I used to prefer delivering reviews as monolithic pieces, but eventually, I converted over to multiple blogs with a summary review being the RoadTest article linking to said blogs. Some products do require much more detail than others, which is where the multiple blog approach definitely suits. Likewise, not all sections are necessarily dependent or relevant to every reader - hence I avoid forcing the blogs to "link together" in any way. That being said, I can't see going back to the monolithic arrangement except for the simplest of items purely because with the amount of images and supporting material I like to attach, the graphical editor slows to a crawl and often suffers from issues with saving or spurious formatting codes causing havoc (and hence, needing to go down to the HTML to debug it).
As for unboxings - I provide them, but whether you want to look at them is really up to you. I find it to be worthwhile, as some people want to know what the ownership experience is like (including the unboxing) and not all manufacturers do a good job of making it clear what is included in the box and what isn't. An unboxing often clarifies the questions around what accessories are provided, and gives a chance to introduce the product from all sides as well. After all, taking photos of the unboxing is something that I do anyway to avoid disputes especially in regards to shipping damage and missing accessories, so the cost to add it to a review is negligible, so I feel it's better to have it rather than not. After all, one of the deliverables which is suggested are "high resolution photos".
As far as I've heard, cats seem to correlate with internet points, but unfortunately, I've not yet had the chance to RoadTest one myself ...
A good unboxing can reveal much, especially as first impressions do count. But as you say, it should not be used simply to pad a review. To minimise scrolling people should use the image gallery feature (preferably with auto scroll disabled, IMHO).
As you know, it is not just community members who want to read road tests. It is also the OEM who supplied the product to be road tested. They should be interested in an unboxing if it reveals errors or if something creates confusion etc. I recall the issue with the PN7150 roadtest and the version numbers. The version number was revealed during unboxing. Another thing that regularly catches me out is the actual product size. So often what you see are close up marketing pictures on a distributors or the OEM website and then when the product arrives it is so much smaller than you expected. With unboxing you can get a sense of scale. Then sometimes with multiple road tests of a product it can give a sense of variance if different testers pick up on different things when they first observe the product.
I agree with Fred. I have no time for un-boxing pics or videos. In my opinion they add absolutely nothing to describing how the item works/looks. I can't believe that there are YouTube channels with bazillions of views/subscribers just to un-boxing videos...
I think it very much depends on what is being road tested. all I really want from a road test is "what is this? is it any good? is it worth spending your own money on?" How many blog post that needs may vary depending on the product.
One thing that I have no time for (but some people seem to) is unboxings. I can't see any point in 10 photos of something coming out of a box and someone's cat looking at it. I find that just seems like pointless padding to bulk out a road test with unnecessary information. I know I'm in the minority, so if you're one of the many people who do appreciate an unboxing I'd genuinely love to know why.
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