The author has been writing his honest feelings about things for years. He has gained a lot of trust for doing that. It's not spam, it's a product review by a guy who is known for being honest and generally a good person. For artists and designers it's also important to see reviews by actual artists and designers rather than people who may not have been compensated for their reviews and only review published specifications and an hour of light, purposeless mixed use.

Do you think Gruber pays for every new iPhone he reviews? It's industry-standard practice to give devices to reviewers.

Well, except in the case of Gruber, he buys the iPhones that he keeps. My guess is that Gabe is going to get to keep that Surface-Pro.

I'm fine with that, as long as the person doing the writeup makes it clear he was comped gear. The ATP (Marco/Casey/Siracusa) crew recently scored some synology gear, and I, while I'm sure it impacted their objectivity, it was still interesting hearing about how they were using it / configuring it.

Anyways - nobody who reads Gruber frequently would suggest he isn't partisan, and he doesn't pretend otherwise.

I thought he returned the review units instead of getting to keep them?