YouTuber FreeZia, who is under fire for content that openly disparages Galaxy users. Her YouTube channel

YouTuber FreeZia (Song Ji-a) has come under fire for remarks that openly belittle users of a particular smartphone brand. Having previously faced public backlash over a ‘counterfeit-wearing controversy’, she is again taking a barrage of criticism for applying a materialistic yardstick.

In a vlog uploaded to her YouTube channel on the 8th, FreeZia mentioned the Galaxy smartphone brand. She said, “To be honest, I do not like it if my boyfriend uses a Galaxy,” and added, “It really annoys me to imagine him filming me with that phone. The proportions make me look like a three-heads-tall figure.”

She went on, “Galaxy and iPhone produce different photo looks. I do not recall ever having handled a Galaxy.”

Immediate criticism poured in pointing out her rashness. On social networking services (SNS), strong displeasure is spreading, with comments such as ‘It is arrogant and rude to go beyond personal taste and openly denigrate a specific brand and its users’ and ‘A YouTuber with hundreds of thousands of followers is fueling the phone class theory that has emerged as a social issue among adolescents.’

Observers point out that FreeZia’s prejudice is far removed from the actual smartphone consumption indicators of today’s teens and twenty-somethings.

According to Gallup Korea’s ‘2025 Smartphone Usage and Purchase Intent Survey’ released last July, both men and women in their teens and twenties showed a sharp rise in Galaxy usage rates and future purchase intent, buoyed by the latest Android AI features and the foldable form factor.

In reality, the younger generation is flexibly embracing device practicality and foldable technology, yet, critics say, an influencer who presents herself as a trend icon remains trapped in an outdated ‘Apple aesthetic’ frame.

FreeZia’s assertion that ‘Galaxy has poor photo proportions and color’ also conflicts with objective facts. In fact, proportion distortion and the like are classified as optical phenomena that arise from a smartphone’s field of view and the photographer’s use of angles, rather than differences in device specifications.

According to tests by the global smartphone camera evaluation organization DxOMark, the Galaxy S24 Ultra “offers vivid, pleasant colors under all lighting conditions, and in bright light, portrait photos render skin tones more naturally and realistically than the competing iPhone 15 Pro Max.”

This episode, in particular, is intensifying criticism as it dovetails with the 2022 ‘counterfeit controversy’, when FreeZia wore fake luxury items on broadcasts and social media as if they were genuine and even posted a handwritten apology.