Damn, Anandtech pretty much destroyed all Android smartphones in their iPhone 6s review...

[JHUFrank]

Anandtech is the last place on the internet I go looking for unbiased balanced reviews on. I mean when the owner is offered a job by Apple it stinks more then a hundred acres of manure, and the Apple reviews are notably very Pro Apple.

This. I have been following Anand since he was a little scupper and in general his group does a great job. However, I guarantee Anand still has either majority or controlling interest in his money making review site. As he is an Apple employee now, there is going to be a conflict of interest question at the very least. And Anand has been pro Apple for a very long time.

Mind you, I write this as a longtime apple user and fanboy. And I just ditched my iphone 6 plus in favor of a Moto X Pure 32 gig because I was sick and tired of the phone quality, cruddy keyboard and horrible digitizer on the device.

 

[I7guy]

Anandtech is the last place on the internet I go looking for unbiased balanced reviews on. I mean when the owner is offered a job by Apple it stinks more then a hundred acres of manure, and the Apple reviews are notably very Pro Apple.

It's not surprising Apple fans praise them and their reviews.. Apple is notorious for refusing support and disliking sites that are negative or critical towards them, yet this site was so pro Apple they offered its owner a job! Yeah it's the least trusted Apple review site on the net in my opinion.

Guess these are unsurprising opinions not that it matters. Apple already had their most successful launch ever and this review confirmed that under the covers Apple really went all out.

Don't worry this raises the bar in the competition as we all benefit, right?

 

[I7guy]

This. I have been following Anand since he was a little scupper and in general his group does a great job. However, I guarantee Anand still has either majority or controlling interest in his money making review site. As he is an Apple employee now, there is going to be a conflict of interest question at the very least. And Anand has been pro Apple for a very long time.

Mind you, I write this as a longtime apple user and fanboy. And I just ditched my iphone 6 plus in favor of a Moto X Pure 32 gig because I was sick and tired of the phone quality, cruddy keyboard and horrible digitizer on the device.

So you think the benchmarks and graphics were photoshopped and the authors were paid off to essentially lie?

 

[I7guy]

You can get on Apple's bad side just for reporting the truth. If the iPhone 6 series bend issue wasn't real then why did Apple bothered to fix it with stronger aluminum on iPhone 6S series.

http://www.computerbild.de/artikel/...BILD-An-open-letter-to-Tim-Cook-10953399.html

I guess the same thing could be said of samsungs flagship series or not picking on them as this post is intended to specifically be pejorative. If the performance was so great why did they bump the ram and cup specs?

 

[apolloa]

Guess these are unsurprising opinions not that it matters. Apple already had their most successful launch ever and this review confirmed that under the covers Apple really went all out.

Don't worry this raises the bar in the competition as we all benefit, right?

My opinion is unsurprising as it is true. NO device is perfect and for any reviewer to simply claim they can't find anything wrong is a clear reason of why they should find another job, or it is a clear example of a very pro manufacture website.

It doesn't raise any bar, it's a good phone yes, I mean I bought one, but it doesn't raise any bars. I say that because it does all that the iPhone 6 does, just has a faster CPU and a better camera, and the 3D Touch interface.

 

[I7guy]

My opinion is unsurprising as it is true. NO device is perfect and for any reviewer to simply claim they can't find anything wrong is a clear reason of why they should find another job, or it is a clear example of a very pro manufacture website.

It doesn't raise any bar, it's a good phone yes, I mean I bought one, but it doesn't raise any bars. I say that because it does all that the iPhone 6 does, just has a faster CPU and a better camera, and the 3D Touch interface.

So if the 6s didn't raise a bar, certainly then no recent phone has either. And then we can claim a lot of other sites have the same bias and etc because we don't like their opinions or thought the review was not negative enough.

 

[MRU]

At the end of the day its just an opinion from anandtech based on their own tests / perspectives. Its neither wrong or right universally just merely subjectivly.

To me no device i've bought this year has been perfect including the iPhone 6S Plus or the myriad of android handsets.

 

[mi7chy]

Thats not displays issue, but one of the camera. Display shows the colours that are encoded in the file. What camera encoded is what's being shown. I have S6 myself and all the UI is cartoonish and looks washed out in many cases. Oversaturated. I will take good IPS panel any day.

We're talking about cartoony colors so it doesn't matter if it's from the display which is baloney in your case or camera. Nice attempt moving the goal post though.

 

[lazard]

the real question is why are people taking reviews from Anandtech (or any other review site) as gospel?

 

[MRU]

the real question is why are people taking reviews from Anandtech (or any other review site) as gospel?

