Probably has to suck-up inorder to get products early so his reviews can be viewed first. I wish all of these reviewers would be honest as Steve Burke (GamersNexus).

Not to defend him (can't really stand his videos at all) but he's not a journalist. He's just a freelance spokesman for products that will sponsor him.

Yes! He's literally done this ever since his first iPhone review. I think it was the iPhone 4s? Somewhere around that time...

MKBHD the tech reviewer and Louis Rossmann the tech repairer get the tech at different points in their life cycles. Does anyone expect MKBHD to open up a MacBook and start probing motherboard components? He reviews the form and function of new tech when they're polished and running at their peak. Louis sees them when something has gone wrong

I think it's clear he's a fan of Apple and Tesla but he does make negative statements about them, the Cyber truck was not a positive review and he always criticized the fit and finish of Teslas. And he critiques Apple's idiosyncracies like the proprietary charger and lack of calculator app on the iPad.

I guess my point is that he's not a journalist he's a reviewer, we are tuning in for his judgement, his opinion. If he personally likes the products from a certain company, that's not a bias that impacts his capacity to do his job well.

Like movie reviewer giving Pixar a bunch of 10/10 reviews, and then criticizing Cars 2 as a mediocre cash grab. Maybe they are biased for Pixar, or maybe Pixar just puts out a lot of good movies. As long as you're calling out the bad moves, that's what we want from a reviewer.

The fair concern is when he gets exclusive access like this, I don't necessarily care about the puff piece interview but you hope it doesn't influence his future reviews.

MKBHD is still responsible for spreading advertorials.

Reminds me of Pokemon. I skipped out on Scarlet and Violet (9th gen) because I knew it was going to carry the issues 8th gen had. Both generations still sold extremely well. 9th gen didn't review as well 8th gen but the reviews were still carried by nostalgia and not critical enough.

He is every harsh on manufacturers and OEMs when they do bad things. He gave up on being nice and I fully understand why. We need more regulations in the tech industry, especially around warranty claims.

His review on those AI gadgets were pretty scathing. Though, the claim here is that he is biased for Apple, not for whoever sends him devices.

He does great videos

Mbkhd's studio, talking/narrating skills, editing skills, and skills in explaining tech in simple terms are extremely high quality. He just needs to be more honest about famous companies.

Nah, just a workaholic IMO.

Every youtube reviewer’s goal is to be popular enough to be a paid shill. It’s money they’re after, not your praises.

absolutely.

There are lot of shills and a lot of sock-puppets that prop them up.

Prop them up? Occam's razor would imply that it is more-so people following trends than it is apple paying shills to get in the trenches and push lies.

they just have same pattern.

Why this isn’t obvious is just idk.

if it's so obvious, surely you can provide some tangible proof? Like I'm confident apple and every other company does this but the way you framed this take it seems to imply that is the main driver and the majority of positive sentiment is just bots or scripts, which is just absurd.

You think Apple is paying all the kids to clown on non-imessage bubble colors? Or is it more reasonable that there is something closer to a hive-mind in regards to what is trendy and popular/a status symbol?

I really don’t think large brands like Apple have that many paid shills. Apple has a large fan base and good marketing. People that like their devices just naturally repeat the marketing line because they don’t really know why they like the devices, Apple marketing just told them that is why it is good. And fanatics will spend mental energy defending them for no good reason

Lemmy and the fediverse have sizable Apple communities and Apple is definitely not paying anyone to shill here