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spiderman0616

Suspended
Aug 1, 2010
5,670
7,491
I also like Dave2D. Your selection above is OK until you mention iJustine. She’s too silly for me.
iJustine is a fan of absolutely everything she talks about so I take all her reviews with a grain of salt, but I do like her unboxing videos because they’re just fun. I get pretty excited about that stuff too.
 

darthaddie

macrumors regular
Sep 20, 2018
171
210
Planet Earth
Every channel does one thing right. The other videos are usually clickbait with an additional topping of pure homegrown, synthesized organic, free range BS. Watch it for what makes sense and ignore for the rest.
 

JM

macrumors 601
Nov 23, 2014
4,082
6,373
Nothing like a video like this to really make the expensive purchase not seem worth it 😭

 

JamesMay82

macrumors 65816
Oct 12, 2009
1,242
995
I think their videos themselves are fine, it’s just the titles that get on my nerves.
Especially since I’ve noticed more than once them change video titles hours after the video released to something even more click-bate.
Makes it quite annoying when they upload a really good video, and then I go to find it again to show someone and… Oops, now it’s got the most horrendous video title imaginable.
“STOP! Do NOT Buy the NEW $599 M2 Mac mini.. 🤦”
“iPhone 14 Pro Camera is BAD? (vs Pixel 7 Pro & S22 Ultra!)”
“iPhone 14 Pro Camera got WORSE? No.. (Sorry MKBHD)”
“CONFIRMED! Apple is Leaving China! Here's Why..”
“iPhone 15 Pro LEAKS: Why Android doesn’t stand a chance!”
“Intel just KILLED the M2 Max chip before it even released..”
“Why ALL M1 Chip-Killers have FAILED (& will continue to)”
Not only are the titles dumb, they’re contradictory as well.
Intel just destroyed the M2… But nothings surpassing the M1.
Samsung is going to invent the iPhone killer! But the iPhone 15 is going to destroy the competition.
It’s just…. weird and so obviously fake.
These plus the ones where they recommend and then next week they don’t recommend and then the following week they’ve changed their mind video comes out 🤦‍♂️
 

snak-atak

macrumors 6502
Mar 9, 2022
252
742
Yeah I’m not subscribed to them, far from it. I subscribe to a very few YT channels actually. Their coverage of M2 MacBook Air and the SSD “issue” frankly pissed me of because they made it sound like the laptop is slow for majority of users when in reality it’s like the best thin and light laptop one could buy (at least imho). Now when M2 Mini and M2 MacBook Pros came out I watched some of their videos again, seemed more tame, but I’m not sure. I’m not very technical person, I don’t care about benchmarks and deep dives in specs. I care much more about overall user experience and real world performance. That’s why I’m subscribed to different YT channels to get my main reviews. But I do use some processor and memory intensive apps so I’m interest in avoiding making mistakes in configurations I buy. Would be sad to buy some config just to find out that it’s not enough because Apple cut corners.
They spew out video after video after video. Usually the first is a regurgitation of the official announcement, the next is a generic benchmark video, and then the following videos are about the issues that have been reported by others and not discovered themselves. And they stretch them out when it could be summarized in a minute or two, or not at all.

I initially found some of their DIY videos useful, but honestly cannot stand the guys over excited tone. He tries to make every single word sound so important. So much so that nothing sounds important in the end.
 

Unregistered 4U

macrumors G3
Jul 22, 2002
9,937
7,860
Every channel does one thing right. The other videos are usually clickbait with an additional topping of pure homegrown, synthesized organic, free range BS. Watch it for what makes sense and ignore for the rest.
I checked a few of my favorite channels and it appears that those under half a million (even moreso, under 100,000) CAN still provide calm reasoned information with no clickbait. I say CAN because there are some down there that are trying their darndest to ride that algorithm wave :)

Some have given up trying to get the YouTube ad revenue altogether and focus on Patreon. Again, that means fewer subscriptions for them, but I think if it helps them to keep themselves NOT beholden to the algorithm, then good for them.
 

