[[!tag rant]]

I recently bought a Huey screen color calibration device. I haven't yet had time to set it up, but I opened the packaging. There was a lot of it.

Huey packaging

From top right (and outside in, when unpacking):

  • The cardboard box it was delivered in.
  • Bubble wrapping to protect things from bumps during transport.
  • A second cardboard box, this time with branding.
  • A clear plastic box, with branding. I have no idea why.
  • A third cardboard box, with more branding.
  • A second plastic box, to keep things in place inside the third cardboard box.
  • A couple of screen wipes. This is for marketing: they want me to try them so that I will buy more of them. Note that the two wipes are tightly packaged in, I guess, plastic, and then put inside a plastic bag, just to be sure.
  • A manual, on paper.
  • A CD-ROM.
  • A USB cable.
  • A desk stand.
  • The actual calibration device.

The only necessary things are the device and the USB cable. The desk stand is probably useful, and the CD-ROM probably contains useful things for many people.

The rest, however, is waste. Utter, total waste. Most of it is pointless waste: why are there five boxes protecting the little device?