What’s Up With Elitist Tech Reviewers????

When I was younger I really enjoyed tech and watching tech videos. I changed my phones every few months. I had the very first iPhone. I had an original blackberry. I had the very first HTC android phone. I had the palm pre. I had one of the first Nokia windows phones. I’ve also owned every single iPhone model from 1st gen to 8. But i got older. My money and my time and my interests changed. I eventually became the old guy with the lowest model phone disinterested in upgrading. I have been using the last se for a couple years now and I needed an upgrade, mostly for longer lasting reasons. I thought “the 16e would work for me” and I went to YouTube to see what people had to say. I was bombarded with videos about how awful the phone was and what specs it didn’t have and how unimaginative it was and had no colors and only a 60hz screen and no MagSafe and only one camera and blah blah blah.

To me, the reality is that most people I know in the real world don’t need any of the flagship level specs and likely never have. My wife who uses tik tok and Facebook can’t tell the difference between a 60hz screen and a 120hz. My daughter who watches YouTube and takes pictures of the dogs doesn’t actually notice the resolution of her photos or the quality of the image stabilization. Most people put cases on their thin colorful phones and then them into big bricks of black plastic. Those same cases all HAVE TO have MagSafe built in due to their size and therefore the naked phone having the magnets is practically pointless since the majority of people don’t use a naked phone anymore since like 2009. And it’s beyond obnoxious to have people from reviewers to YouTube commentary ranting about how you can get the same specs for less money in a different ecosystem. That’s not the same specs to me bc it’s not the same experience. Most android people saying that despise the iPhone OS, so even if you have them an iPhone that bested their beloved android in every way they wouldn’t switch. And that’s my current boat with Apple. I’ve tried and I don’t want to switch. I like the Apple system. I like the way it feels. I am used to it and I’m happy with it. Belittling that choice bc you personally think android is better or bc the spec sheet on your galaxy review is more impressive is shortsighted and egocentric.

Anyway, the point of my rant is simply that I got this phone anyway despite all the reviewers making negative videos about it and acting like it was a boring piece of outdated garbage. For me it’s not only not outdated but it’s great. I think more people should just establish what their personal needs actually are and stop worrying about the flagship chasing ideology. My case has MagSafe but I don’t even need it bc I don’t seem to need to charge throughout the day. The phone is black but you wouldn’t even know if it was yellow or pink or green bc of that same case. I watch YouTube sparingly and the 60hz oled is beyond fine for that and surfing the web. I take few pictures and when I do they’re of my kid or dogs and not meant to be professional, but they still come out great anyway bc I’m not chasing moving creatures or mountain biking down through a huge forest. Service is great. WiFi and Bluetooth work great. The speakers are the loudest I’ve ever owned. And the price being unreasonable for the specs (as per reviewers) is entirely a personal decision for you to make. I mean everything has gotten more expensive so I truly don’t know how to tackle this, inflation is what it is. That being said my provider is basically giving it away for free or monthly payments that still only add up to half the msrp. So I can’t approach it as an overpriced $600 phone bc it’s not even costing me half of that. I don’t know a single person in my suburban life who would own this phone and feel slighted or dissatisfied. So yea it’s not a phone for young hip tech reviewers or old spec chasing relics. It’s not a phone for people fully committed to the android ecosystem. It’s likely not the best phone for people who use their phone to film professional level video or take pictures for professional purposes. Outside of that I’d be hard pressed to say who would actually use this daily and be upset or disappointed? I think more tech reviewers across the board would be better served by telling people what’s good about products and who would enjoy it rather than spending their time simply being negative about things that aren’t really that negative. If your beef is with reliability or parts quality in terms of durability or malfunction then that’s the stuff that deserves anger. But save the vitriol for something other than telling me a single 40mp camera is “horrible”. I grew up with a Nokia brick that played only snake. And I’ve used cell phones with 1mp cameras that looked worse than a Polaroid. Chill.

Thanks for coming to my Ted talk and letting me get this off my chest.