I have some seriously mixed emotions about AC's website articles lately. On the one hand, there are some excellent and truly useful articles, including the recent one about android security, and of course the general "news" articles (such as announcing new products.)
On the other hand, I've started to notice that AC has posted several articles with titles similar to:
"Best XXXX for YYYY"
XXX might be "microSD card", "battery pack", "case" or any other accessory. "YYYY" is some flagship phone model such as a Nexus device, Samsung S7, etc.
These "Best" articles usually list a few different brands of whatever accessory is being talked about, and might list the advertised specs for the accessory. For example, it might state that Brand X SD cards can provide speeds up to 400 GB/s reading data. (Obviously, this isn't an exact quote.) Based on the title, it appears that AC is actually endorsing these specific products over other products for use in the specific phone.
The problem is that the author(s) of these articles don't seem to be doing ANY research for the articles beyond advertising material. No testing seems to be done, not in regards to the quoted specs and not even in regards to compatibility! I hope the owners and editors of AC realize that when an article like this is posted, it is DESTROYING the credibility of AC.
Why?
Well, imagine that I'm "John Doe" new android user, and I read on AC that Brand A sdcard is being recommended by AC as the best sdcard for MY phone, and that it'll give me 90MB/sec read performance. So, I go and buy Brand A sdcard based on this website saying it's "the best" for my phone. I get home from Best Buy (or get a delivery from Amazon) and stick the card into my phone, and find out that I really only get 10MB/sec of read performance. Or worse, I find out that there's a compatibility issue between that Brand A card and my phone. (I certainly won't be getting 90MB/sec from any SDcard in any current generation phone.)
What should my impression be, as a new android user, of AC now? I'd probably never visit the site again. I'd also likely distrust anything that linked back to this site. It reminds me of old PC magazine era scandals when certain paper publications would review and rank items - and the "winners" were always the ones that paid the most advertising dollars.
Is that what AC has become?
In regards to the SD cards... would it REALLY be difficult for AC to order a few different brands (they aren't expensive) and actually.. TEST them? How long would it REALLY take to pop in an SD card, format it, and run a quick benchmark? It'd give your "best of" articles much more credibility if you actually could print that the items suggested have been TESTED and you gave REAL performance numbers instead of the fictional "up to" advertising numbers.
The same thing for battery packs (though testing them would take considerably longer than testing microSD cards.)
Why not make AC a resource for good information?
Gary
On the other hand, I've started to notice that AC has posted several articles with titles similar to:
"Best XXXX for YYYY"
XXX might be "microSD card", "battery pack", "case" or any other accessory. "YYYY" is some flagship phone model such as a Nexus device, Samsung S7, etc.
These "Best" articles usually list a few different brands of whatever accessory is being talked about, and might list the advertised specs for the accessory. For example, it might state that Brand X SD cards can provide speeds up to 400 GB/s reading data. (Obviously, this isn't an exact quote.) Based on the title, it appears that AC is actually endorsing these specific products over other products for use in the specific phone.
The problem is that the author(s) of these articles don't seem to be doing ANY research for the articles beyond advertising material. No testing seems to be done, not in regards to the quoted specs and not even in regards to compatibility! I hope the owners and editors of AC realize that when an article like this is posted, it is DESTROYING the credibility of AC.
Why?
Well, imagine that I'm "John Doe" new android user, and I read on AC that Brand A sdcard is being recommended by AC as the best sdcard for MY phone, and that it'll give me 90MB/sec read performance. So, I go and buy Brand A sdcard based on this website saying it's "the best" for my phone. I get home from Best Buy (or get a delivery from Amazon) and stick the card into my phone, and find out that I really only get 10MB/sec of read performance. Or worse, I find out that there's a compatibility issue between that Brand A card and my phone. (I certainly won't be getting 90MB/sec from any SDcard in any current generation phone.)
What should my impression be, as a new android user, of AC now? I'd probably never visit the site again. I'd also likely distrust anything that linked back to this site. It reminds me of old PC magazine era scandals when certain paper publications would review and rank items - and the "winners" were always the ones that paid the most advertising dollars.
Is that what AC has become?
In regards to the SD cards... would it REALLY be difficult for AC to order a few different brands (they aren't expensive) and actually.. TEST them? How long would it REALLY take to pop in an SD card, format it, and run a quick benchmark? It'd give your "best of" articles much more credibility if you actually could print that the items suggested have been TESTED and you gave REAL performance numbers instead of the fictional "up to" advertising numbers.
The same thing for battery packs (though testing them would take considerably longer than testing microSD cards.)
Why not make AC a resource for good information?
Gary
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