Introducing review scorecards!

As you may have noticed, here at Engadget we’ve stepped down hard on the gas pedal when it comes to reviews. We’ve been putting a lot of time and resources into delivering more product reviews at a faster pace, so you guys can know just exactly what you’re getting into when it comes to the gear that we cover. In support of those efforts, today we’re happy to introduce our review scorecards. We wanted to find a way to deliver a snapshot of our reviews in a really simple, glanceable manner, and also make those snapshots available to sort and search through. So starting immediately, we’ll be including scorecards in any new review that goes up, and those cards will appear on our new reviews sorting page. Right now we’ve got some simple sorting options in there, but we’re working on more in-depth sorting options that will allow you to drill down on specifics, so you can find exactly the product you’re looking for. We’re also in the process of moving backwards through our older reviews and getting cards in place, so if you see a few holes here or there, don’t be surprised.

Some guidelines you should consider for these cards: firstly, the cards are based on our review at the time the post was published, meaning they’re not relative to one another (unless the products were reviewed in the same category at the same time). That means that the G1 can have a higher rating than the Droid X, even though right now it’s obvious that the Droid X is a superior phone. The Droid X is being reviewed now, and the G1 was reviewed then. Also, we want to provide a scale of what these numbers mean, so that there isn’t any confusion. A 0 rating you’ll likely never see. It means that the product was so bad we couldn’t even rate it. 1 means the product is pure crap, 2-3 means that the product has a few redeeming qualities, but is not very good. 4 is an okay product, but not something we could recommend. 5 is fair; not great, but not horrible. 6 is a decent product with a few issues, 7 is a strong product with some minor flaws, 8 is a great product with few flaws. 9 is nearly perfect, and 10 (which we haven’t handed out yet) is perfect.

As with any big addition to the site, we’re really interested to hear what you guys have to say. If you have any input, positive or negative, sound off below in comments!

Introducing review scorecards! originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 01 Jul 2010 13:40:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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