Waveform: The MKBHD Podcast

Do You Ever Feel Guilty About Bad Reviews?

November 25, 2025

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  • Marques Brownlee (Marquez) does not daily drive foldable phones because he finds he does not use the large inner screen enough to justify the trade-offs compared to a slab phone, despite liking the form factor. 
  • Content creators must adapt their strategy to evolving audiences, with Marques choosing to cater to an audience similar to his current self rather than chasing younger viewers to avoid sounding patronizing. 
  • Both Marques and Michael Fisher agree that bad reviews do not kill companies; rather, bad products kill companies, and a reviewer's job is to accelerate the existing trend, not cause it. 
  • Marques Brownlee (MKBHD) selectively discusses environmental/sustainability efforts in product reviews only when they form a significant part of the product's story, noting increasing audience pressure for such coverage. 
  • The conversation explores the difficulty of remaining apolitical in tech reviews, exemplified by the challenge of covering the Xiaomi SU7 electric car without delving into geopolitics. 
  • Creator ethics regarding sponsored content are complex and audience-dependent, with licensing existing quotes for marketing being Marques's favorite, yet least common, revenue stream, despite the industry's general 'gray area' ethics. 

Segments

Foldable Phone Usage Habits
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(00:03:05)
  • Key Takeaway: Marques prefers slab phones over large foldables because he rarely utilizes the inner screen enough to justify the trade-offs in battery and form factor.
  • Summary: Marques finds that he only uses the large foldable screen for email, social media drafting, and one or two other tasks. When he reverts to a slab phone, he realizes he doesn’t miss the inner screen enough to switch back. He believes the foldable category will continue to exist, noting distinct user types based on how they use the device.
Frankenstein Phone Creation
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(00:05:19)
  • Key Takeaway: The ideal ‘Frankenstein’ phone creation would combine the modern capabilities of a Pixel with the casing of the HTC One M7, retaining its aluminum block design and front-facing BoomSound speakers.
  • Summary: The hypothetical creation involves stuffing modern processing power (like a Snapdragon 8 Gen Elite) and a primary Pixel camera system into the casing of the older HTC One M7. The front-facing speakers would be retained for video watching, while modern software and camera capabilities would be integrated.
Favorite Non-Phone Gadget
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(00:07:02)
  • Key Takeaway: Marques’s favorite current gadget is the Hasselblad X2D Mark II medium format camera because it blends the intentionality of slow, deliberate photography with modern speed features like phase-detect autofocus.
  • Summary: The $7,000 camera is praised for preserving the intentionality of older Hasselblads, which forced the user to take time with each shot. However, the new model incorporates modern speed and continuous autofocus, making the experience less painful while still encouraging thoughtful photography.
Creator Longevity and Audience
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(00:09:03)
  • Key Takeaway: Marques consciously chooses to speak to an audience similar to his current self, accepting the sacrifice of some younger viewership rather than falling into the trap of catering to the youth demographic.
  • Summary: Developing the skill to speak to a growing and changing audience is necessary for content creators. Marques feels it is less natural to make videos for 14-year-olds now that he is 31, preferring to maintain authenticity with an audience sharing similar interests.
Keeping Phone Reviews Interesting
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(00:11:12)
  • Key Takeaway: The storytelling aspect—finding the ‘why’ behind product changes, hype, or failures—is what keeps reviewing predictable smartphone hardware interesting for Marques.
  • Summary: Even when reviewing a standard slab phone, Marques focuses on the narrative surrounding its development and decisions. He notes that most of his videos are things he genuinely wants to make, reserving a small percentage for content driven purely by content strategy necessity, like a new colorway.
Content Strategy: Long Form vs. Shorts
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(00:20:20)
  • Key Takeaway: Short-form video is viewed as a compliment to long-form content, functioning as the top of the funnel to introduce new viewers to the main channel’s long-form videos.
  • Summary: Initially viewing shorts as a necessary evil due to platform trends, Marques has learned the language of vertical video and now enjoys the challenge of making them effective. He sees shorts as a way to capture viewers who might not otherwise find the long-form content, noting that long-form viewership is still performing well.
Threat of AI Creators
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(00:24:55)
  • Key Takeaway: AI creators are not currently seen as an intrinsic threat to human creators because audiences fundamentally want to watch real people, though novelty success exists.
  • Summary: Marques believes that successful AI creators currently thrive on the novelty factor, but if their content becomes low-quality ‘slop,’ audiences will revert to preferring human presenters. He maintains the belief that people ultimately want to watch real individuals.
Reviewing Non-Phone Tech
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(00:40:46)
  • Key Takeaway: Backlash against negative reviews for early-stage tech like the Rabbit R1 felt like ‘punching down’ to the audience, a dynamic that has shifted due to the saturation of positive influencer coverage.
