At first, we were sceptical ourselves if one person could have ever reviewed or even received 150 phones in their careers but one look at Kate’s YouTube channel, or 可恩Ke En to her fans, and you’ll see what we mean.
With 296 videos on her YouTube channel alone, which doesn’t cover the work she puts out on Instagram and Facebook, and the content she’s put out as a tech writer at the start of her career, Kate is a busy, busy persona.
We ask her about life as a successful female tech YouTuber in Malaysia, her first phone, and what her ultimate choice is when it comes to phones.
How did Kate enter the tech space?
“It all started from the day I joined a tech media company as a copywriter. I slowly progressed into becoming a video host and started to explore all forms of video content from there.
“With time, I gained a following on social media and realised there was potential and so much room for growth as an independent content creator. I wanted to challenge myself, I asked myself, “what’s next?”
The company she wrote for was Zing Gadget, a popular chinese language tech site and to see how far she’s come, you can watch this video from six years ago to see what we believe is one of her earliest videos.
For fun, we asked her what was the first phone she ever bought with her own money. “The first phone I bought with my own savings was a Sony Ericsson K660, in green and white. At that time, it was one of the best camera phones at that price range. The sad part is, it was stolen while I was working my part time job.”
What is it like to be a female in a predominantly male space?
Being into tech as a hobby is an inherently geeky thing and traditionally, there are more males who enter the arena. Just head down to your company’s IT or engineering department and you’ll usually find more thorns than roses.
We asked Kate this question to which she said, “The tech space is predominantly male driven, which means those who are typically interested in tech, are men.
“There was a gap in the market as female users are equally important. I realised many female users out there don't actually know where to begin when it comes to choosing the right device for themselves.
“The main reason I started this career is to create informative content and to help turn complicated tech into something fun and simple to understand, regardless of your gender.”
What phone does Kate use daily?
Having reviewed over 150 phones, we asked her what her daily driver was and she revealed that it was the iPhone 14 Pro.
“There are many reasons why I decided to switch to iPhone, and one of them is simply AirDrop. AirDrop helps me tremendously in my line of work. As a content creator, transferring files wirelessly between my iPhone 14 Pro and MacBook in a seamless and quick manner is very important especially when attending back to back events and I have to edit content on-the-go,” she said.
She highlighted that Move to iOS app is convenient for switching phones—including WhatsApp messages (a feature that was only introduced in 2022).
Speaking of other standout features that she enjoys, Kate mentioned that the Landscape Face ID was “One of the best things ever”. This writer was today years old when they found out that landscape unlocking was a thing—and he’s used Face ID since 2019!
She also shared that she uses an Apple Watch, MacBook, and AirPods Pro every day so she’s pretty much ensconced in the ecosystem at this point.
If you’re interested, you can watch her first impressions of the iPhone 14 series here, her iOS 17 preview is here if you’re an iPhone user, and you can find her preview of the yellow iPhone here:
Move to iOS is available on GooglePlay now and if you’re interested in the second public beta, the iOS 17 Beta is out now.