How to read a magazine review

By Mike McGann
Posted Monday, December 4, 2006

As a former tech magazine editor, I’m often asked how tech product reviews work. Obviously, it’s not, as many might think, hanging out and watching TV all day or chatting on a cell phone, although both or either could be involved. It can be tedious, painstaking and slow work, often involving measuring the performance of a device — both the audio and video performance of many devices can be measured, offering something beyond, “This sounds nice” to back up your review.

Maybe the better question is “how do people write reviews?”

Because, in truth, depending upon whom you write for, that can be a complicated answer. So, if someone who has been writing these reviews on and off for about a decade, how can you, the consumer have any hope of learning to read between the lines? Because, silly, I’m going to tell you:

How to read a product review.

Before I start, let me offer a lot of caveats: there are a handful of reviewers who will tell you flat out that a product is lousy. But the truth of the matter is this: there aren’t many. And it’s not the reviewer’s fault, or that of the magazine editor’s, for that matter, either. The issue is advertisers. They lean pretty hard on magazines to get, if not for favorable reviews, then a lack of unfavorable reviews. And this is something that has only gotten worse in recent years, as the publishing business has been hammered in readership and ad losses to the Internet.

So here’s hint no. 1: if you can’t find any reviews of a product you’re interested in, be worried. We would often send back products that were lousy without reviewing them — and this is pretty typical among consumer magazines. It sort of falls into the “if you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything.” It’s pretty much as big a red flag as Earl Dittman of wireless.com being quoted for a movie review.

Hint no. 2 falls into the same category, but requires a subtler look to see it. If a review is filled with feint praise such as “listening to the POS-666 home audio receiver was quite enjoyable.” If they don’t mention specifics, and keep things vague, be worried. The truth could be “listening to the POS-666 home audio receiver was quite enjoyable because we happened to be drinking heavily and watching anime.” If a review is chock full of vague platitudes, maybe it isn’t terrible, but there’s nothing special about it either. It’s warning sign that the product might be no more than mediocre, or is over priced. For practice, look for some Bose reviews on the Internet.

Also, look out for glossed over issues such as “we had some minor issues with the user interface, but most people are able to learn to adapt.” That could mean that product nearly electrocuted a reviewer — or that the user interface was designed by drunken monkeys — and is another big, red flag.

Now, on the converse, if a review goes nuts, pay attention. THIS IS WHAT YOU WANT TO FIND. Since you basically have to say something nice about every product and “what we liked most about the POS-666 is that it never once caught fire while we had it in for review” doesn’t count, when you really find a product that kicks butt, you find yourself going over the top to praise a product and being very specific about what is good about it and what a good value it is.

Finally, my last, maybe most important piece of advice: don’t buy any audio equipment on the basis of reviews. Way too many of these reviews are done by people in their 40s and 50s who — and let me put this delicately — can’t freaking hear. Any reputable retailer will allow you to listen before you buy — and while store acoustic setups tend to suck, it probably won’t sound any worse in your home, it’s better than basing your decision on the words of a deaf person.

At the end of the day, the important thing is not whether Home Gear Vision Entertainment liked it, but whether you like it. Take your time, figure out what you want out of the product, what kind of environment you plan to bring it into (especially important with audio gear) and learn as much as possible from reading user comments and reviews. Consumers tend to be quick to point out when a product is a dog, so you could save a ton of money and grief with a little time searching on Google.