K
Ken Blake, MVP
When I have the personal experience to rely on, I
respect my own reviews over anyone else's.
I'm the one he asked (although I missed his original question), so
I'll throw in my two cents. Me too; personal experience is always
best. Second to that are opinions of other individuals who I know and
respect.
Mags aren't
useless,
As reviews, they are close to useless, in my opinion (except for the
point below).
in general aren't biased,
I strongly disagree. Any magazine that derives a large percentage of
its income from advertising *has* to be biased.
but sometimes are
poorly tested
That is also true.
so results may vary widely, but you do
get an overall feeling for at least the reliability and
user-friendliness from them even if you disagree with
them.
My view is that the only real value of a magazine review is its
description of a product. For example, if a review tells me what
features a product has and what features are missing, I get to
immediately make some sort of a judgment based on what features I
personally would be likely to use and find important.