Author Topic: Is Keysight changing colours? Beige to Black?  (Read 24240 times)

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Offline pascal_sweden

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Re: Is Keysight changing colours? Beige to Black?
« Reply #25 on: November 30, 2016, 02:59:49 pm »
Maybe it's an attempt to further differentiate Keysight from Agilent? Just part of the Keysight rebranding?

An attempt to be more distinguishable from Fluke?

An attempt to be stupid, nothing more to look after the strategy.
 

Offline TheAmmoniacal

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Re: Is Keysight changing colours? Beige to Black?
« Reply #26 on: November 30, 2016, 03:02:05 pm »
Maybe it's an attempt to further differentiate Keysight from Agilent? Just part of the Keysight rebranding?

An attempt to be more distinguishable from Fluke?

An attempt to be stupid, nothing more to look after the strategy.

I'm sure they have a rationale! Daniel? ;)
 

Offline vk6zgo

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Re: Is Keysight changing colours? Beige to Black?
« Reply #27 on: November 30, 2016, 04:09:17 pm »
Maybe it's an attempt to further differentiate Keysight from Agilent? Just part of the Keysight rebranding?

An attempt to be more distinguishable from Fluke?

An attempt to be stupid, nothing more to look after the strategy.

I find it hard to imagine black test equipment that isn't painted in crackle finish,& with the General Radio logo attached.
 

Offline ManateeMafia

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Re: Is Keysight changing colours? Beige to Black?
« Reply #28 on: November 30, 2016, 04:34:59 pm »
The ESI 242D looks better in black than the 242B. I think someone at ESI was an Arthur C. Clarke fan.
 

Offline bookaboo

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Re: Is Keysight changing colours? Beige to Black?
« Reply #29 on: November 30, 2016, 05:13:27 pm »
The problem with black is it is black. If you have a whole shelf of test gear above your bench, with light coloured front panels, you get scattered ambient illumination off them onto your work surface. Now paint them all black, and that ambient illumination goes. Makes it harder to see what you are working on as you only get direct illumination from the overhead lights, with less fill-in for the dark shadows.

OK it's only a small difference - but it's a small difference in the wrong direction.

Very valid point.
 
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Offline ralphrmartin

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Re: Is Keysight changing colours? Beige to Black?
« Reply #30 on: November 30, 2016, 07:28:19 pm »
Disaster. Unreadable for old duffers like me with poor eyesight. Stop this black nonsense before it is too late.
 

Offline madires

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Re: Is Keysight changing colours? Beige to Black?
« Reply #31 on: November 30, 2016, 07:42:58 pm »
Will it be pink to attract female EEs next month? Or what about getting rid of all the switches and knobs by replacing them with a touchscreen?  :-//
 

Offline Fungus

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Re: Is Keysight changing colours? Beige to Black?
« Reply #32 on: November 30, 2016, 07:50:15 pm »
Disaster. Unreadable for old duffers like me with poor eyesight. Stop this black nonsense before it is too late.

Same goes for text editors (all busy changing to grey-on-black) and all those low-contrast websites.
 

Offline HighVoltage

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Re: Is Keysight changing colours? Beige to Black?
« Reply #33 on: November 30, 2016, 07:53:18 pm »
hopefully the N6705C in black will become a failed experiment and Keysight will stay with the very well established and working colors.

There are 3 kinds of people in this world, those who can count and those who can not.
 

Offline Wuerstchenhund

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Re: Is Keysight changing colours? Beige to Black?
« Reply #34 on: December 01, 2016, 03:38:42 pm »
I just noticed Keysight quietly launched the N6705C - apparently an updated model of the N6705 (a/b) series (my) dream power supply :) (http://www.keysight.com/en/pd-2747858-pn-N6705C/dc-power-analyzer-modular-600-w-4-slots?nid=-35714.1195294.00&cc=GB&lc=eng)

But it is BLACK?

And then I noticed the new N9020B MXA Signal analyzer - and that is black too? (http://www.keysight.com/en/pdx-2642774-pn-N9020B/mxa-signal-analyzer-multi-touch-10-hz-to-265-ghz?cc=US&lc=eng)

That is black too?

