LTT is incredibly corporate (+ a private jet??), Mrwhosetheboss is super AI-pilled (generated “hand painted” wallpaper of him and wife? Really?), Marques has his own controversies (e.g. exceeding highway speeds in a school zone, wallpaper app cashgrab, etc. + he does not seem to have any concept of value or budget), Gamers Nexus has their own problems (e.g. they claimed how Matrix could be Israeli spyware, with the source being a poorly received Reddit comment), etc.
Wendell from Level1Techs is still quite good and relatively out of controversy, perhaps because he doesn’t target a general audience like the above? Veronica Explains (Linux and adjacent topics) and Jeff Geerling (primarily self-hosting and networking bits) are also great in their niches. Salem Techspurts (the greatest technician to ever live) and Hugh Jeffreys both cover topics relating to right to repair and they make interesting videos around vintage electronics as well!
Are there any other good tech creators that are not super corporate, not AI-pilled, and outside of controversy?
Arun often puts heavy emphasis on the AI features on the devices he reviews, making them sound super magical and wonderful. Having a machine generate “hand painted” artwork also seems wrong.
Also of note, this is for a wallpaper on a smartphone (that I believe he continued to use on his main phone), and was used as an example of how Samsung is actually far ahead of the competition and they aren’t really lagging behind the competition.
Aside from his views on AI, he also makes videos in the style of “I spent X amount of money on these gadgets”, which aren’t to my taste. In particular, I don’t enjoy how he covers fitness/health gadgets that border on the line of pseudoscience.