For same reason that many folks take the Bible as Gospel

J/k. I know what you mean and i agree. Its just subjective opinion & re-interpretation.

 

[apolloa]

So if the 6s didn't raise a bar, certainly then no recent phone has either. And then we can claim a lot of other sites have the same bias and etc because we don't like their opinions or thought the review was not negative enough.

I never said any did, they have brought a lot of great new features, but overall they have moved phones along but not raised any bars really. But I guess it all depends on your definition and level of and when the bar has been raised.
And I don't know of any other website where the owner portrayed Apple in such a pro positive can never do anything wrong everything else is rubbish, light, that they were offered a job by Apple!

As I said, when a writer or website claims "I cannot find anything wrong" with a device they are reviewing, they are biased or / and need to find another job, like work for Apple.

 

[Dmunjal]

The important thing to remember with the Nexus phones is they are basically loss-leaders to drive Android adoption, and some of their cost of ownership isn't really measured in dollars but rather in data. I don't think Google's goal is not to make money from hardware, where that is Apple's goal. Google's goal is to get people using Android so it can collect data on all your activities, habits, and other happenings, and then use that data to sell targeted ads. In this sense, they are better off selling the hardware at cost or close to cost, because their profits are derived elsewhere. You may be paying a lower price in dollars for the smartphone, but you are also paying with the data you let them mine from it. I'm not trying to make Google out to be a bad guy - but that is the quid pro quo. I use gmail and hangouts and I understand that I get a fantastic webmail and chat experience for the cost of $0 and letting Google mine data from whatever I pass through those services.

With Apple, they derive their profits from hardware sales. While they do have an ad platform, it is far different than Google's and they do not make much money from it. Indeed, Apple makes it a point and a feature that data is not mined from its users, and thereby it cannot be used to subsidize the cost of ownership.

When you compare the Nexus phones to iPhones this way, I think it makes clear that data mined from a user is worth about $200-300 (compare price difference between 16GB models of iPhone 6 and a Nexus 5X, or 64GB models of iPhone 6S Plus and Nexus 6P).

A Nexus user doesn't have to use Google services and an iPhone user can use mostly Google services.

Your statement makes it sound like Google only makes money off of advertising to Nexus users when they still make a ton of money from iPhone users. Maybe more.

The Nexus 6P is a hell of a phone for the price.

 

[I7guy]

I never said any did, they have brought a lot of great new features, but overall they have moved phones along but not raised any bars really. But I guess it all depends on your definition and level of and when the bar has been raised.
And I don't know of any other website where the owner portrayed Apple in such a pro positive can never do anything wrong everything else is rubbish, light, that they were offered a job by Apple!

As I said, when a writer or website claims "I cannot find anything wrong" with a device they are reviewing, they are biased or / and need to find another job, like work for Apple.

I made my purchase decision before this review came out and I rarely give reviews any weight because of exactly what you say (including but not limited to dxo mark and some other android focused sites), but the reaction is interesting.

 

[throwthedice]

I haven't read the entire review but when they say "all android devices", did they specifically mention taking Nexus 6p and/or Moto X pure into consideration?

 

[oneMadRssn]

A Nexus user doesn't have to use Google services and an iPhone user can use mostly Google services.

Your statement makes it sound like Google only makes money off of advertising to Nexus users when they still make a ton of money from iPhone users. Maybe more.

The Nexus 6P is a hell of a phone for the price.

It is pretty dam hard to not use Google services on an Nexus phone. SMS is baked into Hangouts. Nearly everything is centered around Google Now. Even if you don't use gmail for your email, using the default email/calendar/contacts app for any email/services means data is extracted from them.

It is certainly possible to not use Google services on a nexus phone, but I think a very very small percent of their Nexus-using population would do that, as it would require jumping through some hoops.

Certainly Google has it's hands in the iPhone as well. However, other than the fact that default search in Safari is Google, everything else Google on the iPhone is opt-in and totally optional. Google can't index my work email, my SMS conversations (let alone imessage), my contacts list, my notes, my calendar, Google doesn't know what apps I'm using, etc. Even if I do choose to sign-in to Google on the iPhone, it doesn't get anything extra than what it already has (i.e., signing into Google on iPhone doesn't let Google index my contacts that are stored in iCloud).

Again, I know this always sounds like I'm implying Google is evil or something. I don't mean to. I understand the quid pro quo with Google, and I choose to accept the deal sometimes. I see it as a subsidy - either phone is $750 bucks. With Apple, you pay full price. With Google, $200-300 is taken off the top by Google in exchange for the ability to mine a whole bunch of data about you. The choice is subjective, one is the right answer for some, and not others.

I agree the Nexus 6P is a hell of a phone for the dollar price. There is a lot more than just your dollars that Google is receiving as compensation when you use that phone.

