As a reviewer who has reviewed hundreds of devices, I have encountered some devices that are quite polarizing among users. One such device is the HTC U11. Some of its fans start attacking me when I talk about some of the negative aspects of the phone.

I feel that the design choices made by HTC for the U11 are poor. The phone's camera setup, for example, attracts fingerprints so much that it's almost like they're trying to make a magnet out of it. In terms of UI, the phone has a very powerful processor, but it's not the most Android-like experience you can have on a device.

I've had similar experiences with other devices from different manufacturers. Let me take an example of the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+. I reviewed those phones, and while they were excellent in many ways, there were some things that didn't quite sit right with me. The fingerprint scanner on the back of the phone was at a very weird location, and the UI wasn't as smooth as it could be.

However, what surprises me is how different the response has been from users compared to when I reviewed those Samsung phones. When I talked about some of the negative aspects of the Galaxy S8, for instance, I didn't face any backlash from Samsung fans. They understood that not every device is perfect and that it's okay to criticize them.

But with HTC, things are different. The company has launched a new program called the HTC Elevate program, which incentivizes users to give positive reviews or defend the phone in comments. According to an article I'll link in the description, if you're part of this VIP community and give positive reviews, you'll get swags and goodies from HTC.

Now, I'm not saying that HTC fans are being unreasonable. But what I do find problematic is how this program is incentivizing users to suppress criticism. As a reviewer, it's my job to state the facts and provide honest feedback, even if it means criticizing a device. And that's exactly what I've done with the U11.

The problem is that some of these HTC fans have gotten phones from HTC themselves and are now defending the phone like crazy. Come on, guys! The product isn't perfect, and it's not worth defending every single aspect of it. That's just not how you build a community.

In fact, I've noticed that similar programs have been launched by other manufacturers as well. But what's interesting is how different the response has been from users. Xiaomi fans are very vocal about their opinions, but they're also willing to listen and discuss criticisms. OnePlus fans are also very passionate, but they're not as defensive as HTC fans.

So, I think it's time for smartphone manufacturers to rethink their approach to community engagement and criticism. Incentivizing users to give positive reviews or defend a device in comments is just not the right way to build trust with your audience. What we need is a more nuanced and open approach that allows us to provide honest feedback without fear of retribution.

