Apparently engadget is too, what with lines like: "The iPhone has soared to become the ultimate smartphone, the must-have accessory that everyone from celebrities to your mom wants -- nay, needs -- to have in their pocket" in their review.
How's that for an objective standpoint to begin the review from.
That's exactly what I thought when I began to read the review, Nerdtalker. How am I supposed to believe the reviewer's opinion if he starts it out by an epic paragraph glorifying the iPhone. True, the phone is an amazing success, but it does NOT belong in this review.
Yeah, I didn't even read further than that. Obviously they're not even trying on being neutral or balanced on Engadget. When a review of a different product starts out like an iPhone advertisement, it's time to really wonder what the fuck is going on.
@Hashbrown Hunter - The reviewer may have glorified the iPhone, but that in no way means that he is lying or even writing fake information in the review. I am very finicky when it comes to phones, and definitely have gripes with the iPhone, but at the same time, the points that the reviewer hits on about this phone makes sense.
I type very quickly, and most times i get frustrated with the iPhone's keyboard for not recognizing my quick consecutive taps and inputing it as one. But just like the reviewer, I am sure I would go crazy if I were to wait for the screen to pop back up to type the next letter. Perhaps if you time it, on paper it may seem like not a big deal, but if you're tapping away on those keys, getting in 2-3 letters per second, even half a second completely destroys your rhythm.
Also, yes, the iPhone was a huge hit, and BECAUSE it was so huge it does have a place in this review. It is not like the iPhone is in the entire review, popping in constantly. The review is obviously on the Storm, giving lots of info on the device. Obviously the Storm's BIGGEST contender is the iPhone 3G, and when these companies create their phones they're trying to outdo the other companies, and when people are purchasing the phones, they are comparing multiple phones to choose the best one. So it definitely belongs at a certain point in this review, as that's what people want to know.
I can definitely say at least for myself, when I purchase something, I don't just want to know what the product is like, but I want to know what it is AND what's better about it than the other products it's competing with. I would like a reason why I should purchase THIS product rather than it's competition. If someone is reviewing the product, and the product has a close competitor as the Storm has with the iPhone, yes, I would very much appreciate the reviewer to compare the two.
Whenever the iPhone is mentioned in reviews, there are always comments like yours. But really, what would we do with reviews that only told you about the product itself? Well, for one, we wouldn't have a starting point; something to compare it against, so that we have a better idea of what the phone is like. If the iPhone does these things well, I would like this new device, that I may potentially have, to do better. Most people know what the iPhone is, how it works, what it does, and more importantly, one it does WELL, so it would not only make sense, but be good to compare the Storm against the iPhone (on top of the fact that... it's so obviously already meant to be compared anyways.. probably even from when RIM came up with the device). And two, if it weren't to be done in the review, we would end up taking two seperate reviews, one of the Storm and one of the iPhone, and comparing it ourselves.
Comparing is good. It makes for improvement and innovation.
*this comment is pretty long.. lol... sorry about that everyone
Well that's pathetic.. You couldn't read the review because they (rightfully) praised the iPhone?
And please tell me why it "didn't belong in this review".. No just kidding, don't waste my time. Just read this:
As Engadget already said the iPhone is THE most relevant aspect of this phone's review because the Storm was built from the ground up as a DIRECT competitor to IT. Not the Instinct, and not the Voyager. The one and only iPhone. They only bring up the buzz and success surrounding it because that's what the Storm is going up against as well. They can't just expect to kill the iPhone on paper, they need to break through the (undeserving or not, it doesn't matter at this point) intense hype surrounding it first. They point that out because if they give you a review and it comes up just even with the jesus phone you might be left with the impression that it succeeded, but sadly that's simply not enough. "On par" doesn't break through hype, you need a grand slam for that.. (and now you understand why - which was their original goal to begin with)
I know some of you still don't like Apple's little phone and I'm sure you never will, but come on, don't be so ignorant that just because YOU don't agree with Engadget's statement, you can't concede that the general smart phone buying public does.
Too bad he didn't compare how slow the iPhone is to load the callendar app when biatching about the 0.5 seconds he had to wait for the storm. Seriously, get a bit of perspective. My iPhone goes from Home to calendar in 4 seconds (yes 4 whole seconds) - SMS in 5 seconds contacts in 5. That, to me, suggests that the Storm is pretty fast.
Why are so many people complaining about how they compared it to the iPhone, but nobody seems to care that they compared it to the BlackBerry Bold? Neither one is the product being reviewed, and both are mentioned with similar frequency within the review.
All they're doing is comparing it to two of the most similar products on the market (similar in completely different ways) to say how it stacks up.
The only thing that I have a problem with in some of these reviews is that they all seem to be written from the perspective of an iPhone user, making comments about how hard it is to switch from being highly acclimated to the iPhone's touchscreen typing to something else, but this review is okay by me because they also compared it to switching from a physical QWERTY keyboard. Being a phone that is attempting to get the best of those two worlds, both of those comparisons are valid.
@David your points are kind of valid, but the article was a review, not a comparison. i understand you can't completely avoid it, but every feature set was a comparison to the iphone. not very objective, its obviously biased toward what the author is used to and comfortable with...
I am aware of this and I'm not some stupid anti-fan of the iPhone. I think it's a great device and many of my friends and family own one.
But with this websites repeated history of bias towards Apple in general, it doesn't help when they begin the review with the iPhone's march to success.
HP's Jon Rubenstein told us that his company wanted to veer in a new direction, and veer it surely did -- the HP Veer 4G will arguably be the smallest fully-functional smartphone on the market when it goes on sale May 15th.
