Review Policies

Table of Contents

We do not accept guest posts from freelance writers, PR people, brands, or manufacturers.

If You Have a Product That You Would Like a Gear Diary Team Member to Review, Please Read This to Learn More About the Process and Our Review Policies

First, contact us via email.

Once your email has been received, we will consider whether your product fits Gear Diary’s scope. Your email will then be forwarded to the team or a specific reviewer if your product is their forté.

The team loves to review all types of gear, and as you’ve probably noticed – we cover just about everything on Gear Diary – so don’t worry if your product seems a little different or totally offbeat. Chances are that the more original your product is, the more we will enjoy doing its review!

Once your product has been approved, you will be supplied with a shipping address; we will assign the appropriate reviewer who may contact you for additional information. If your product is software, you can ship a retail package to the supplied address or provide download and registration details.

If you happen to have one of our physical addresses (perhaps because we have previously done a review for you), and you send a product without prior approval, then please understand that there will be no guarantees your product will be reviewed or posted on, but we may add it to a future gift guide.

Please click here to see example s of our reviews.

As you will no doubt see, each reviewer has their own style; if there is a particular writer that you are interested in for your product’s review, you are welcome to request them in your initial email, but it will be up to the team member or editor to accept. We will let you know if another writer is available if they cannot accommodate your request.

When you send a review item to a team member or editor, you acknowledge that Gear Diary will write an unbiased review of your product for publication on the Gear Diary site.

You can not buy a positive review by sending a non-returnable product, sponsoring a post, or purchasing advertising on Gear Diary.

We also do not cross-post reviews to seller sites such as Walmart, Best Buy, or Amazon.

All reviews include the source of the product reviewed in their summary.

They will mention whether the product was supplied to us by the manufacturer (or their representative, e.g., a PR agency or other representative) or if it was a personal purchase.

We publish both positive and negative reviews.

We will not neglect to mention a submitted review product just because we didn’t like it; the only exception is when we have found a serious fault during the review process, acknowledged by the manufacturer, and the product has been removed from selling channels while the glitch is worked out. In other words, if a product is available for sale in its current version or design, our obligation to potential customers is to let them know about our experience with your product — good or bad — and what they can reasonably expect by using it.

You will be contacted if the item received appears to be defective, as it is only fair that a working item is reviewed.

We are consumers, and we write from a consumer’s perspective.

If your publicly available product is good, we want to let people know about it and our experience while using it. If we find that your product does not perform as claimed, we will also let people know about that, even if the experience was negative.

If the product you submit is a health or fitness device, be aware that the review will reflect the writer’s experience while using your product.

If you are making medically based claims about your product, and we cannot receive or prove the benefits your product claims, our review will reflect that fact.

Manufacturer, Developer, and Supplier comments are welcome and encouraged in the comments section.

However, the review text, minus any marked quotes, will always be the reviewer’s own.

You will not be given the chance to “approve” any review before publication, nor will you be given any kind of editorial authority before your product’s review is published.

Our readers count on us to provide reviews based on our experience using your products; we may include your claims about the product in quotes, but the conclusions we reach are always our own.

Once an article is published on Gear Diary, we will issue updates as appropriate, adding “UPDATED:” to the title and then amending any factual errors that have been brought to our attention and verified by us or adding more insight to the review after longer use of the product.

We will not, however, remove published posts because a manufacturer or PR person disagrees with our conclusions.

If a vendor or manufacturer requests it, we will review updated products when they are supplied.

If a second, updated review is posted, we will mention the previous review in the latter and add a link to the latest review in the original.

Gear Diary will not review vaporware or non-released hardware and software.

While we will be happy to write about your future product in a News or Gear Bits post or with the item specifically tagged as a preview, it is not fair to Gear Diary’s readers to publish an “official” review for an item that is not yet available to the public, or that may never be available to the public.

Items sent will be used during the review process; for this reason, we generally do not return the review items provided.

We never return wearables such as headphones or fitness trackers, and we will not review headphones or other wearables that someone else has already used.
We never return any personal care products.
We never return products such as memory devices or drives. For security reasons, we will not send back a product that has held any of our data.

The following may occur with items after their review:

The reviewer may keep the item for further use and long-term testing.
The item may be used in a future giveaway on Gear Diary.
The item may be given away at the reviewer’s discretion to family, friends, other reviewers, etc.
The item may be traded (i.e., a gadget-swap situation with another reviewer on Gear Diary or elsewhere).

