My rant about The Verge's reviews

Posted by Saad073 on March 5, 2012 03:43 pm 11

So I just read through the Xperia S review and I think the phone has fallen victim to some of The Verge's bad habits.

There's one thing I've noticed in a lot of The Verge's reviews and its that they heavily factor in context. For example they'll review the Droid RAZR but then say wait for a future device, like a Galaxy Nexus.

Similarly, Vlad's argument that the Xperia S is too late doesn't make too much sense to me. With Android phones in particular there's ALWAYS something better on the horizon, and the Xperia S has competitive specs for what's currently on the market. Plus the rest of the review seems highly positive towards the Xperia S so if it's still a solid phone irrespective of what's going to come out eventually, why underscore it?

In the Xperia S video review, Vlad said folks should wait for the HTC One X but I disagree with recommending an unproven product. The One X is not a guaranteed slam dunk yet -- there could always be some major flaw that sends buyers sprinting back into stores with receipts in hand.

I don't mean to say they should stop comparing devices against one another, I just think they should reduce how much the future plays a role in the review of a device thats available today.

Side-Rant: I also have a hunch that some people at The Verge use 'The Breakdown' to get the score they want to give it rather than the real average. But thats something I can't really argue against since that would vary from person to person.