We strive to review products as objectively as possible. However, product reviews are inherently subjective because every product is assessed based on the reviewer’s past experiences with similar products, his or her personal preferences, and how the product fits in with the reviewer’s lifestyle.
At Review Technica, we have created a review methodology and rating guides to provide some structure to our reviews. The following explains our methods and review ratings.
We review products only after we have used them for an extended period of time. The amount of time spent with a product varies, but will use a product in daily life until we fully understand all the major pros, cons, and nuances of the product. Although many online publications want to be the first to review a product when it is released, we would rather take the time necessary to provide a more balanced and thoughtful review rather than a short or rushed summary.
Pros and Cons
Near the beginning of every review we have a pros and cons section. This section contains attributes we believe are objectively positive or negative for any reasonable use case.
Ratings
Every product or service that we review will receive an overall rating. This rating will be a value between one and ten. The higher the score, the better the product. Unless stated otherwise, the final rating is the average of each subcategory rating. Occasionally, the writer or editor may choose to weight some categories higher than others, but if this occurs, it will be noted in the review.
The subcategories we use are typically standardized for a common product like a phone, but which categories are rated is ultimately up to the author and editor.
The following is the ten point scale we use and how we interpret each number.
We represent the scores with colors as well. Poor quality products that score below 5 are shown in red and are not recommended. Products of average quality are shown in yellow with scores from 5 to 7.5. Great products that score 7.5 or above are demonstrated by a green rating.
Disclosures
If the author, editor, or Review Technica has any financial stake in the product or service reviewed it will be disclosed at the end of the review. We will also disclose if we received a product for free to keep after the review.
If no disclosure is present, that means we received either a review unit that had to be returned or that we used our own money to purchase the product. In these cases we received no compensation or gifts in exchange for the review from the manufacturer or company that provided the review unit. Please see our ethics policy for more information.