You’re not wrong, he’s just another YouTuber… he has also been doing the thing since he was a teenager and has built a hell of a reputation. I dig his work.
Yeah, as the other commenter said, he's not that special and that's kinda why he's special?
To me, he's got this type of quality of a guy you'd hang out with after work or so. He's more sociable than quite a few YouTubers but he's not like Lew or Linus to me. He's a few notches more on the mellow side.
In terms of his insights in tech, he focuses a lot on cameras which I think people care about but I don't. However, I think his production values are top notch. His videos are chill and I like the Waveform podcast he does and some interviews like Hot Ones that he's done.
He does decent reviews with high production value is kind of the main thing.
But I think the thing for me that sets him more apart is that he doesn't do all the zany bullshit a lot of the other top review youtubers do. He's really even keel and feels more conversational while most of the other reviews I see out there either have people acting really dramatic and over emoting frequently and giving me the sense they're carefully reciting a script they wrote. And also there's a lot of the doing stupid fucking faces in their little video thumbnails and stuff that drives me crazy about a lot of tech reviewers.
I cannot overstate how much that turns me off, I don't care if they've determined that's what gets clicks or whatever. It feels like a content race to the bottom and I don't like feeding into it.
Beyond that, he's very Apple focused and has a firm grasp of context on Apple and isn't trying to measure their devices by the ruler of "WILL THIS PLAY AAA GAMES AT CRAZY FRAMERATES?!?" That's not why I use their stuff and I think reviews by people who are so laser focused on that topic often miss the point of why Apple hardware is popular with certain creative professionals.
The worst part about it is video creators largely do that stuff because it works, which is a damn sad commentary on the average YT viewer. I just wish society could do better.