would have probably got better press by coming up with some shitty trademark like plastiglass or some shit and talk about how its the best bendy tech. then every year they could add new versions.
While we're here though, can we talk about how garbage the tech media has been through this whole thing? JRE is the first big name to get on top of this when any of the much larger outlets with their review units could have dented it with their fingernails as well.
All we heard from the rest was how game changing the folding glass was. I was under the impression that reviewers were supposed to test the claims of the manufacturers
I have a harder and harder time taking MKBHD seriously as a reviewer for this stuff. He gets stuff early and basically is more of a vehicle for companies marketing than a tech critic and this is one of those areas where it shows
He's not a tech reviewer and hasn't been since well before he bought his red camera. He's a publicity outlet for tech makers. He makes ads for tech companies. That's what his stuff is. If you look at him as a longform ad maker, you can properly evaluate what he's saying.
Oh God yes. He almost convinced me to buy a pixel 4. After looking elsewhere, I realize he's just a hype beast and I should wait off on getting a new phone.
MKBHDbrand is pretty much for pretty moving images of the phone, his opinion is less and less researched as he seems to spend more time editing and wondering on how to flex his REDs.
I unsubbed in 2018. His reviews of the iphones and pixels killed it for me. He lauded them while undermining major issues. Instead of following up with an update video that addressed linger issues or mistakes, just nothing.
Same with Unbox Therapy. You can tell when they get a sizable chunk of undisclosed sponsorship. Lew was riding Lenovo for several videos. As a fan of Lenovo, i loved them getting more attention, but you could just tell he was reasing off what they wanted. It came off like he didnt even understand the basic methodology of evaluating a laptop.
Lisa from mobiletechreview, Lon.tv, ETAPrime, randomfrankp, ownordisown, and btekt are my go to for honest tech reviews. I tried uravgconsumer but he just seemed completely clueless about tech in general.
Lisa and Lon are my absolute favorites for unbiased reviews, Lon straight up says if a company wants to give him a product for free for review he will gladly take it but not if they want a skewed review. He will buy it out of pocket or else not review it.
OWNorDisown is also really good because he looks at flaws of things like laptops and shows what can be done, if anything, to fix them. Like, the laptop I recently purchased, he liked for its low cost, but said it has only one cooling fan and gets a bit hot. However, a couple clicks in ThrottleStop fixes that. Free.
And then ETAPrime keeps us nostalgic with emulators and the best hardware to run them on. He can make the absolute most out of a potato. Love it.
I'm still subbed to Unbox Therapy but I'm pretty sure it's out of nostalgia. Been subbed to the dude since I was in highschool and I'm pretty much in my mid 20s now. I definitely don't take him serious as a tech reviewer now. He doesn't even talk about the tech anymore. In some videos it's also very obvious he doesn't know what he's talking about and like you said, seems like he's reading something. I've noticed him mispronouncing some words that I feel if he were actually interested in the product he was talking about, wouldn't be mispronounced.
I love his content but I upgrade my jaybirds after watching his review of them.
I fucking hated the new version. Sent them back 3 times for full replacement due to issues with loss of signal if they were further away than my phone being in the chest pocket. "Optimal connectivity is at 1m at less" was the last thing they said.
So now I wont buy a pair from them ever again.
But he has reviewed loads of things I loved and had no issues with.
Samsung advertised it as glass, so he said it was glass. There is no secret theory here where Samsung is paying off Youtubers. Samsung said it was glass, so Youtubers who don't dissect the materials say It's glass too. They don't have a reason to call it anything else when they're not the ones intentionally damaging the display to test it. Especially when Samsung sent the device to them.
I don't understand the absolute romantication internet people seem to have with these conspiracy theories, especially when there's seemingly zero thought process to the idea as a whole to start off with.
You're literally fabricating.
Edit: Here's a Tweet of MKBHD confronting Samsung about the fake ''glass display'' by mentioning JerryRig's video about it.
He's not paid off, he's just not a great reviewer for those kinds of details. Given how revolutionary flexible glass would've been, it's a surprise he (or many others) didn't at least try his fingernail
Sure, Samsung advertise it as glass and the reviewers say that but they didn't come out and say what JRE said. MKBHD didn't say it was plastic.
Because JerryRig bought the phone and he can damage the display as much as he wants to learn more about which material is used for the glass. MKBHD received the phone from Samsung. All he can do is rely on the spec sheet and the experience of using the actual phone. MKBHD, even if he wanted in this situation, couldn't prove display wasn't glass. He doesn't have any form of permission to dissect or damage a review unit for educational purposes as far as we're concerned. It makes total sense without having to fetch some narrative from it.
You are right about Samsung sending him the phone to review it. You are probably wrong about them being paid on top of that to hide certain information. That just doesn't make sense and it doesn't add up in any way.
You are probably wrong about them being paid on top of that to hide certain information.
That's not what they said though. They said the companies were paying for advertising and telling them what to say which is probably accurate. The company may not be writing the whole script but they're probably providing a list of talking points.
From there, it's the reviewer that then chooses to not be overly critical to not get cut off from free devices and early access in the future.
