Editorial Policy

Our Editorial Mission

Honest Ratings exists to help readers make a confident purchase decision on consumer tech they'll use every day — earbuds, keyboards, mice, monitors, power banks, hubs, smartwatches, webcams, portable power stations, and wall chargers — based on genuine, hands-on testing rather than repackaged spec sheets. Every editorial decision on this Site, from which products we test to how we score them, is made with that goal in mind, independent of advertising or affiliate revenue.

Editorial Independence

This Site is funded through the Amazon Associates Program, other affiliate arrangements, and Google AdSense display advertising, all described in our Affiliate Disclosure. None of these revenue sources influence which products we choose to review, the scores we assign, or the recommendations we publish. We do not offer paid placement, and we do not accept payment from manufacturers in exchange for a guaranteed review, a specific score, or favorable coverage. If we ever accept a sponsored placement in the future, it will be clearly and prominently labeled as sponsored content, separate from our editorial reviews, and it will not appear in our scored review or ranking content.

How We Source Test Units

We test products in two ways, and we disclose which applies on every review:

• Purchased units — In most cases, we buy the product ourselves, at retail price, the same way a reader would. This is our preferred method because it removes any question of manufacturer influence over which unit we receive.
• Manufacturer-provided loaner units — For newer or higher-priced products, a manufacturer or PR representative may send us a review unit at no cost. Accepting a loaner unit never guarantees a positive review, a specific score, or even that we publish coverage at all, and we say so plainly to anyone who submits a product for consideration through our Submit a Product page. Loaner units are tested against the same criteria, using the same scoring rubric, as units we purchase ourselves.

Loaner units are not resold. Depending on the arrangement with the manufacturer, they are either returned after testing, donated, or kept for long-term durability tracking that may inform a future update to the review.

Author Expertise and Accountability

Reviews on this Site are written by people who directly use the product for the testing period described in our Review Methodology, not assembled purely from press materials. Where an article has multiple contributors — for example, a writer and a separate tester — both are credited.

Corrections Policy

We take factual accuracy seriously, and we would rather fix a mistake quickly than leave it standing. If a reader, manufacturer, or member of our own team identifies an error — an incorrect specification, an outdated price, or a factual mistake in testing methodology — we investigate and correct it as soon as reasonably possible. Substantive corrections, meaning anything that changes a conclusion, score, or material fact, are noted with an updated date on the article. Minor corrections, such as fixing a typo or updating a discontinued retailer link, are made without a formal notice. You can report a possible error to amirchandler7@gmail.com.

Keeping Reviews Current

Consumer tech changes fast — firmware updates, price drops, and successor models can all make an older review less useful. We periodically revisit published reviews and buying guides to update pricing, note discontinued models, and add newer competitors to comparison tables. Where a product has changed enough to affect our original conclusions, we re-test rather than simply editing the text.

Use of AI Tools

We may use software tools, including AI-assisted tools, to help with tasks like organizing testing notes, drafting outlines, or checking grammar. We do not publish AI-generated review conclusions, scores, or claims about a product's real-world performance — those come exclusively from a human tester's direct, hands-on experience with the unit in front of them, fact-checked before publication.

Conflicts of Interest

Team members and regular contributors are expected to disclose any personal financial interest in a company we cover, such as owning stock in a manufacturer, before reviewing that company's products, and we reassign the review to someone without that conflict. We also don't allow a reviewer to cover a product made by a close friend or family member's employer without disclosing the relationship in the article. This is a small industry and these situations come up occasionally; disclosure, not pretending the conflict doesn't exist, is our standard.

Contact

Questions about our editorial standards can be sent to amirchandler7@gmail.com.