01 · Map required accounts, cloud dependence and permissions.
This checkpoint must be visible in the article receipt or its linked evidence.
Methodology · version 1.1
Utility with privacy attached
Version 1.1 took effect September 22, 2026. This deliberate transparency revision adds the two-score policy; it is not a silent rewrite. It applies to every Smart home review, guide and comparison.
02 · Check mute, deletion and local-control options.
This checkpoint must be visible in the article receipt or its linked evidence.
03 · Evaluate setup requirements, reliability evidence and documented failure recovery.
This checkpoint must be visible in the article receipt or its linked evidence.
04 · A feature claim is not a privacy guarantee.
This checkpoint must be visible in the article receipt or its linked evidence.
Scoring gate
Hands-on lab-test score: Used only after the editorial team physically tests and measures the product under a documented setup.
Research-based editorial score: Editorial judgment from published review consensus, specification analysis and third-party hands-on reports — not a lab-test result. It follows the article’s relative ranking plus its cited pros, cons, verdict and comparisons; products without an honest differentiating basis are marked Not scored.
Why versioned and dated
Methodology pages rot. PC Gamer’s how-we-test page went 1,583 days without an update — still listing obsolete test rigs — while its real methods lived inside individual guides. That is the failure this page is built to avoid: every methodology here is versioned, dated and reviewed on a schedule.
Evidence honesty, stated plainly: we report the sources reviewed and label manufacturer claims. A methodology should show what supports a conclusion instead of implying product access or measurements that did not occur.