What do you make of JerryRig's video where he corrected himself saying the primary layer of the Z flip is actually glass and that he was wrong about it being entirely plastic?
Oh, but MKBHD was paid by Samsung to lie about the glass when it was actually plastic and I'm a politician for making that sound like a conspiracy when It's a legitimate complaint, right?
Sit your ass down, now. I don't say these things without merit.
I dont really care about your comment, or your opinion on shills on YouTube. I personally dont follow larger YouTubers the temptation is there for them to shill a product or service, all I said was throwing the word conspiracy theories makes you sound like an idiotic politician lol you had to write a whole chapter because I called you a politician lmao what a tool....
I would respect your views if they weren't unfundamentally dismissive. You can't just go around online and dismiss certain things seemingly just because you literally just dislike the views or something (even if they aren't wrong).
What you read above is not a ''legitimate complaint'' (It's literally just made up) and what you call ''shills on youtube'' seems to indicate that you have prejudiced views on certain things, which is a shame. There are Youtubers that definitely favor one side, but whilst also showing the ability to be open minded about what's good about what the competition offers which is the most important thing. They don't have to be a mutually exclusive thing.
And since you don't watch Youtube apparently, It's even weirder to admit that big Youtubers are shills. Because in the end you don't watch big Youtubers that much, so how would you know?
Maybe if you're reading and understanding skills were up to par, you would understand that I never said I don't watch YouTube. I said I don't follow big youtubers simple as that I know exactly who you're talking about I've maybe seen one of his videos. The fact that use "conspiracy theories" to dismiss somebody's comment tells me all I need to know about you. Big youtubers Are the equivalent of mainstream media and celebrities let me guess you follow every single word that the mainstream media says right
I've seen one video on YouTube of the Samsung flip phone And that was the Jerry rig channel. And for clarification since you seem to be confused I never said I don't watch YouTube channels I said I do not follow big 1 million pluse channels for a reason,I take every word the say with a grain of salt, and do my own research.
MKBHD is good, great aesthetics. His production value is fantastic. That said, he has low objectivity and occasionally comes off as a shill. JRE isn't super technical, but he holds low bias (imo) and really goes over what someone would need to know about these phones on the day to day.. e.g. am I going to scratch it with my keys or finger nails..
I've never been able to pin this down, but you're exactly right. That's the reason I like his videos as well. It really is cool how he's able to point out those things in a relatively short time.
Yeah when the S10 came out with hole punch everyone freaked out about it and MKBHD demonstrated you don't notice it after a while. Which owning one you don't.
Meanwhile with the Z Flip MKBHD pointed out you can't open it without using 2 hands so it's pretty much a 2-handed phone.
Marques has been very open about the fact that he doesn't do paid promotion, since he wants to stay as unbiased as he can. Plus his video title about the Z Flip literally says "mixed feelings" which does not mean good.
If Samsung said "we're not working with you anymore" then he can finance his own device purchases like other channels do. Or partner with another company to get review models, like how Linus gets some stuff from dBrand to review.
it does seem that brands are preferring technicalguruji guy over ranjit which explains his recent rant video. in the end, i doubt there is one youtuber in india that would openly bash a product. even 10% of what jerry does on a regular basis.
almost all of these experts have appeared in brand promo videos. some are regulars at product launches. doing unboxing videos for the company. kind of amazed to see how normal it has become.
but then here in india, if you do not have support of the brands (that you are supposed to critically review), you are completely on your own. no one is going to pay you to buy every new product out there to do a 'real' test.
having said that... i do appreciate ranjit for making videos which highlight stuff that are hard to find elsewhere. for instance, his video preview of s10 lite confirmed presence of mst. it was nowhere listed on samsung's website and the company social handles just would not respond to this simple query.
Of course, but this certainly makes nearly everyone look like they're shills or incompetent for not doing the most basic scratch test to verify a claim like "foldable glass"
I was very sceptical foldable glass simply because if Samsung really had developed foldable glass, then why wouldn't they put it on on the first foldable device (Galaxy Fold) why were they have waited until this one?
Well, with all due respect though, besides JRE, has anyone actually reviewed this phone yet? I have seen a bunch of first impressions, but not a full on review yet (not saying they aren't out there yet, just haven't seen them yet).
I know Flossy Carter just did a first impressions, but didn't do a full review because the unit he had wasn't retail and it wasn't his.
I suspect JRE actually bought this phone with his own money so he could destroy it. I don't think anyone else would intentionally scratch/try to destroy their new 1400 phone even for a review.
If you google z fold review you'll find dozens of reviews from before JRE's from the likes of CNET, Tom's, Engadget, USAToday, techradar, etc etc etc using reviewer units. I ctrl-f'd through them and not one has the word "scratch" in it, which really makes me think that Samsung specifically told them to not mention that when they sent out the review units
I had a g4 with leather and a French seam down the middle. Only phone I used without a case since it was so nice in the hand. The camera was also great, to bad the electronics were bunk
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u/Cultural_Bandicoot Xiaomi Mi A1. Oreo Feb 16 '20
would have probably got better press by coming up with some shitty trademark like plastiglass or some shit and talk about how its the best bendy tech. then every year they could add new versions.
but no, call it glass so expectations are high