelves and put a sign on it in the back room that said don’t sell until a certain date. If you shopped somewhere like Sears or circuit City where their sales people worked on commission, You could sometimes develop a relationship with one of the veteran sales people as “your guy”. And they would be able to have this insane knack for “searching the storeroom” for you and “mysteriously” finding the “last box that had been misplaced”.
Then Walmart came on the scene and was a huge pain in the ass by actually having cheaper prices on a lot of things. Enough companies complained that eventually a few suppliers would have a special model number for a few high dollar items that they sold to Walmart and then a different model number for everyone else. But this was only on a few things like computer stuff and car stereos.
And then the internet came along and they were forced to slowly start giving just about every store “unique models”.Great post, but Jesus… breathe.
Mix together sitting for hours in a doctor’s office with no wifi, shitty cell service, and more than a smidge of ADHD and that’s the result. 🤷
Oh does that get retailers out of price matching too.
or grey market imports. Like TVs in Eastern Europe have different codes than in Western Europe even when they are the same yet the Eastern European version is often cheaper. Like the only difference is the frequencies they accept on the CI+ module or something. But that doesn’t matter for most people since they hook up the tv-box from the cable company trough HDMI anyways.
This method also works for display resolution names like WHKLWXD which is 4k but with six extra pixels on the left side.
This has been asked and answered in tech forums
https://superuser.com/questions/1272546/whats-the-exact-naming-scheme-for-dell-monitors#1272615
3. Year * Two digit year it was released.Very cool, but not Y2K compliant.
Next up is Y2.1K actually.
The missing tooth detail got me
Product names now:
Crying wojak: “EWRT-3846-Pro”
Product names back then:
Chad wojak: “Pulsar 25”
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