How to Find Online Electronics Reviews

When purchasing electronics, online reviews can help to ensure that a device will meet your expectations. The ever-changing nature of electronics make it a constant battle to keep track of the latest information, reviews can provide helpful information to give you confidence before making a purchase.

• Check  the websites of electronics publications. There are often reviews and firsthand accounts of device usage and performance. If the device is older, most major publications keep an archive of past issues on their websites that you can search as well. Some websites will require a subscription, others will not.


• Most major storefront retailers, also have a website. These websites will often list customer reviews of products on the product page.


• Online retailers, such as NewEgg and Amazon, include product reviews.


• Online video websites, such as YouTube and MetaCafe can provide video reviews of many electronic devices. By searching the product’s name or model number, you can find videos for everything from device packaging to operating the device.


• Consumer Reports provides unbiased professional reviews on their website. However, they require a subscription. If you frequently purchase electronics, this may be a worthwhile investment.


• Most manufacturers will include specifications for a device, including model numbers and any awards the product has received. Searching these awards on the internet can offer further information on a product as well.


• By searching the model number and the word reviews on most search engines will provide a list of sites including reviews. This can be handy for finding blog posts or articles listed for magazines that do not always deal with electronics.

When researching an electronic device online, you should always check how the website you are viewing moderates the reviews.  In addition, if possible, check reviews of other devices by an author to help establish credibility.  While the internet can be an invaluable source of information, always keep in mind that anyone can post a review on most sites. Sometimes, reviews can be a result of user error or poor research on the reviewer’s side. Sometimes reviews are even blatant advertisement or promotion for a product by a paid third-party. Because of this, most online electronics review websites will have ‘featured’ or ‘most-helpful’ reviews, as well as allowing the users to promote or demote each review. Using these features, you can eliminate inaccurate reviews and gain valuable, and reliable, information about a product.