Reviews
While I generally prefer to focus on technical articles, I’ve recently started reviewing components as a way to describe some items that come across my path but which don’t fit the tutorial format typical of the “Technical and DIY’ section. These may be items that I have purchased for my own use and which I feel are worthy of the effort to describe them in the detail that I feel is necessary for a review. Or they may be items that I have requested a review sample of because there is something about the component that intrigues me.
In the summary section of each review, I provide a subjective rating of the unit. This is simply my personal feeling on whether and how strongly I would recommend the component to a friend or acquaintance. I have four ratings:
Not recommended. The component is not one to seek out. That doesn’t mean there is anything wrong with it, necessarily, just that there a a lot of better options to be spending your time looking at. Chances are, I won’t use this rating very often, as it’s not really worth the effort of completing a review if a component is in this class.
Recommended with reservations. I recommend the component as one to audition if its purpose and price are in the “ballpark” of what you are looking for. However there are some specific items that must be noted and taken into consideration. If it weren’t for these, I would give the component a Recommended or Highly Recommended rating; but if you take account of them, there’s a very good chance you would be very pleased with the component. But my conscience demands that I flag that there are some issues to be taken into account.
Recommended. I recommend the component as one to audition if its purpose and price are in the “ballpark” of what you are looking for. You can certainly do worse than choose a component with this rating.
Highly recommended. This is an enthusiastic recommendation for the component, and I believe that it’s worth going to some extra effort to seek out and explore whether it will be a good fit for your needs.
Please note that while the ratings are influenced by the component’s price, the rating is not merely a “value for money” indicator. Inexpensive components are less likely to garner high ratings, simply because their cost tends to work against them.