“For several years, I have written at great length about the problems that arise when Consumer Reports tackles tech gear,” Gene Steinberg writes for TechNightOwl. “When it comes to such personal tech gear as smartphones, tablets, and particularly personal computers, CR falls down on the job. “Way down.”
Steinberg writes, “A notable example is the curious way in which they handled the alleged ‘Antennagate’ scandal, involving the original iPhone 4 and the possibility that you could kill reception with what became known as a “death grip.” Despite all the visual evidence that a similar phenomenon could be easily duplicated on other phones when held in somewhat different ways, CR decided that only the iPhone 4 was at fault and, despite getting the highest numeric rating in a smartphone feature, still wouldn’t recommend the product. CR was even oblivious to manufacturer warning labels and printed documentation that also cautioned against holding their mobile handsets the wrong way.”
“When CR reviews personal computers, it’s not at all clear how closely they try to match the various specs, or whether the basics, such as display size, hard drive capacity, and memory, are sufficient for them to put products in the same overall category. Although CR is aware of the existence of Mac OS X and Windows as separate, distinct platforms, they do not actually compare the two in any meaningful way, so you can decide whether to go Apple or with one of the Windows PC models,” Steinberg writes. “Now what’s unfortunate about all this is that CR seems tone deaf to the problems with their reviews. They aren’t asked the hard questions by a fawning media, and thus have nothing to explain. But with all the resources at their disposal, they should do a better job than anyone. Too bad they haven’t figured that out.”
Much more in the full article – recommended – here.
MacDailyNews Take: As we’ve been saying for many years, Consumer Reports is a garbage publication. If you subscribe to Consumer Reports, stop wasting your money and cancel your subscription immediately. Nobody should read it for anything to do with tech and, if they make such blatantly obvious mistakes in their testing methodology with tech, it should make you wonder just how badly they’re failing at rating vacuum cleaners, washing machines, and toasters, too.
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