After I see an interesting gadget announced, I usually send an email to the PR/marketing dpt of the manufacturing company asking for a sample unit to write a review for.
Well, it usually goes well, but I have noticed that when I email “white box” manufacturers in China, they come back to me giving me the prices of the product per unit, and per 1000s.
No matter how I try to explain to them that I just need a single sample in order to write about, they don’t get it. They seem to see the world very binary: you are either a reseller/wholesaler, or you are not.
Thankfully bigger companies “get it”. The problem is only with the small white box chinese companies. They are small because they have no clue about PR, and they don’t get any PR so they stay small.
Another thing I noticed is that the people who email me back have changed their names to western-sounding names (in order to make western wholesalers feel more at home). So, you have Yo Chin Hong replying to you as “Judy”… Riiiight…