Awards are worthless

Being Awarded for actions taken or products delivered is always quite an honor, no matter how small or big the achievement. In hardware review world however the whole Award value system has gone down the drain drastically the last several years.

It goes back to 2004 and before, The Inquirer summed it up perfectly back then:





It boils down to the fact that many hardware review sites, big or small, are handing out “Editor Choice Awards” to practically every single piece of hardware they reviewed. Shouldn’t an Award mean that product X stands out from the rest of the contenders, what value does that “Award” title have if it’s being given to every piece of hardware no matter how good/bad it is. Imagine every movie and every actor/actress receiving an Oscar. How special will it be to win an Oscar if that was the case? Exactly: not very special.

If a movie gets an Oscar you can pretty much be sure the movie doesn’t “suck”, it might not be the best movie ever for you, but you’ll know it won’t be a B-rated horrible thing.

How can somebody reading hardware reviews know if the Award handed out to that product is worth something? Since they are being given out freely, they have little value.