Hi,
I know someone who writes for Computer Times personally - for obvious reasons I shall not divuldge his identity.
Apparently, CT reviewers are under some rather stupid rules set by CT for their reviews:
1. Cannot compare other similar products - Since CT is a weekly publication and people tend not to keep it, readers have no way to refer back to reviews of "other products". This is unlike magazines like PC Mag etc where there's always a available reference, benchmark, etc. Reviewers are always different, and they might not know about the other products anyway.
2. Cannot any how condemn the product coz manufacturers will not be happy. In fact, they try to put it in positive light. Otherwise, when the manufacturer is unhappy with the review, they won't advertise anymore, and that means lost revenue.
2.5 : Combination of 1 + 2, can't really make a comment like "The Nikon D100 produces sharper images than the S2 Pro/D60/whatever", coz Fuji/Canon will come after CT.
3. Not enough reviewers, so they anyhow assign stuff to any reviewer. Then you get non-gamers reviewing games, non photographers reviewing cameras and the like.
In the end, they can't really give an objective review of the product because they are so restricted. it ends up like it is - simply a rehash of product information and what the reviewer thinks of it.
So that's the situation as it is. Sad.
Regards
CK