A few months back, I won myself a 6-month subscription of the local HardwareMag magazine. Being the cheap person I am, I couldn’t adopt the indifferent attitude as some of my friends who won the same prize did, and sent in the letter to confirm my subscription.

As the name implies, this magazine deals with technology, ranging from software reviews to consumer products, not limited to computer hardware. Each issue is about a 130 pages thick, covering the latest news, some commentary, and of course reviews which accounts for the largest portion of the magazine.

Just like anime, there exists a “hardware elite group” in Singapore, which exhibits almost the exact same characteristics as the “anime elite group”, labeling people who buy pre-build computers from Dell (I don’t encourage this either but I don’t harbour a murderous intention to anyone who does), and have computers running at stock speeds, as noobs and the like. I was once part of this movement but retired after a year because I lost interest. Note that there never is any official membership; heck this “hardware elite group” is simply something I constructed to make things easier to explain.

HardwareMag has never been As it happens, a good number of these elite are members of VR-Zone. I used to be a member as well — I even own a member’s shirt with my handle/nickname on the sleeve, communing at the forums, until one day after some purposeful thought I figured out it was too expensive a hobby to pursue. So I quit. I shan’t divulge what I did during my one year of being a hardware fanatic, but I no longer visit Sim Lim on a regular basis, nor fret over speeds and looks of my computer. This does not mean that I do not keep in touch with the latest on technology.

My second copy of HardwareMag came in the mail a few days ago, and I’m just done reading it. I’ve come to identify one problem, among a possible many, of HardwareMag: They’re just too lenient with their reviews. I’ve read two issues. If memory serves well, out of 10 points, the lowest score I’ve seen is 7 (seen thrice? maybe more), the highest is 10 (seen at most twice), and the rest get a score between 8 and 9.5 inclusive. It makes one think, if everything is getting about the same score, what good is a rating system? Why not do away with the rating, throw us the specs, put in some commentary, save ink, trees, and printing costs, and avoid deceiving the gullible?

Every gadget, device and product in the consumer world can be genearlly grouped under the 3C categories. The ‘Computers’ category is all about the gear that sits on your mhogany desk near your PC. If it involves talking or messaging, it’s under ‘Communications’. Anything else that doesn’t fit in the previous two falls under ‘Consumer Electronics’. Some reviews are brief while others can span to ten pages long. Either way, rest assured that they are all thoroughly REVIEWED.
HardwareMag, August 2006 Issue, Page 40

There are 3 awards given to reviews that meet the criteria: the HWM Platinum Award for a score of perfect 10, the HWM Gold Award for the score of 9 and 9.5, and the HWM Silver Award for the score of 8 and 8.5. I used to think that products were really good when I saw these tags attached to them. Companies like to make a big deal of these awards, often printing them on the packaging in prominent places. Now I’ve realised that these don’t mean a thing. Prior to two months ago I never bought a copy of HWM, so I did not get the chance to find out what was the quality of the reviews they gave.

Personally, I’m quite tired of reading all the praise that HardwareMag has for the products their review. Understandably, they can’t bash a product too bad because HWM is a recognised magazine with a company name and reputation at stake, and companies might not want to send in future products if too many reviews turn out sour. Most online review sites (keyword here is most) run by enthusiasts don’t face this imposition since they’re not running a business, so they need not worry about giving an honest opinion. This shortcoming of HWM might hence be the reason why the elite, who gets a kick out of genuinely slamming a bad product (I say this from experience), detests HWM.

So what are these “constant ingredients” that have given us our success? Let’s start with our content. We do consumer electronics, computer and communication equipment reviews and trend stories that virtually no website or other local magazine can match in terms of technical comprehensiveness and depth.
Andrew Chan, Editor of HWM

I can’t say that HWM is a success. Rather, I think Singaporeans are rather limited in choice. HWM has the longest history, and is hence more popular than other magazines like CHIP and cheaper than the America-based PC Magazine. Incidentally, search “hardware magazine”, and voila! the first few hits all point to HWM. While their technical comprehensiveness is clearly present in the reviews, I think that they need to work on their depth. It would also be good to point out a few “bad products” every issue or so.

Please note that this is the second issue of HWM I have at hand. I do not gurantee that my opinions are well-supported, as they are based solely on the information presented in the July and August 2006 issues. Correct me if there are discrepancies.