How We Test, Rate, and Review at TechRadar
Our mission is simple: to be your tech experts. We are your source for tech buying advice, usage and long-term insights to help you find the best tech and get the most out of it.
We pride ourselves on our independence and our rigorous review testing process, devoting long-term attention to the products we review and ensuring our reviews are constantly updated and maintained – regardless of when a device was released. If you can still buy it, it’s on our radar.
We have assembled a global team of some of the best technology journalists in the world. They are not only experts in their fields, but they are also the people we write our reviews for: people who want to know about and use the latest and greatest technology.
Our editorial independence is backed by the weight of one of the world’s largest technology publishers, Future publicationwhich means we can tell you what we think of a product without fear or bias.
For more information about TechRadar, visit our About Us page.
Our reviews guarantee
This is our promise to you:
- We do not accept payment for product reviews. Ever.
- We select products to review based on what we think our readers want to know.
- We tell you what we think, not what advertisers want you to hear.
- We tell it like we see it. Our expert reviewers love technology and want you to love it too. If it’s crap, we’ll warn you.
- If a product does not meet our high standards, we will tell you why.
- We field test products and maintain a minimum acceptable number of test days before writing our reviews, to ensure that every product is thoroughly tested.
- If you feel that we are not living up to our promises, please email us and we will try to make it right.
Our rating system
To keep things clear and simple, we use the well-known five-star rating system: the more stars, the better.
We assess our products on a number of criteria, depending on the specific characteristics of a product type. We give each criterion a score from 1 to 5, for example:
Design – How does the product look and feel? Is it well built or does it feel cheap?
Functions – Does it have the features and functionalities we expect/want?
Usability – How easy is it to use and get the most out of it? Are the controls in the right place and is the interface logical?
Performance – How well does the product work? Do all the functions work as they should?
Value – Is the launch price a good value when weighed against the other criteria?
Test scorecard
At the end of each review, you’ll find a scorecard for each section. The scorecard will look something like the one below, and while these scores help us determine our final star rating for a product, they don’t always match up.
| Attributes | Notes | Judgement |
|---|---|---|
| Design | With a sleek, high-quality style, (EXAMPLE) offers a design that matches the competition, and the price is right. | 4/5 |
| Display | It’s simple. This is the best screen we’ve ever tested on a (SAMPLE). If screen quality is important to you, look no further. | 5/5 |
| Performance | The (EXAMPLE) is smooth and nimble in its operation and has enough power to remain competitive, but does not break any new performance barriers | 4/5 |
| Camera | The weakest point of (EXAMPLE) is still a solid offering, it just lacks the extra features and colorful accents of some rivals | 3/5 |
| Battery | If you don’t want to reach for the charger more than once a day, (EXAMPLE) is the right choice with a battery life of up to 1.5 days | 4.5/5 |
| Value | For the price, (EXAMPLE) is packed with features often found in more expensive rivals | 4.5/5 |
Overall Ratings
Our expert reviewers take into account the scorecard ratings and the nuances of the individual product to determine the final star rating, which is displayed at the top of the review.
TechRadar’s star rating system is designed to give you an initial indication of whether or not we would recommend a product. However, we always recommend reading our reviews to find out whether a product is right for your specific needs.
The final star rating is a five-star rating. Reviewers can award half a star if they feel a product falls between two of the ratings.
Our assessment prices
TechRadar has four product awards:
Editors’ Choice Award
The Editor’s Choice award goes to any product that receives a 5-star TechRadar review in accordance with our Review Guarantee.
Great Value Award
The Great Value award is given to products that offer excellent value for money and are therefore worth considering. This award is not given alongside an Editor’s Choice or Best in Class award, as excellent value for money is part of the criteria for those awards.
Best in class award
This award is given to the best product in an important judging category.
Recommended price
A product that scores 4 stars or higher qualifies for the Recommended award. While the product may fall short in some areas, it still demonstrates enough quality to be highly recommended.
Our practical reviews
We use the word “review” as a headline for two different types of articles: “hands-on reviews” and “full product reviews.” It’s important to distinguish between the two.
Hands-on reviews are the first impressions a journalist gets of a piece of kit, based on spending some time with it. It could be a few moments, or a few hours.
The most important thing is that we were able to play with it ourselves and give you an idea of what it’s like to use it, even if it’s just a start.
We use the word ‘review’ here because we are giving a real opinion based on its use. And because readers increasingly use the word ‘review’ in searches for early opinions about a product.
However, hands-on reviews are not the same as full product reviews. Our full product reviews are always based on the finished product, which has been thoroughly tested and benchmarked and always includes a full verdict and score.
Our reviewers
Our reviewers are specialists, each with expertise in a particular technology. With decades of combined experience reviewing technology under their belts, our team has lived, breathed, and reviewed technology consistently since TechRadar’s inception in 2007.
Our US Editor-in-Chief, Lance Ulanoff, has more than 30 years of experience as a technology journalist at a number of leading media outlets, including Mashable and PCMag. Our UK Editor-in-Chief, Marc McLaren, has more than 20 years of experience publishing tech content at sites like Tom’s Guide and Stuff.
But that’s just the tip of the iceberg of a diverse and large global team operating across four continents, in fourteen countries and eleven different languages.
The result is a team with an almost encyclopedic knowledge of the areas they cover. As a result, our reviews not only give you an in-depth experience of each product, but also the essential broader context. So you get exactly the information you need when making a purchasing decision.
Specialist expertise
Because our writers are specialists, they are in constant contact with the communities they report on. This means that our experts can evaluate products against others of the same type.
TechRadar only commissions our reviews from people with the required expertise, from our own team of writers to other external experts when needed.
This means that when you see a home theater system review on TechRadar, you know it’s been reviewed by a home theater expert, not mobile phone experts.
How we test
We emphasize real-world testing over labs because that’s where products are used. However, we benchmark every product we sell against specific performance indicators.
Find out more about our testing procedures:
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