Confessions of a Gadget Reviewer

“It is in the nature of technology to go bad. If you happen to have suggested that model, the blame will be on you”

A gadget reviewer doesn’t have to buy a TV, mobile phone, camera, blue ray player, laptop. They use the ones they review. So the ethics of a reviewer come into play when they answer the following:

Is the gadget worth reviewing at all? While reviewing, they must be objective. If you are a senior gadget reviewer, companies can’t bully you into giving good reviews. I once worked for a tech magazine where an advertiser threatened to pull out because of a bad review their product got. The editorial didn’t give in.

Readers do take gadget reviews seriously, and unexpected people write back to you. They aren’t your typical college kid or young entrepreneur interested in gizmos. The people who write to me are doctors, army guys, etcetera. They want to buy something and ask you for your opinion.

Aunties constantly ask me to suggest a phone they can buy in Rs 2,000 that will do everything, or a laptop in Rs 10,000 that will do everything. One lady even asked me for the best Vodafone billing plan. I’m not a sales executive!

It is in the nature of technology to go bad. Cameras fall, computers crash, phones get wet. If you happen to have suggested that model, the blame will be on you, and it’s very irritating. There are also people who think they know as much as you, and keep talking about technology in front of you. It’s the equivalent of impressing a professional photographer with amateur photos.

Most Indians are unnerved by technology. On the one hand, there are people who base their choices on a tight budget. On the other, there are people who buy fancy gadgets, but don’t know how to use it. I once saw a man shoot photos in the auto mode, in an expensive SLR camera.

A gadget reviewer must face a lot of anguish in life. Technology will always improve. Since you’re keenly following it, you want to keep up, but you can’t. You can’t have everything.

This person has worked as a gadget reviewer in major publications for almost eight years

About The Author

arindam