 

[MRU]

It is pretty dam hard to not use Google services on an Nexus phone. .

Realistically for most people if you've bought a nexus, you've bought it off Google which means they have all your personal details and CC info anyway.

Therefore avoiding Google's services after buying a nexus from them is utterly moribund.

 

[pdqgp]

I know 100% that they are full of crap on the camera piece. I have both a Note 5 and my wife uses an iP6 and now my son has a 6S+ and the Note 5 in RAW kills the iPhone. Especially in lower light. Happy to post up some pics later as I use mine a lot. IMO it also wins out in good light even shooting jpegs, but again, switch to RAW and it delivers like a champ.

 

[JHUFrank]

So you think the benchmarks and graphics were photoshopped and the authors were paid off to essentially lie?

Absolutely not. But would you trust any reviewer who had a possible conflict of interest? Be serious. This is a question of ethics. Anand has done great work, I followed him when he just started out. However, business ethics must be followed.

 

[I7guy]

Absolutely not. But would you trust any reviewer who had a possible conflict of interest? Be serious. This is a question of ethics. Anand has done great work, I followed him when he just started out. However, business ethics must be followed.

Why would I think there was a conflict of interest? Guilty until proven innocent?

 

[JHUFrank]

Why would I think there was a conflict of interest? Guilty until proven innocent?

This will be my last reply to this subject. I work out in the auto business world, and there are simple ethical rules you have to follow or else **** happens like the VW mess. Anandtech reviewing Apple products is just like drug company setting up their own non peer reviewed studies on the drug they want to sell. Anand works for Apple and has a major interest in Anandtech. Kapiche?

 

[I7guy]

This will be my last reply to this subject. I work out in the auto business world, and there are simple ethical rules you have to follow or else **** happens like the VW mess. Anandtech reviewing Apple products is just like drug company setting up their own non peer reviewed studies on the drug they want to sell. Anand works for Apple and has a major interest in Anandtech. Kapiche?

Yes I understand your position and disagree with the conclusion. However, this is not Bernie Madoff and this is a phone review, most of which I happen to agree with, even it I didn't base a buying decision on it. There is a subjective part and an objective part. Frankly, if people think it's biased, it will be up to the court of popular opinion. The jury is not in this thread.

 

[JHUFrank]

I will even back down on my position on the ethics of Anandtech and their work. A little investigation shows that Anandtech was sold as a company. However, I would still like to see full disclosure from the company on any agreements with Apple, and if Anand still holds stock in his company.

 

[JHUFrank]

Yes I understand your position and disagree with the conclusion. However, this is not Bernie Madoff and this is a phone review, most of which I happen to agree with, even it I didn't base a buying decision on it. There is a subjective part and an objective part. Frankly, if people think it's biased, it will be up to the court of popular opinion. The jury is not in this thread.

Whether I agree with the review or don't doesn't matter in the least. It's the ethics involved. A phone review by such a large company as Anandtech will certainly drive an x amount of phone sales, and could possibly profit both Anand and Apple in an unethical manner. And that is that.

 

[I7guy]

Whether I agree with the review or don't doesn't matter in the least. It's the ethics involved. A phone review by such a large company as Anandtech will certainly drive an x amount of phone sales, and could possibly profit both Anand and Apple in an unethical manner. And that is that.

Ok, there are no doubt a lot of shills out there on every side of the fence (yes fences have multiple sides). That being said, this is the internet and it's up to the consumer to decide the veracity of all of these web sites. This is not VW trying to pull a fast one. This is an opinion website. So the internet gives all of us a voice and you are entitled to voice your opinion in an attempt to make a difference.

Frankly, it's the system. Apple and samsung and whoever can put together a "review" site owned by them and then off pull this off "unethical" behavior. It's happened before and it will happen again. I'm more concerned about other stuff in the world than review shills on mobile devices designed to mislead the public to drive up sales and it's easy insinuate this is the case. Just put a post on MR questioning the sites integrity.

 

[apolloa]

I made my purchase decision before this review came out and I rarely give reviews any weight because of exactly what you say (including but not limited to dxo mark and some other android focused sites), but the reaction is interesting.

I don't go buy websites either, I tend to read forums and watch you tube videos and reviews of things. You can see items a lot better that way. Although they have been caught promoting products manufactured have paid them to like that Francis character that reviews games.

I also like to if possible play with the device before I buy it online etc.

I'm still liking my iPhone anyway, used Siri a few times too and I never use Ok Google. It seems s solid device too so far, finger print reader is great. Still testing the camera. It's also nice and subtle in its Apple case. Still playing with its settings really.