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then i guess im still making sweet love with my iphone ^_^
Apparently engadget is too, what with lines like: "The iPhone has soared to become the ultimate smartphone, the must-have accessory that everyone from celebrities to your mom wants -- nay, needs -- to have in their pocket" in their review.
How's that for an objective standpoint to begin the review from.
That's exactly what I thought when I began to read the review, Nerdtalker. How am I supposed to believe the reviewer's opinion if he starts it out by an epic paragraph glorifying the iPhone. True, the phone is an amazing success, but it does NOT belong in this review.
Yeah, I didn't even read further than that. Obviously they're not even trying on being neutral or balanced on Engadget. When a review of a different product starts out like an iPhone advertisement, it's time to really wonder what the fuck is going on.
@Hashbrown Hunter - The reviewer may have glorified the iPhone, but that in no way means that he is lying or even writing fake information in the review. I am very finicky when it comes to phones, and definitely have gripes with the iPhone, but at the same time, the points that the reviewer hits on about this phone makes sense.
I type very quickly, and most times i get frustrated with the iPhone's keyboard for not recognizing my quick consecutive taps and inputing it as one. But just like the reviewer, I am sure I would go crazy if I were to wait for the screen to pop back up to type the next letter. Perhaps if you time it, on paper it may seem like not a big deal, but if you're tapping away on those keys, getting in 2-3 letters per second, even half a second completely destroys your rhythm.
Also, yes, the iPhone was a huge hit, and BECAUSE it was so huge it does have a place in this review. It is not like the iPhone is in the entire review, popping in constantly. The review is obviously on the Storm, giving lots of info on the device. Obviously the Storm's BIGGEST contender is the iPhone 3G, and when these companies create their phones they're trying to outdo the other companies, and when people are purchasing the phones, they are comparing multiple phones to choose the best one. So it definitely belongs at a certain point in this review, as that's what people want to know.
I can definitely say at least for myself, when I purchase something, I don't just want to know what the product is like, but I want to know what it is AND what's better about it than the other products it's competing with. I would like a reason why I should purchase THIS product rather than it's competition. If someone is reviewing the product, and the product has a close competitor as the Storm has with the iPhone, yes, I would very much appreciate the reviewer to compare the two.
Whenever the iPhone is mentioned in reviews, there are always comments like yours. But really, what would we do with reviews that only told you about the product itself? Well, for one, we wouldn't have a starting point; something to compare it against, so that we have a better idea of what the phone is like. If the iPhone does these things well, I would like this new device, that I may potentially have, to do better. Most people know what the iPhone is, how it works, what it does, and more importantly, one it does WELL, so it would not only make sense, but be good to compare the Storm against the iPhone (on top of the fact that... it's so obviously already meant to be compared anyways.. probably even from when RIM came up with the device). And two, if it weren't to be done in the review, we would end up taking two seperate reviews, one of the Storm and one of the iPhone, and comparing it ourselves.
Comparing is good. It makes for improvement and innovation.
*this comment is pretty long.. lol... sorry about that everyone
@David: tldr
Well that's pathetic.. You couldn't read the review because they (rightfully) praised the iPhone?
And please tell me why it "didn't belong in this review".. No just kidding, don't waste my time. Just read this:
As Engadget already said the iPhone is THE most relevant aspect of this phone's review because the Storm was built from the ground up as a DIRECT competitor to IT. Not the Instinct, and not the Voyager. The one and only iPhone. They only bring up the buzz and success surrounding it because that's what the Storm is going up against as well. They can't just expect to kill the iPhone on paper, they need to break through the (undeserving or not, it doesn't matter at this point) intense hype surrounding it first. They point that out because if they give you a review and it comes up just even with the jesus phone you might be left with the impression that it succeeded, but sadly that's simply not enough. "On par" doesn't break through hype, you need a grand slam for that.. (and now you understand why - which was their original goal to begin with)
I know some of you still don't like Apple's little phone and I'm sure you never will, but come on, don't be so ignorant that just because YOU don't agree with Engadget's statement, you can't concede that the general smart phone buying public does.
Too bad he didn't compare how slow the iPhone is to load the callendar app when biatching about the 0.5 seconds he had to wait for the storm. Seriously, get a bit of perspective. My iPhone goes from Home to calendar in 4 seconds (yes 4 whole seconds) - SMS in 5 seconds contacts in 5. That, to me, suggests that the Storm is pretty fast.
Why are so many people complaining about how they compared it to the iPhone, but nobody seems to care that they compared it to the BlackBerry Bold? Neither one is the product being reviewed, and both are mentioned with similar frequency within the review.
All they're doing is comparing it to two of the most similar products on the market (similar in completely different ways) to say how it stacks up.
The only thing that I have a problem with in some of these reviews is that they all seem to be written from the perspective of an iPhone user, making comments about how hard it is to switch from being highly acclimated to the iPhone's touchscreen typing to something else, but this review is okay by me because they also compared it to switching from a physical QWERTY keyboard. Being a phone that is attempting to get the best of those two worlds, both of those comparisons are valid.
@David
your points are kind of valid, but the article was a review, not a comparison. i understand you can't completely avoid it, but every feature set was a comparison to the iphone. not very objective, its obviously biased toward what the author is used to and comfortable with...
@ David:
I am aware of this and I'm not some stupid anti-fan of the iPhone. I think it's a great device and many of my friends and family own one.
But with this websites repeated history of bias towards Apple in general, it doesn't help when they begin the review with the iPhone's march to success.