If a particular product must be returned, the vendor must discuss this with the reviewer before the item is sent. A postage-paid return label with tracking is required and must be sent with the item that will be reviewed and returned. Otherwise, the review item will be considered non-returnable.

You may be given a tentative date on which the review will appear. While we strive for 2 – 8 weeks after receipt of the item, that is not always possible.

You must accept that we need time to discover your product’s ins and outs. This is especially important when reviewing any product that promises health benefits or requires longer-term use to determine if it functions as billed.

Some reviews may necessitate multiple installments and/or videos at the reviewer’s discretion.

When this happens, each installment will be linked in the body of all review installments as they are published, with prior posts updated as newer installments are published.

Our reviews may quote from press releases or reviewer’s guides, but they will not make claims about the product that we haven’t been able to verify independently.

It is possible that, for various reasons, we cannot test certain product features; when that happens, we will mention that particular feature and disclose that we were unable to test it.

Actual publish dates will depend on the complexity of the review item and the size of the Gear Diary team member’s existing review queue.

If you need a product published by a specific embargo date, you must communicate clearly with the reviewer to ensure this will be possible.

The review will include a link to the manufacturer’s site and the regular retail price.

To keep our review pricing as evergreen as possible, we do not list current sale prices, but we may mention in the review when an item is on sale at the time of posting.

If there is a particular retailer that you would like the product linked to, we are happy to accommodate that.

If, during the review process, we find your exact product available on other sites, we may link to those as well, especially in cases where it is less expensive from different retailers.

While manufacturers are welcome to mention and link to our reviews on their site, the use of the Gear Diary logo, quotes from a review, the full text of the review, and photos taken by the writer for the review are the copyrighted property of Gear Diary; to use them, you must email [email protected] to discuss associated licensing fees.

What People Say About Gear Diary Reviews

This is amazing! I’m so glad you enjoyed the mattress, and thank you so much for writing your review. – Anglina (Sealy Posturepedic Plus Hybrid)

JUDIE, Holy moly. This review is incredible.I appreciate the research, effort, thoroughness and balanced commentary you provided….and I learned something too! I didn’t realize that the water output could be adjusted like you did. Thank you so very much for this! – Kristina (Tchibo Bean-to-Brew Coffee Machine)

Um. WOW! Probably the best product review I have ever read from our product line. I wish more were like this. Well worth the wait. I actually learned some new things about our product from you. Bravo! – Sloane (L’ange Thinning Therapy System)

Thank you so much for the updates and for your awesome work on the UGREEN 300W GaN Charger review. I’m happy to see your love for our 300W desk charging station. – Roger (Ugreen Nexode 300W USB-C GaN Desktop Charger)

This is a very well-written review and provides a lot of good notes for our marketing efforts and for consumers to make an informed choice. – Cody (Swagtron EB11 Electric Cruiser Bicycle)

This article is outstanding and so thorough!! Thank you for such a kind, thoughtful endorsement and I am so genuinely glad to hear you’re enjoying the Luno mattress! – Allie (Luno Air Mattress)

Thanks so much for your positive review. It is extremely comprehensive, well-written, and it’s our best review yet! – Jessica (Oreck Air Response Air Purifier)

Just wanted to reach-out to let you know that I’ve been searching for reviews on the Vertu Constellation Quest, and yours is unprecedented; professional, playful and real. – Paul (reader)

Thanks again, you guys! This is the best review!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! – Megan (Blazy Susan)

Thanks again for another amazing review, the team was thrilled. – Cody (Rockport)

I just finished reading the Blu-ray Sonar Advanced Violet Laser review. This is probably one of the most informative ones we’ve ever received. It was definitely worth the wait. Thank you so much, it’s awesome! – John (Wicked Lasers)

Thank you very much for your in-depth review. “The Maserati of Fans” is going to become our new catchphrase. – Josh (Big Ass Fans)

WOW, amazing review! We absolutely love it! Unexpected femininity, pointers on how easy resizing is, quality and comfort, we couldn’t have asked for more; thank you so much, Judie! (Monowear)

Saw the review – This is great! You are the first to actually touch on the XLR portion of the mic, which is great! I’ll definitely be using this in our social outlets. Also, really like that you point out the specifics about using it on a board, can’t use simultaneously and the sound clips. Our first FULL Yeti Pro review, love it! – Hilary (BlueMic)

Thanks so much for your detailed review, Judie! HTC really values all of your feedback when you review our devices. Glad you enjoyed the Sprint HTC Touch Diamond – and can’t wait to send more good stuff your way! – Jessika (Waggener Edstrom)

Dan – your article “Rediscovering The Music of My Youth With Slacker Radio” is probably Slacker’s all-time favorite piece ever … it still comes up every once in a while.