And so, guys, I'd love to hear from you. Do you think smartphone manufacturers should incentivize their community users for positive reviews? Let's run a poll and see what the results are.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhi there this is Ranjit and welcome to another video of weekly talks uh and uh this week I'm going to talk on a very touchy topic and uh this is regarding smartphone Brands and some of the brands actually uh having some incentivized programs for some of their premium users you could say community users which incentivize them for giving positive reviews and uh attacking people who talk uh uh what do you say anything negative about the product though it might be a fact so and uh this is uh I've noticed this one recently uh don't get me wrong every uh smartphone brand has passionate users that we call a community around it uh and that's great actually because that provides great feedback to the company about the product itself uh but again things move to the Gray Line when the brand actually is giving them goodies swags or free smartphones etc for positive coverage and uh stuff like that so that's my problem for example uh recently I started using this HTC U1 if you guys uh recall I already posted the unboxing video of that one and uh this is the flagship smartphone from H in fact I'm shooting this video with the htcu 11's front facing camera so do let me know what is the quality and uh lately I've not noticed that even in my unboxing uh video I noticed some few things and I tweeted about some of the things I like what HTC has done in the software uh it has to be one of the most fluid Android device that I have used almost uh as good as pixel the moment you touch anything it just uh launches so no lag whatsoever very good optimization and I'm surprised that the battery life that I'm getting on this htcu is also incredible in fact I thought because this has just 3,000 mAh battery I thought the battery life might be average but I'm very surprised that the battery life is actually pretty good even on mobile data so in terms of software optimization and other stuff HTC has done a brilliant job I would say one of the best uh uh Android smartphone that you can get in terms if you want the fluidity apart from Pixel uh so I like that but again some of the things that I did not like about the htcu now I've been using this now for almost 4 days with my primary phone is some of the design aspects uh that HTC chose to do with this one again this HTC1 is the flagship SmartPhone by HTC for this 201 uh7 and it's a premium smartphone uh so again if you compare it with some other premium smartphones for example Samsung Galaxy S8 Etc the bezels are actually pretty big on this one uh so I noticed that immediately and I tweeted about that and some people from I would call them HTC fans there's a program called HTC Elevate they started attacking it's a fact it has big bezel so what's wrong about it and also U the back of this HTC l has that mirror likee finish I know it's a personal preference but I find it pretty weird and it's a fingerprint magnet just every 5 minutes you have to clean up it just attracts fingerprint mag so in those respects I would say these are poor design choices that HTC has done so there's nothing wrong to talk about that but uh with this htcu 11 if you talk about that some of these HTC fans start attacking you which is stupid in my opinion because again I review hundreds and hundreds of devices uh let's take example of a few devices for example I reviewed the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8 that is right Samsung Samsung also has a huge uh community of users what do you say fans uh but they never attacked me when I uh talked about some of the negative aspects of the Galaxy S8 for example I feel the fingerprint scanner on the back is at a very weird and stupid location I talked about it also in terms of UI the Galaxy S8 though it is having a very powerful processor is not the most R Android experience that you can see you might notice some micro lags here and there but again none of the Samsung Fanboys started attacking me because of that I said the truth but that's not the case with HTC again talk about some other small brands also for example let's talk about xiaomi they have a very Vibrant Community and uh uh even OnePlus has a Vibrant Community again I recently reviewed the OnePlus 5 and I was very vocal about the design part that the rare portion of the uh OnePlus 5 resembles the iPhone uh 7 7 plus but again OnePlus fans didn't start attacking me because that's a fact come on as a reviewer I have to State the fact and my experience that's how you do even with the xiaomi MI6 I feel with the Mi uh 6 that's not launched in India but I did the unboxing you check out that I felt that it was a stupid move by xiaomi to remove the headphone jack on that phone because they could have easily put that and also some of the other decisions it is actually pretty heavy but none of the xiaomi fans started attacking me but that was not the case with this HTC u l and I'll tell you why this is happening uh there is an article that I'll link in the uh what do you say YouTube description that's why uh what do you say uh uh that's for a very popular publication uh Phone Arena and I'll have the link you can check out that HTC has this HTC Elevate program they had it earlier also but now with this HTC1 they have brought out some new things uh if uh the HTC Elevate and their VIP Community users uh give positive reviews or in comments uh what do you say defend the product they will be getting swags and goodies from HTC and I know some people uh I won't name them have got phones from HTC and stuff like that and these people are now defending the product like crazy come on the product is good but there are some flaws with the product that the public should know you just can't go out there and start defending it for every damn thing let's be practical about that so I feel this is a very bad move that HTC has done you simply cannot incentivize your users to give positive reviews for some swag or free phones or whatever this will just ske your product and Frankly Speaking uh I've lost a little bit of respect for HTC uh the way that they have done this and I hope other manufacturers don't do something like that because that's simply not right no product in this world is perfect every company already knows that and obviously when the user uses the product uh the facts about the product that is the pros and cons will come out that is the reason in my reviews I never say that this XYZ product is the best or what I divide my reviews between the pros and cons and I let you guys decide if a product is good for you or not based on the pros and cons so I feel something like this what HTC is doing is not that good and it is creating a very bad vibe in this uh tech industry and I hope uh uh this stops love to know your opinion about uh this should smartphone manufacturers uh try to incentivize their what do you say community users for positive reviews and coverage and spam comment sections and stuff like that would love to know your thought about uh this and I'll also run a poll so vote and uh let's see the results so guys just this a quick thought that I had in my mind and just wanted to share this in this video so guys that's it for now for this video and if you're not subscribed to my YouTube channel hit that subscribe button and do let me know what do you think