  • Summary: Marques observed that the negative reaction to his critical reviews of early-stage products stemmed from a perceived shift in power dynamics, where a large channel criticizing a small startup felt like bullying. He also noted that the proliferation of overwhelmingly positive influencer content has changed audience expectations for product coverage.
Guilt Over Tanking Companies
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(00:45:21)
  • Key Takeaway: Marques does not feel guilty about negative reviews potentially harming a company’s prospects because bad products, not bad reviews, are what ultimately cause companies to fail.
  • Summary: Quoting Walt Mossberg, Marques asserts he does not care about a company’s stock price when reviewing a product. He believes his review only accelerates an existing trend caused by the product’s inherent quality, not by his assessment of it.
Reviewing Sustainability Mentions
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(00:49:13)
  • Key Takeaway: Sustainability details are included in reviews only when they are central to the product’s narrative, not as a default inclusion.
  • Summary: Marques Brownlee only discusses sustainability aspects, like Apple’s 3D printing for waste reduction, if it is integral to the product’s story. He notes that omitting common practices, like the lack of chargers in boxes, is appropriate because it is no longer praiseworthy. There is increasing audience pressure for creators to cover these environmental aspects.
Navigating Political Topics
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(00:50:24)
  • Key Takeaway: Reviewers often avoid polarizing topics to maintain audience goodwill, though tech stories can sometimes necessitate political context.
  • Summary: Marques generally stays apolitical, recognizing that taking a stand on fraught topics can alienate consumers who enjoy their content for non-political reasons. He is currently struggling with a video on the Xiaomi SU7 electric car because answering the core tech question requires extensive discussion of geopolitics and politics. He feels no guilt about including politics if the context is genuinely interesting to the tech story.
Creator Stance on Politics
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(00:52:00)
  • Key Takeaway: Creators should feel free to express strong opinions, as self-selecting an audience based on shared values is ultimately beneficial.
  • Summary: If a creator feels strongly about a topic, they should express it, likely through the lens of their primary interest (tech). If an audience member stops watching due to a strongly held opinion, that creator may not need to retain that segment of the audience. Self-selecting the audience through vocal expression of core beliefs is considered a positive outcome.
Sponsored Content Perception
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(00:55:00)
  • Key Takeaway: Audience reaction to sponsored content fluctuates in waves, often cycling between acceptance and backlash based on saturation and expectation setting.
  • Summary: Audience understanding of paid versus non-paid content is variable, moving in waves from initial excitement over sponsorships to subsequent backlash when they become too frequent. A creator’s audience reaction is heavily influenced by the expectation they set regarding the volume of sponsored content they feature. Audiences react negatively when they perceive reviewers are being paid to favor certain brands, especially against Chinese brands.
Ethics of Quote Licensing
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(01:02:24)
  • Key Takeaway: Licensing quotes for use in paid marketing is the most favored revenue stream for creators, provided the company pays for the privilege.
  • Summary: AdSense is cited as the easiest revenue source, but licensing existing quotes for marketing is Marques’s favorite integration. Licensing involves a company paying to use a creator’s quote in their marketing materials after the review has already been published. The line for quote usage is gray, as some companies use quotes without permission, even taking sarcastic statements out of context for positive marketing.
Lightning Round: Tech Opinions
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(01:06:11)
  • Key Takeaway: The Apple Vision Pro is considered an interesting technological failure because it is impressive yet has failed to meet its primary goals.
  • Summary: The Apple Vision Pro is identified as a favorite mobile tech failure because it represents highly impressive technology that clearly missed its intended mark. The most desired feature from older phones to return is beefy front-facing speakers, replacing the current bezel-focused designs. Marques predicted Apple would not remove the mute switch within five years, a prediction proven wrong by the subsequent iPhone 15’s Action Button.
Easter Eggs and Origins
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(01:10:10)
  • Key Takeaway: The iconic Cheerios box Easter egg originated as a practical solution to hide a distracting, strobing microwave LED in college dorm videos.
  • Summary: Marques continues to hide Easter eggs in his videos, some being multi-layered and cryptic, which excites dedicated viewers who find them. The Cheerios box was initially placed to mask a distracting microwave light that viewers constantly commented on in early videos. Once the microwave was gone, the box remained as a recognizable, intentional Easter egg.
Digital Detox and Recognition
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(01:12:25)
  • Key Takeaway: Experiencing a temporary digital detox with a dumb phone is recommended for personal growth, even if it is difficult to sustain during long trips.
  • Summary: Marques would consider a short-term digital detox with a dumb phone, noting that two-day offline periods during ultimate frisbee tournaments are refreshing. Michael Fisher found that two weeks with a light phone led to learning how to manage himself better, encouraging Marques to try it for personal growth. A favorite public recognition moment for Michael Fisher involved a fan identifying him as ‘Mr. Who’s the Boss’ from a car.