Unregistered 4U

macrumors G3
Jul 22, 2002
9,937
7,860
I can’t stand all this criticism. This is how they make a living. Can’t fault them for that. Just because people here are smarter, more knowledgeable, and make a ton more money, doesn’t mean you should be tearing these guys down.
Well… I mean… lawyers make a living, too. Or whatever the “chided occupation of the month is”. Ponzi schemers, maybe? And I think, yeah, you can fault people for what they CHOOSE to do. Especially when they accept “click baiting” as a part of their job duties.
 

boss.king

macrumors 603
Apr 8, 2009
6,142
6,900
I can’t stand all this criticism. This is how they make a living. Can’t fault them for that. Just because people here are smarter, more knowledgeable, and make a ton more money, doesn’t mean you should be tearing these guys down.
The fact that they make videos that mislead people who don’t know better is reason enough to criticise them. If they want to review tech professionally, they have a responsibility to actually do a good job.
 

anakin44011

macrumors regular
Jan 6, 2004
207
770
The fact that they make videos that mislead people who don’t know better is reason enough to criticise them. If they want to review tech professionally, they have a responsibility to actually do a good job.
You mean like all those "professional" tech journalists who said that the iPhone would be a flop, or who fawned over the trashcan Mac Pro innovation, or who conveniently discounts the biblical fan noise coming from an Intel laptop trying to run a MS Teams call? Etc. Etc.

Anyone who spends any time on YouTube has to understand/tolerate the sensationalist titles and pick apart the wheat from the chaff.

MaxTech runs a lot of benchmarks and a fair amount of quasi-real world applications. None of them will match your true real world experience, nor tell you how many minutes of seconds you'll really save spending all that $$ on that extra RAM or storage...but ultimately it is up to you to decide how to spend your money.

That said...NOBODY should be shamed for spending or not spending their money on tech. Just enjoy it!!
 
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sam_dean

Suspended
Sep 9, 2022
1,262
1,090
Nothing like a video like this to really make the expensive purchase not seem worth it 😭

I actually found that screenshot humorous.

I wouldn't click on it as I'm not deviating from an iPhone. Did that before and it was an expensive mistake. For the purpose of learning Android no one needs to spend more than the cost of a burner phone. Buying flaghips to learn is burning money away.

For those who are more flexible on what brand they buy next would find this video useful especially if they want watch something with a comedic or light hearted bent.
 
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boss.king

macrumors 603
Apr 8, 2009
6,142
6,900
You mean like all those "professional" tech journalists who said that the iPhone would be a flop, or who fawned over the trashcan Mac Pro innovation, or who conveniently discounts the biblical fan noise coming from an Intel laptop trying to run a MS Teams call? Etc. Etc.

Anyone who spends any time on YouTube has to understand/tolerate the sensationalist titles and pick apart the wheat from the chaff.

MaxTech runs a lot of benchmarks and a fair amount of quasi-real world applications. None of them will match your true real world experience, nor tell you how many minutes of seconds you'll really save spending all that $$ on that extra RAM or storage...but ultimately it is up to you to decide how to spend your money.

That said...NOBODY should be shamed for spending or not spending their money on tech. Just enjoy it!!
I criticise plenty of "professional" tech journalists for their bad coverage and reviews too, so that's not really a good argument.

And yes, MaxTech run lots of benchmarks but then rely only on those results (regardless of whether they ran them properly or not, see the M2 Air coverage where they complained about heat in benchmarking after they had removed and badly reseated the heatsink and thermally compromised the machine) rather than taking a more common sense approach.

Going by their reviews, my M2 Air should have burned my house down by now, but I've never even felt it get warm. Bad tests, bad conclusions, bad review, bad channel.
 

Analog Kid

macrumors G3
Mar 4, 2003
8,871
11,414
I can’t stand all this criticism. This is how they make a living. Can’t fault them for that. Just because people here are smarter, more knowledgeable, and make a ton more money, doesn’t mean you should be tearing these guys down.

The same argument could be made about the corner crack dealer...
 

sam_dean

Suspended
Sep 9, 2022
1,262
1,090
I can’t stand all this criticism. This is how they make a living. Can’t fault them for that. Just because people here are smarter, more knowledgeable, and make a ton more money, doesn’t mean you should be tearing these guys down.
YouTubers position themselves in their respective niche audience.