about the video quality uh with this front-facing camera of the HTC U1 so guys that's it for now catch you later take carehi there this is Ranjit and welcome to another video of weekly talks uh and uh this week I'm going to talk on a very touchy topic and uh this is regarding smartphone Brands and some of the brands actually uh having some incentivized programs for some of their premium users you could say community users which incentivize them for giving positive reviews and uh attacking people who talk uh uh what do you say anything negative about the product though it might be a fact so and uh this is uh I've noticed this one recently uh don't get me wrong every uh smartphone brand has passionate users that we call a community around it uh and that's great actually because that provides great feedback to the company about the product itself uh but again things move to the Gray Line when the brand actually is giving them goodies swags or free smartphones etc for positive coverage and uh stuff like that so that's my problem for example uh recently I started using this HTC U1 if you guys uh recall I already posted the unboxing video of that one and uh this is the flagship smartphone from H in fact I'm shooting this video with the htcu 11's front facing camera so do let me know what is the quality and uh lately I've not noticed that even in my unboxing uh video I noticed some few things and I tweeted about some of the things I like what HTC has done in the software uh it has to be one of the most fluid Android device that I have used almost uh as good as pixel the moment you touch anything it just uh launches so no lag whatsoever very good optimization and I'm surprised that the battery life that I'm getting on this htcu is also incredible in fact I thought because this has just 3,000 mAh battery I thought the battery life might be average but I'm very surprised that the battery life is actually pretty good even on mobile data so in terms of software optimization and other stuff HTC has done a brilliant job I would say one of the best uh uh Android smartphone that you can get in terms if you want the fluidity apart from Pixel uh so I like that but again some of the things that I did not like about the htcu now I've been using this now for almost 4 days with my primary phone is some of the design aspects uh that HTC chose to do with this one again this HTC1 is the flagship SmartPhone by HTC for this 201 uh7 and it's a premium smartphone uh so again if you compare it with some other premium smartphones for example Samsung Galaxy S8 Etc the bezels are actually pretty big on this one uh so I noticed that immediately and I tweeted about that and some people from I would call them HTC fans there's a program called HTC Elevate they started attacking it's a fact it has big bezel so what's wrong about it and also U the back of this HTC l has that mirror likee finish I know it's a personal preference but I find it pretty weird and it's a fingerprint magnet just every 5 minutes you have to clean up it just attracts fingerprint mag so in those respects I would say these are poor design choices that HTC has done so there's nothing wrong to talk about that but uh with this htcu 11 if you talk about that some of these HTC fans start attacking you which is stupid in my opinion because again I review hundreds and hundreds of devices uh let's take example of a few devices for example I reviewed the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8 that is right Samsung Samsung also has a huge uh community of users what do you say fans uh but they never attacked me when I uh talked about some of the negative aspects of the Galaxy S8 for example I feel the fingerprint scanner on the back is at a very weird and stupid location I talked about it also in terms of UI the Galaxy S8 though it is having a very powerful processor is not the most R Android experience that you can see you might notice some micro lags here and there but again none of the Samsung Fanboys started attacking me because of that I said the truth but that's not the case with HTC again talk about some other small brands also for example let's talk about xiaomi they have a very Vibrant Community and uh uh even OnePlus has a Vibrant Community again I recently reviewed the OnePlus 5 and I was very vocal about the design part that the rare portion of the uh OnePlus 5 resembles the iPhone uh 7 7 plus but again OnePlus fans didn't start attacking me because that's a fact come on as a reviewer I have to State the fact and my experience that's how you do even with the xiaomi MI6 I feel with the Mi uh 6 that's not launched in India but I did the unboxing you check out that I felt that it was a stupid move by xiaomi to remove the headphone jack on that phone because they could have easily put that and also some of the other decisions it is actually pretty heavy but none of the xiaomi fans started attacking me but that was not the case with this HTC u l and I'll tell you why this is happening uh there is an article that I'll link in the uh what do you say YouTube description that's why uh what do you say uh uh that's for a very popular publication uh Phone Arena and I'll have the link you can check out that HTC has this HTC Elevate program they had it earlier also but now with this HTC1 they have brought out some new things uh if uh the HTC Elevate and their VIP Community users uh give positive reviews or in comments uh what do you say defend the product they will be getting swags and goodies from HTC and I know some people uh I won't name them have got phones from HTC and stuff like that and these people are now defending the product like crazy come on the product is good but there are some flaws with the product that the public should know you just can't go out there and start defending it for every damn thing let's be practical about that so I feel this is a very bad move that HTC has done you simply cannot incentivize your users to give positive reviews for some swag or free phones or whatever this will just ske your product and Frankly Speaking uh I've lost a little bit of respect for HTC uh the way that they have done this and I hope other manufacturers don't do something like that because that's simply not right no product in this world is perfect every company already knows that and obviously when the user uses the product uh the facts about the product that is the pros and cons will come out that is the reason in my reviews I never say that this XYZ product is the best or what I divide my reviews between the pros and cons and I let you guys decide if a product is good for you or not based on the pros and cons so I feel something like this what HTC is doing is not that good and it is creating a very bad vibe in this uh tech industry and I hope uh uh this stops love to know your opinion about uh this should smartphone manufacturers uh try to incentivize their what do you say community users for positive reviews and coverage and spam comment sections and stuff like that would love to know your thought about uh this and I'll also run a poll so vote and uh let's see the results so guys just this a quick thought that I had in my mind and just wanted to share this in this video so guys that's it for now for this video and if you're not subscribed to my YouTube channel hit that subscribe button and do let me know what do you think about the video quality uh with this front-facing camera of the HTC U1 so guys that's it for now catch you later take care\n"