Yes, it's black. And not exactly well done I have to say. The new MXA has been discussed here some while ago.

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Whats up with all the black?

I guess someone in Keysight got bored and imagined that customers would like to see some new colors.

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usually LeCroy does "Back in Black"

Yes, they do, however at least they do it right, with optical and haptic cues (like the silver rings on the knobs) that make operating their scopes even in an environment with insufficient lighting easy. Keysight however pretty much changed the color but clearly paid zero attention to any impact this has on usability/Human Factors  :--

LeCroy also didn't change to black just for the sake of it, the black housing marked the introduction of the X-Stream II architecture which was kinda big deal.

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or do they want to be unnoticed when they enter a LeCroy only facility? (Engineers smuggling in Keysight without management noticing?...)

Hardly, since LeCroy has very few other devices than scopes, and most labs will need more gear than just a scope so you won't find many LeCroy-only facilities.

Quote
Or is the future colour of Keysight all black...

My contacts say that unfortunately, yes, that seems to be the new corporate course.

As someone who regularly purcases large amounts of Keysight gear I have to say I wish they would have focused on addressing some of the areas where Keysight should do better instead of this pointless color change, especially when it comes with so little consideration to usability. Because the housing color was one thing that didn't need any fixing.

I'd have rather seen some real product improvements, like a DSOX replacement with 10+Mpts of memory and larger screens. Oh well.

But hey, now that Keysight's future is dark maybe they should change their name accrdingly - KeyBlind?  :-DD
 

Offline XFDDesign

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Re: Is Keysight changing colours? Beige to Black?
« Reply #35 on: December 01, 2016, 04:49:15 pm »
It's not black, it's "Equipment of Color."

/PC Nonsense
 
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Offline GlowingGhoul

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Re: Is Keysight changing colours? Beige to Black?
« Reply #36 on: December 01, 2016, 04:58:32 pm »

But hey, now that Keysight's future is dark maybe they should change their name accrdingly - KeyBlind?  :-DD

Considering Keysight's snack bar budget is larger than Lecroy's yearly sales, I don't think it's Keysight that is going to disappear anytime soon.

As far as the switch to black, it looks like Keysight copied the only "technological achievement" of Lecroy's worth imitating  :-DD
 

Offline LabSpokane

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Re: Is Keysight changing colours? Beige to Black?
« Reply #37 on: December 01, 2016, 05:51:51 pm »
Keysight will go back to beige once they see the huge scrap and tooling change costs needed to make black plastics pass QC inspection. Black shows every flaw. It's a production nightmare. I've worked extensively with HP plastics in the past, and black is just a bear with HP's instrumentation group's quality criteria.

As for the quality of the plastic, black is the physically strongest color in a resin besides uncolored natural resin. It takes an amazingingly small amount of pigment to create a deep, black color. Creating a lighter color, such as beige takes a lot of titanium dioxide, which results in a weaker plastic as compared to uncolored resin of the same grade.

The black trend will go on for a bit, then it will go back to beige as a cost reduction measure. The folks currently in charge are likely just too new to know why beige was used to begin with.
 

Offline carl_lab

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Re: Is Keysight changing colours? Beige to Black?
« Reply #38 on: December 01, 2016, 08:20:56 pm »
Changing name from HP to Agilent was a mistake. Getting used to it took years.
Changing the name again to Keysight was next mistake. Who knows Keysight?
Is changing color the last attempt before disappearing from market? :palm:
« Last Edit: December 01, 2016, 09:45:45 pm by carl_lab »
 

Offline LabSpokane

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Re: Is Keysight changing colours? Beige to Black?
« Reply #39 on: December 01, 2016, 09:28:37 pm »
The world is not ending. Keysight is not failing. The instrumentation group are the only hard-core engineering innovators left from HP's glory days. Keysight stock is doing well and hopefully Keysight will continue that trend as they learn to stand on their own. 

Font and type size changes on overlays and printing cliches are cheap and easy to implement. Maybe Daniel will see the comments and convince the graphic designer to bump the type size up a notch.

This branding change is not a big deal. Maybe KS will learn to stop worrying about nit picky cosmetic issues and be more pragmatic. It could happen.

I actually like the improved contrast of the black background.
 