They want the most number of views but they will not make all people happy all the time.

The shtick they do is reflective of the people subscribing to them. So if the "review" is rereading the press release using the words the YouTuber grew up with then it will be that.

If their production value approaches those of Hollywood then it means people watch it for that.

If I wanted a professional report in a style for upper management I'd go to Anandtech and go to the page where specific metrics are mentioned like power consumer or performance per watt. Sadly that site have downscaled that as there is not much of an audience for it. As time moves forward people will want things done their way and not our way.

I subscribe to LGR (originally an initialism of Lazy Game Reviews) for old computer "reviews". He does not provide any benchmarks or the like but I like that he sometimes upgrades his pre-Y2K PCs with SSDs to make em zip through cold boots, restarts and shutdowns.

Seeing DOS/Windows programs magically run without the creeking of sub-1GB HDD spindle noise is just so entertainingly weird.
 
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TechnoMonk

macrumors 68000
Oct 15, 2022
1,693
2,281
I criticise plenty of "professional" tech journalists for their bad coverage and reviews too, so that's not really a good argument.

And yes, MaxTech run lots of benchmarks but then rely only on those results (regardless of whether they ran them properly or not, see the M2 Air coverage where they complained about heat in benchmarking after they had removed and badly reseated the heatsink and thermally compromised the machine) rather than taking a more common sense approach.

Going by their reviews, my M2 Air should have burned my house down by now, but I've never even felt it get warm. Bad tests, bad conclusions, bad review, bad channel.
Garbage in-->Garbage out.
 

TechnoMonk

macrumors 68000
Oct 15, 2022
1,693
2,281
You mean like all those "professional" tech journalists who said that the iPhone would be a flop, or who fawned over the trashcan Mac Pro innovation, or who conveniently discounts the biblical fan noise coming from an Intel laptop trying to run a MS Teams call? Etc. Etc.

Anyone who spends any time on YouTube has to understand/tolerate the sensationalist titles and pick apart the wheat from the chaff.

MaxTech runs a lot of benchmarks and a fair amount of quasi-real world applications. None of them will match your true real world experience, nor tell you how many minutes of seconds you'll really save spending all that $$ on that extra RAM or storage...but ultimately it is up to you to decide how to spend your money.

That said...NOBODY should be shamed for spending or not spending their money on tech. Just enjoy it!!
Fraud Benchmarks at worst, ignorant at best.
 
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RedOctober

macrumors regular
Mar 14, 2015
191
521
West side of Oz
Going by their reviews, my M2 Air should have burned my house down by now, but I've never even felt it get warm. Bad tests, bad conclusions, bad review, bad channel.

Thanks to their fear mongering in part, I changed my mind on a MBAir M2 to a refurbished MBPro M1 Pro 16/512 base model instead. It was a bit of an overkill for my use case but not regretting it. Saved a bit of money and have fast SSD. Their videos have been useful after all....
 

ian87w

macrumors G3
Feb 22, 2020
8,704
12,636
Indonesia
I never understand people hating of Max Tech. Sure, they can bit very clickbaity sometimes, but that's the nature of youtube algorithm. If you guys notice, even MKBHD's thumbnails and titles are leaning towards more clickbaity nowadays. Many youtubers said it's not they they like it, it's just they found that youtube algorithm prefers those clickbaity titles and thumbnails. Cannot help it if you make money from youtube.

As for the content, I really like Maxtech's attempt to fully test things out. Compare to other youtubers who basically just do an unboxing, talk for a few minutes of the same checklist as the manufacturer website, and then call it a review.
 

Ethosik

Contributor
Oct 21, 2009
7,802
6,716
I never understand people hating of Max Tech. Sure, they can bit very clickbaity sometimes, but that's the nature of youtube algorithm. If you guys notice, even MKBHD's thumbnails and titles are leaning towards more clickbaity nowadays. Many youtubers said it's not they they like it, it's just they found that youtube algorithm prefers those clickbaity titles and thumbnails. Cannot help it if you make money from youtube.

