There is always YouTube for reviews. It's a good place to check if the Amazon reviews seem sketchy. I understand not everything will be on YouTube but you would be surprised at the amount of items that are there.
In my experience YouTubers who review things are running little lifestyle businesses, getting free products (or possibly kickbacks) in exchange for positive PR.
I would consider a YouTube channel that primarily reviews things less trustworthy than a rando on the internet, not more.
Even if the YouTuber is totally trustworthy, "professional" reviewers are only going to give short term impressions, how its features and cost stack up in the market, etc. which I can research for myself. What I want to know about is long term experience, failure modes, etc.
Pretty much only Consumer Reports is in that business, and only for big ticket items like cars.
I wonder. I'd argue that watching an unboxing gives me a much quicker idea of what's really going on than trying to tease out what's the truth from the reviews. ("20 positive reviews. How many are fakes? Let me read the 3 stars, maybe they're better. I'll read the 1 stars and try to assign weight).
Maybe I'm just picky but I find reading/judging Amazon reviews a pain in the ass.
