KACHARAGADLA

One thing I’ve learned since I began covering consumer tech this year is that marketing + clever packaging bring hype. And once you have all three together, you can get away with selling the product at jacked up prices, as long as the product isn’t terrible. When I first got my hands on the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 almost two months ago — back before the fires began and when every U.S. media was throwing every superlative praise at the phone — I made a  YouTube video  ranting about how, while the Note 7 was very nicely built, it wasn’t that much better built than Chinese phones that sold for half the price, like the OnePlus 3 or the Meizu MX6. I made a similar video  with the iPhone 7 Plus. My point is that, western tech media often act like Apple and Samsung (can add Google to the mix now, with the latest batch of Pixel reviews) craft the best “premium” hardware that are heads and shoulders above everyone else, when in reality, every 2016 flagship phone, regardless if it was des