As for the content, I really like Maxtech's attempt to fully test things out. Compare to other youtubers who basically just do an unboxing, talk for a few minutes of the same checklist as the manufacturer website, and then call it a review.
Fully test things out? We need more people to see this:

https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...out-max-tech-yt-channel.2378896/post-31924311

Their “slow SSD” narrative made me stop watching them. Please just speak to professionals. I’m here with a 2010 Mac Pro running 250 MB/s and able to do my work just fine.
 

Unregistered 4U

macrumors G3
Jul 22, 2002
9,937
7,860
They want the most number of views but they will not make all people happy all the time.
And actually NOT making people happy all the time is how you keep the gravy train going! So, even if the YouTuber doesn’t care much about one thing or another, you can BET they’re going to pick a side for that sweet sweet engagement!
 
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TechnoMonk

macrumors 68000
Oct 15, 2022
1,693
2,281
Thanks to their fear mongering in part, I changed my mind on a MBAir M2 to a refurbished MBPro M1 Pro 16/512 base model instead. It was a bit of an overkill for my use case but not regretting it. Saved a bit of money and have fast SSD. Their videos have been useful after all....
Wait till next year when there is a new feature supported by M2 hardware or above. This place will go nuts complaining why a 3 year old computer doesn’t support latest features.
 

sam_dean

Suspended
Sep 9, 2022
1,262
1,090
And actually NOT making people happy all the time is how you keep the gravy train going! So, even if the YouTuber doesn’t care much about one thing or another, you can BET they’re going to pick a side for that sweet sweet engagement!
Agreed! For Filipino audience there's a YouTuber trend called "Pinoy Baiting"

Essentially it's a white guy/girl from a rich country flying into the Philippines and doing typical activities that 84.1% of adults who make $5k/year or less do. They then give their feedback and often times their approval. Naturally the Filipinos watching it would be elated that a white person from a rich country loves doing things poor Pinoys do.

It makes them feel nice. It is so popular that our version of the IRS wants to tax em and our version of ICE wants to find and deport them.

Like say eat Filipino food like balut that on the face of it is really disgusting even for locals.



It's all about the $$$...

How else can MKBHD afford his Tesla and other nice cars?

Back in 2015 I spoke to Huawei marketing about vloggers and review channels and he said that they look at metrics.

Such as number of

- subscribers
- total views of the whole channel
- views per video of the past 52 weeks
- up votes & downvotes
- comments both negative and positive

They also sample the video reviews of devices their rivals push to see if they deviate off script in a positive or negative way.

It's all quantitative. Some on-camera behaviors they used to do that is their signature may have slowly disappeared may be based on the YouTube algo or statistical report on when the user closed the video or not.
 
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Think77

macrumors regular
Apr 14, 2015
187
169
Their “slow SSD” narrative made me stop watching them. Please just speak to professionals. I’m here with a 2010 Mac Pro running 250 MB/s and able to do my work just fine.
Agree - it seems like they could choose their wordings more carefully and more precisely. And it’s a shame. But I honestly think that they, for the most part, want to bring value to their viewers. And they often time succeed in that. But it’s just how youtube works; there’s little outside quality control of the content, and it’s up to the viewers whether they want to watch a video, and whether they value the content. It’s free market bonanza. Not truly my cup of tea, especially because I have kids, and there’s so much stupid content in there that at best is a waste of time. But personally I still find value in many channels, and I hope my brain is able to distinguish between good and bad content 😊
 

sam_dean

Suspended
Sep 9, 2022
1,262
1,090
Fully test things out? We need more people to see this:

https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...out-max-tech-yt-channel.2378896/post-31924311

Their “slow SSD” narrative made me stop watching them. Please just speak to professionals. I’m here with a 2010 Mac Pro running 250 MB/s and able to do my work just fine.
My 2012 iMac 27" 22nm is limited to SATA <500MB/s. Anything >1.5GB/s is a godsend.

Hence my wondering why 8GB RAM & 256GB SSD need that much read/write throughput.
 
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