I love your site. A perfect mix (and balanced perspective) of the important mobile devices, their accessories, and the fun (dinosaurs, etc.). Keep it up. 🙂 It’s always cheery to read. – David (Reader)

Hi Judie, You and your colleagues have done a few product reviews for my clients and I’m always impressed by them. In fact, I love how you incorporate video into your reviews as well and was inspired to post about the future of product reviews on my company’s small blog. I added the awesome video you guys did of a robot wearing carpet skates (another client of mine). Thanks and great job!! – Katie Wagner (BLASToutdoors)

This is really fantastic and we very much appreciate how detailed this review was and the thoroughness — really impressive. – Tanya (Kensington)

Daniel, Thanks man…Awesome!! My client loves your site, and he will be pumped about this. Love the picture with the Pepto bottle, fantastic. I appreciate the time you put it in to a product that is so simple, really made a great review. Thanks, great work as usual. – Brad Hobbs (MaxBorges Agency)

What an excellent article! Besides the fact that I’m elated that it was about my invention, it is so well written-informative and funny. The product photo is beautiful. It’s a true sign of professionalism being able to write like that despite the nausea. – Scott (Flexisnake)

Visiting Gear Diary to see if there are any new product reviews and unboxings is one of the things I enjoy doing daily because the Gear Diary team has made it a pleasure to do so. – Randius (reader)

Joel, I saw this and have to say your review was above and beyond what I expected – thank you! Since you are the camping guru and I just started representing Coghlan’s, I would love to keep you in mind for future products. I look forward to working with you in the future. -Katie (Coghlan’s)

We are the makers of the iMainGo and we want to thank you so much for the incredible and honest review of the iMainGo. – Ryan (iMainGo)

Awesome. We really appreciate your reviews because you are so thorough and honest. At the moment we are designing new small laptop cases and Doug’s comments about the pockets and weatherproofing on the Skivvy and are very helpful. – Bianca (Crumpler)

Hey, thanks for your thorough review, Judie! Actually I can hardly remember any other so thoroughly made review. And the fun part with cold war spies kicks right. I want to be grateful enough as to offer you another opportunity to review some of our other software later. Thanks for your work! – Konstantin (VITO Technology)

Thanks for the great review, I’m glad you like the G5 reader! – George (Atech)

Thank you for the wonderful review of the Aluminum Desktop Stand. As you can imagine, we love it. The tablet application may be one worth pursuing. And by the way, the 20+ photos definitely enhance your overall review. It would be difficult for anyone not to understand what the Stand is all about. – Bill (PR for LapWorks, Inc.)

Judie, Wow, it’s a great review and as always very thorough. Thank you! – Brad (BeNetSafe)

Thank you VERY much once again for your splendid and generous review. Sometimes I feel your explanations are much clearer than ours and we’re the ones who produce it! For a small start-up company like ours, you have been a great supporter of our products and we appreciate your time. – Phil (Lumaray)

Thank you for your time and effort into reviewing our products, I like the pictures. Some people don’t include many pictures in reviews and it is nice to see you show the products in use. – Pat (Gomadic)

Just a quick note to thank you for such an excellent review of Art Dealer! You are the first to provide a completely independent review of the game so all of us at Minds Refined were really pleased that you liked it. And I think your sense of how the game helps improve memory–by encouraging one to focus on the details of events–is bang on! – Jeff (Minds Refined)

Wow, you’re really thorough. I love it! – Leah (Presto)

Thanks so much Judie. It looks great and the team is stoked! – Valorie (Skullcandy)

Thank you again. It is apparent that you spent some time with the Attaché Laptop Stand. We are very appreciative of the favorable review and glad you like it. I didn’t know you were such a shutterbug. Images definitely enhance any coverage of a product as they have done here. Bill (PR for LapWorks, Inc.)

I read it and enjoyed, I appreciate also your feedbacks, and we will take a look a them. – Oren (Golan Tech / VKB)

We know you have many options for where to submit your products for review, and we appreciate you considering us!

Click here to read Gear Diary’s Disclosure Policy

Logo, Photos, and Quote Requests

Are you interested in using our logo, quotes, photos, or content somewhere in your media materials?

Licensing, permission, re-use of content: For all content licensing, permissions, reprints, or any other re-use, including using quotes (with or without the Gear Diary logo), please contact Judie and Dan at [email protected]. Gear Diary, LLC is the only authorized company to license our materials.