Offline Jwalling

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Re: Is Keysight changing colours? Beige to Black?
« Reply #40 on: December 01, 2016, 09:34:39 pm »

As far as the switch to black, it looks like Keysight copied the only "technological achievement" of Lecroy's worth imitating  :-DD

You just couldn't help yourself, could you? :--
Jay

System error. Strike any user to continue.
 

Online tszaboo

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Re: Is Keysight changing colours? Beige to Black?
« Reply #41 on: December 01, 2016, 09:35:04 pm »
Well, that is ugly. I guess computers used to be beige. But not anymore.
 

Offline plesa

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Re: Is Keysight changing colours? Beige to Black?
« Reply #42 on: December 01, 2016, 10:02:52 pm »
Can confirm the slow (but inevitable) shift to darker colors. It won't be straight black - there's some potential flexibility for the R&D teams.

I'm looking forward for 3458A successor and next break thru scope in price range of 3kX series:)
 Does not matter if it will be beige/white/grey/black.
What is important for me : user interface-ergonomic, specification and quality of service.
 

Offline RGB255_0_0

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Re: Is Keysight changing colours? Beige to Black?
« Reply #43 on: December 01, 2016, 10:29:12 pm »
Will it be pink to attract female EEs next month? Or what about getting rid of all the switches and knobs by replacing them with a touchscreen?  :-//
They've gone to voice control now. At least it's useful.
Your toaster just set fire to an African child over TCP.
 

Online Bud

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Re: Is Keysight changing colours? Beige to Black?
« Reply #44 on: December 01, 2016, 10:52:49 pm »
A Keysight voice controlled instrument enthusiast:
" OK Keysight Dee-Ess-O-Eks-Thirty-one-zero-four-zee, ten millivolts per division , AC coupling! "

Me with my dumb Tek scope:
click...click

Facebook-free life and Rigol-free shack.
 

Offline Keysight DanielBogdanoff

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Re: Is Keysight changing colours? Beige to Black?
« Reply #45 on: December 01, 2016, 11:18:08 pm »
A Keysight voice controlled instrument enthusiast:
" OK Keysight Dee-Ess-O-Eks-Thirty-one-zero-four-zee, ten millivolts per division , AC coupling! "

Me with my dumb Tek scope:
click...click


 :-DD
 

Offline bson

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Re: Is Keysight changing colours? Beige to Black?
« Reply #46 on: December 02, 2016, 01:33:11 am »
That's gonna look great next to my LeCroy gear! :-DD
 

Offline Someone

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Re: Is Keysight changing colours? Beige to Black?
« Reply #47 on: December 02, 2016, 01:45:21 am »
Considering Keysight's snack bar budget is larger than Lecroy's yearly sales, I don't think it's Keysight that is going to disappear anytime soon.
Do you know if any of their sites offer free food? The only mention I can think of is:
Quote from: Keysight UK
Cafeteria: From gourmet dishes to salads and sandwiches, all at subsidized prices.
While Lecroy promote:
Quote from: Lecroy
Teledyne LeCroy is a strong, talented technical community known for its creative, energized sales meetings, family oriented picnics, lavish holiday parties, frequent barbecue & volleyball get-togethers, and pizza lunches.
I know where I would prefer working!
 

Online tszaboo

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Re: Is Keysight changing colours? Beige to Black?
« Reply #48 on: December 02, 2016, 01:11:01 pm »
A Keysight voice controlled instrument enthusiast:
" OK Keysight Dee-Ess-O-Eks-Thirty-one-zero-four-zee, ten millivolts per division , AC coupling! "

Me with my dumb Tek scope:
click...click
My voip phone is plugged into ethernet, my multimeter is plugged into ethernet, I dont see a reason, why I cannot just call the multimeter to read the measurement value...
 

Offline MrWolf

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Re: Is Keysight changing colours? Beige to Black?
« Reply #49 on: December 02, 2016, 01:25:34 pm »
My voip phone is plugged into ethernet, my multimeter is plugged into ethernet, I dont see a reason, why I cannot just call the multimeter to read the measurement value...

In 10 years time multimeter might decide not to answer your call because humans are frankly... obsolete...

 


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