MKBHD’s Panels Is a Masterclass in How Not to Make a Wallpaper App
Sep. 24, 2024Ever since Marques Brownlee, aka MKBHD, dropped his review of the new iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Pro,Panelshas been the talk of the town. For those unaware, MKBHD kicked off the video by talking about how he has been working on a new wallpaper app for the past year, and that it’s finally up for download.
As someone who takes to apps likeZedgeandBackdropsfor free wallpapers, I was honestly excited to have a third option available, that too for both Android and iOS users. Got to make that phone look pretty now, don’t we?
But, as soon as I installed Panels (Download) and started using it, I realized that this was not the right wallpaper app for me. In fact, it may not be so for most other people, given how people were venting out their frustrations in the comments of Marques’ latest video. Well, turns out, there are some big problems with the app.
Watch Two Ads for One SD Wallpaper
The app interface is pretty simple and I liked that there are no distractions whatsoever. After selecting five different artists that bring differentartstyles to your lockscreen, you are instantly taken to the homepage of the app. Signing in to Google is not mandatory and that’s great. However, that’s about where the good ends.
So SD, aka Standard Quality, limits you to 1080p wallpapers. After a minute of ads, you can basically download wallpapers that look like you have just stolen them from Google Images. Since I’m so used to having 4K wallpapers on my phone, the instant quality degradation was shocking. So, what if I want full resolutions for these images?
In Marques’ exact words,
So, after watching almost 15 minutes of ads to get just 15 not-so-sharp wallpapers, I decided to uninstall the app. There’s another core problem here. When browsing through Panels, some of the wallpapersseemedAI-generated.
And, to my surprise, when someone asked “What’s stopping me from asking AI to create a unique, high-quality wallpaper that no one else will have?” Marques said, “These are all made by artists who can choose to involve AI or not in their creation process – it’ll be up to you how much you value the human touch.” So, you’re telling me that instead of asking Gemini or Copilot to generate free AI-generated images myself, I will be paying a hefty sum for someone else’s AI generations?
Moreover, on iOS, as soon as you install the app, it asks for permission “to track your activity across other companies and websites.” A wallpaper app honestly has no business doing so. Meanwhile, on Android, you don’t see such a permission window, which is strange. However, a glance over the app page on PlayStore or App Store reveals how much information the app demands from users.
While I do understand that paying for art and supporting the artist is an honorable thing to do, in this day and age, Marques’ approach toward this very initiative seems quite off. While I do understand folks who are willing to go all the way and even pay for the app, I don’t see myself doing so in my right senses.
As MKBHD suggested in his video itself (about the new iPhones), “Buy it for what it is today and not for what it could be tomorrow.” Well, you can count me out “today” as Panels is far from being the app you’d expect from MKBHD or in general a wallpaper app.
I feel if Marques himself were to review his own app for a video, its fate would not be much better than the Rabbit R1 or Fischer.
What about you? What do you think about MKBHD’s new Panels wallpaper app? Cry your heart out in the comments down below!
Sagnik is a tech aficionado who can never say “no” to dipping his toes into unknown waters of tech or reviewing the latest gadgets. He is also a hardcore gamer, having played everything from Snake Xenzia to Dead Space Remake.
