Honor Roll = Power User

#8

Not another ‘Power User’ thread :rolling_eyes:

Firstly, of the 10 listed on the ‘honor role’ list by Anker, seven are listed as active Power User members and five were on the winners list, so not much of a selling point.

Secondly, to all intents and purposes the ‘Power User’ program is an inactive service (unless Anker has done a recent reversal from past post’s) and has been replaced either by the Anker influencers (for final product reviews) or direct offer’s from Anker to community members (for products in final stages before release)

I can see why in many ways the ‘Power User’ program was watered down as offering samples, on mass, often encourages favorable reviews out of the fear that future items will not be offered. This in the long run doesn’t help with spreading your brand or getting valuable feedback for future product revisions…

Just my two cents…

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#9

True, what about what @nigelhealy said: testing products for them before their launch. We should have proved ourselves trustworthy.

#10

I think it’s more than just a case of just trustworthiness (legal and non-disclosure aspects come to mind taking into account @nigelhealy suggestion of testing before product is final / development stages)

I personally believe it’s a selection process that should be decided at Anker’s discretion…rather than from generating community opinion to be put on a list, that’s all…

#11

Do you know how many PowerUser Anker has?

I can understand, why the PowerUser Position is only for “special” persons. But it would be nice to have a number of PowerUser or an overview.

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#12

I agree with you.

#13

Only @AnkerOfficial would know the exact number of powers users before the program was made inactive on the whole. However, from the average amount of reviews that were on Amazon and the previous ability to register to be one, I would estimate in the hundreds, if not thousands over the different territories covered…

#14

I prefer quality to quantity. When the Poweruser program was in its hey day, you could see dozens per-Anker item of frankly worseless reviews, they appeared to be just there to make a mathematically higher average score. Only a very few of the reviews gave me insight to make a judgement.

Going forward, I need neutral balanced insightful reviews off of which i can make personal judgement decisions.

So for me, precision of:

  • size (actual measured)
  • weight (actual measured)
  • performance (metered not just “it charged my phone quick”).
  • good features
  • bad features, nits, product weakness.

Anker’s own material is also woefully lacking, on Anker’s site there is often no real meaningful specifications, it is often hard to know Amps, Volts. Anker’s own site often materially disagrees with the Amazon specificiations, the usual error being size and weight.

Until I see some decent quality reviews, I am forced to wait. I am pretty sure most Amazon purchases are made on just seeing a near-5 score with dozens of votes, so the old program mass volume discount I’m sure worked. It never worked in my case.

If Anker wanted to help, then precision, detail, and accuracy to truth on anker.com would go a long way.

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#15

Well Power User is back. None of the offerings are useful for me at the moment since it’s screen protectors and device specific stuff which I don’t have a need for.

#16

I applied for and rejected, not upset, as there is barely anything there I want not would ever buy (as you say its for weird things like iphones which I never own)

#17

Funny, on some reviews on Amazon I included all of them yet still could take a hammering from user votes, just because it was a sample.

Nature of the beast, many people given samples are just so happy to have a freebie they will give top marks even if it falls short, just out of fear of either being booted off the PU program or not being given future samples. I once gave either 2 or 3 stars to an Anker product once on Amazon and was doing tennis emails back and forth with Anker as to why…

#18

I wouldn’t take it too hard, took me three attempts over a year ago. You could still possibly be offered items direct by Anker based on forum reviews / insight…you never know

#19

Happy to help, but it needs to be items I’d use in anger to really stress them. Lots of Anker products simply don’t apply in my case. Best way is to see a list of items and request then I can only request that which I will actually use. Every single time I’ve looked in PowerUser program, there’s nothing there worthwhile for me to test.

Some items specifically cannot form a valid opinion for some months, screen protectors durability for example, unless you have specific tools to accelerate wear (like jerryrig does with scratch test tools).

To do a decent video review, one needs a decent camera where you can control the focus, with decent microphone in decent quiet room, I don’t own. So I’m saying I’m not really set up for quality audio visual review, but I can do basic photos and form a valid opinion if the product overlapped my need.

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#20

Did they offer a reason for rejection?

#21

Often in the same boat myself for that one :smile: besides also hating being on camera, even if it’s just audio :laughing:

#22

no but I guess as i don’t do much YT reviews. Also it is hard to do better than others. Plenty of folks here doing YT reviews (incl you Josh).

So there is different type of reviews, early access for Anker eyes only, then initial release limited volume for general review. There is likely already plenty of people doing the latter who already own a decent camera and audio. Really for a good looking review it is really about the camera and the microphone, and you need a tripod. i.e. you do lots of reviews and you invested in the equipment. There are less of those folks but sufficient, already.

#23

Most YT reviews are a decent camera on tripod and you never see the reviewer. That’s perfectly fine.

Here is an example of a role model reviewer for sound, they have set up proper gear to produce a quality review off which a robust opinion can be formed.

So sending free stuff to that person would overall do better good for everyone than sending to me.

I believe I can form a robust review in text.

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#24

From what I can remember on my first one/two rejections, no reason’s are given, only something like criteria not met. If you don’t exactly have a review history with some sort of ranking or following, it normally goes against you…after all they want to reach as many as possible through someone’s reviews…

#25

So I’ve been on the Anker Power User group since late 2014 (I think). I applied and got accepted pretty quickly. I’ve not kept track of all the things I’ve tested and reviewed, but all my reviews are text and photo based. Never done audio or video reviews.
I have however taken videos with audio when I’ve came across a problem with a device. Then forwarded this on to Anker support to sort out (which is does, normally quickly)
I’ve given a whole range of ratings for devices. If I show disappointment in a review, Anker support generally got in touch to find out what was wrong and where they could have improved. The review rating however was never requested to be changed.

Like others have mentioned, I prefer to test products as a “final release” tester. It’s something I have done for years as part of my main job, so being logical and methodical about it helps.

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#26

A final release tester meaning before the release, correct?

#27

Yup. Seen as a final test before the general public get’s their hands on it. Generally you would expect the product to be fully functional and working as desired by this point - a finished product.
But occasionally there are oversights that the makers have not foreseen.

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