There Are Pandas, and Then There Are Pandas.
And this isn't either of them! The Pandas we're talking about here, are watches, not bears. And what got me thinking about them (again) was a link posted this morning by @cm.rook who pointed a few of us to the very attractive (and not terribly priced) Yema "Rallygraph" Panda which, in it's most traditional arrangement, looks like the one on the left, but can also be had in the version on the right: The model on the left is a true Panda, while the model on the right is called a reverse Panda. The reason for that distinction is clear--Panda bears, only come in the first arrangement. Now at this point, everyone should be thinking about the most well-know Panda, The Rolex Panda, which is actually a Daytona, and among Rolex Daytonas, the most famous of which is the Paul Newman Daytona, which was famous first, because it was Paul's, and second because it sold at auction for $17.8 million (US Dollars). The story of that auction is well-known so I'll only...
Nov 8, 2019
Obviously you can't review every product in the world but I find they (and pretty much every other review site/magazine) make weird comparison choices. Like why are they comparing a 30oz mat with R value 4.9 with a 12oz mat R value 0.7? That's a totally backwards way to do it. If you need an R5 mat you simply should not even be considering an R0.7 mat. Rating them side by side like that gives a false sense of equivalence when in fact they are two very different products in terms of their use cases (much more different, I would argue, than an MSR Guardian and a Sawyer Squeeze, or a $50 rain jacket and a $500 rain jacket). And their numerical rating system is dumb.
I think the problem is that people think too much about "products" and not enough about "systems". E.g. in the above example you could make a case for comparing a a 30oz winter mat with a 12oz uninsulated mat if you then go on to explain how you could use the lighter mat with a closed cell foam mat in winter, and how this combo (system) is bulkier and heavier but more versatile and maybe cheaper.
The next problem is that there are just so many products, and so many different use cases and individual preferences that reviewing any product "for" anyone else becomes really hard. What I have found most useful is reading forums like BPL and learning what different systems people have come up for for different trips. This takes a lot more time and effort but eventually gives you a much more in-depth understanding of how gear works together. Participating on forums also means you can pick people's brains about your very specific questions/ideas.
To be honest though it sounds like you (Cuylar) are now at the same stage as me. You've learnt enough about gear now that 90% of the time a review tells you very little that the specs don't and the only way to really figure out if the product will work for you is to buy it, test it, and sell it if it doesn't.