Tested’s Norman Chan:
At the point where your goal is to have a review out as soon as possible, you are absolutely compromising the quality of the review and your editorial credibility–those things are absolutely mutually exclusive. Those reviewers may as well camp out in a Best Buy and use a product on the shelf for a few hours and call it a review. The sad thing is, I don’t think we’re too far away from that.
Reviews serve to give purchasing advice to readers who want to know if something is worth their money. Tests, benchmarks, and the sharing of a reviewers’ personal use experience are the means to that end–but they are not the review. A review is a conclusive statement: buy this product or don’t, and why.
Completely agree with Norm here. As much as I enjoy The Verge overall for tech coverage, this notion that after only a day or 48 hours with a device you’re able to form a comprehensive, definitive review is ridiculous. I really felt this come through in the Verge recent reviews for the Nexus 7 and Chromecast. Both felt underdeveloped; I would have happily waited at least a few more days to get a more comprehensive take on the device.