Print
Here at Maximum PC we appreciate quality. We love seeing top-notch products get the high scores and florid praises they've rightfully earned. It's not all smiles and sunshine in the testing labs, though. In fact, many of the products we've reviewed over the years are more Ass Kicked than Kick Ass. You know the Best of the Best? Well, these are the worst of the worst.
While we thankfully haven't had to deal with too many terrible products lately, we didn't have to dig all that deep into the archives to find a (not-so) healthy 50 photo sampling of some of the worst we've seen, from 2005 to July 2011.
What are some of the worst products you've ever used? Let us know!
Edit: Some readers have mentioned that it's difficult to read the text in some of the images. We appologize for the inconvenience--it's a limitation of the current gallery format that we're looking in to. In the mean time, you can view any picture at maximum size by right-clicking it in the gallery, and selecting to open the link in a new tab or a new window.
Comments are closed on this article
ugzz
September 08, 2011 at 8:34am
i think this article belongs in the 50 worst presented articles of all time.
1. i hate max pcs stupid next/previous buttons. its 2011, trust me, we all have high speed. and if you don't, well sadly your just not important.
2. the verticle articles are pretty much illegible at native, and when zoomed in are more pixelated than my 2600
rradarr
September 06, 2011 at 8:19pm
I agree with Praak. This article was okay but I expected something different. Do some soul searching and give us the 50 biggest mistakes MaxPC has made over the years. Show us some 8's or 9's that quietly went nowhere or failed miserably with the test of time.
Hangdog42
September 03, 2011 at 9:47am
OK, if this is the worst of the worst of the worst, why is MaxPC giving so many of them a 4 out of 10? Not recongizing true hideosity when you see it? Leaving yourselves a little room in case something even more horrible comes along?
Seriously, if you're seeing true unmitigated crap, give it a 1. We count on you guys not to pull punches!
tkid124
September 03, 2011 at 1:10pm
At least for some time, (I don't know if they have updated their scale) ratings 3 and under had to not preform in any manner, cause injury or damage to other parts. I think but don't promise:
3- doesn't work
2- causes dampage to other parts
1-casues human injury
nbrowser
September 03, 2011 at 6:52am
Ok now that we've seen a list of the 50 worst, how about a list of the 50 best, it's only fair !
reutnes
September 02, 2011 at 3:23pm
Didn't the copperhead bring Razer back from a near death experience? Nice rating on that one.
Also, thanks for not loading a whole new page for each page of the slideshow. that really bugs me on certain other websites.
SenTora
September 02, 2011 at 3:24pm
I will say this for the ABS Ultimate x8 III, I always did like and want that case... So I guess it had that going for it....
BluePhoton
September 02, 2011 at 9:38am
would be nice if the date of the review was also included with each, so we can laugh at what was an attempt at "state of the art" a few years ago...
ABouman
September 02, 2011 at 10:26am
hey, we did! check out the captions below each photo which list the name of the product and the issue the review appeared in.
Ilander
September 02, 2011 at 8:34am
I've got the lights for the Phillips AmBx system, and they were a lot of fun in the games they supported...though, I got mine on a Woot sale with H.A.W.X for thirty bucks, so yeah, 300 for the standalone kit with the silly fans makes it no fun at all...
Jerjef
September 02, 2011 at 8:24am
To all who may be having a problem viewing the articles, I'm using Google Chrome and the Hover View extension. It works awesomely. Just mouse over the image and move the mouse to the left until it's big enought to read.
Also I'd like to say that as I was reading the article about the MR-500i Music Player, if I didn't read the title first, I'd swear I was reading a review of the iPod Touch. lol.
triclops41
September 01, 2011 at 7:52pm
the headline is stating that these were the 50 reviews on which MPC did its poorest work.
something like "50 worst products we've reviewed" would make sense.
praack
September 02, 2011 at 7:34am
Agree- that was what I was hoping for - the ones that were reviewed and thought to be great and were either vaporwear in the real world or utter crap/ not accepted by the public
cjl9
September 01, 2011 at 4:57pm
You rated Richard Burns Rally a 3? Absolutely the best rally sim ever. Fantastically realistic physics and not bad stages either. Really hard to set up the car correctly: really rewarding when you do.
bonus45
September 01, 2011 at 4:21pm
Kenwood tru-x 72x CDRom, or whatever speed it was. Now that was a pile of trash. Of course, it might be included in your list but I'm not clicking 100 times to read it all.
atcastle
September 01, 2011 at 4:14pm
Hey guys, I know it's difficult to read the text in some of the images. I'm sorry for the inconvenience--it's a limitation of the current gallery format and we're looking into ways to fix it. In the mean time, you can view any picture at maximum size by right-clicking it in the gallery, and selecting to open the link in a new tab or a new window.
axiomatic
September 01, 2011 at 1:42pm
Dammit! I almost was able to say that I successfully avoided all of the product on my own until I got to ClamWin. For a very short time I became enamored with portableapps.com and wound up using Clamwin for about two weeks... then I came to my senses.
I Jedi
September 01, 2011 at 1:29pm
You all must have some small monitor ratios, as I can read the text just fine.
someuid
September 01, 2011 at 1:22pm
Please change the title to 51 and include this article. See below posters. They're covering the problems pretty well.
Now go find the person who did this work and ask them if they're proud of such a crap job. If they are, ask them to find employment somewhere else. If they are not, have them and their manager stay late to fix the scans.
Jasker
September 01, 2011 at 5:05pm
Agreed. Also when I click to view larger why can't I just click a 'Next' button that allows me to see the next one enlarged? A magazine/website titled 'Maximumpc' should have webpages down pat!
iheartpcs
September 01, 2011 at 12:56pm
I would have enjoyed this article, if I could read them all. Too small.
nmanguy
September 01, 2011 at 1:37pm
Yo, Sherlock, disable script blocking and click the image to see a bigger one.
iheartpcs
September 01, 2011 at 2:11pm
Yo, Smartguy, I clicked the image and the larger view was ok for some, but most were still too small.
To avoid you saying stupid things in the future, please assume I know everything.
SilverSurferNHS
September 01, 2011 at 12:58pm
your choice of words for the title makes it sound like the reviews themselves were poor...
also how the fuck am i supposed to read these snippets at such low res (even after zoomed) such a shame because this was so interesting i coulda sat here for hours reading these fascinating reviews... but i can't because the images are so small and blurry.... :(
ccardarelli
September 01, 2011 at 12:28pm
I appreciate the Gizmondo's appearance due to its hilarious history.
dizzybazoo
September 01, 2011 at 12:21pm
Why is this stuff always blurry? With your expertise everything on your site should be clear. This goes for wayback monday, or whatever you call it, also. I like to read this kind of stuff, but when it is so hard to read I don't. And how about some kind of reply.
Trooper_One
September 01, 2011 at 12:06pm
MaximumPC:
Showing a copy of the article and having to expand it is fine. However, is there a way to scroll to the next image without having to close the first one? I hover the mouse over the expanded image on the right and a tooltip says 'next image' but when I click on it, it closes the original and I have click on the next and expand again.
A few images is fine, but fifty? That gets a bit annoying (I stop reading after the third one)...
Gezzer
September 01, 2011 at 3:46pm
Same. It's an extra couple of clicks times 50, and it's just not worth it.
Sorry, but epic fail.
