Editorial policy

One question per guide. A guide exists to answer a single buying question completely, and it ends when that question is answered.

Every number is sourced or labelled. Figures taken from a manufacturer, standards body or public dataset carry a link and the date we checked them. Figures we worked out ourselves show the arithmetic. Figures used only as an example are called examples in the same sentence.

No invented experience. We do not write about handling a product we have not handled, we do not publish reader reviews we have not received, and we do not describe tests we have not run.

No invented authority. We do not claim professional qualifications, laboratory access or industry credentials that we do not hold.

Corrections are made in place, and the update date on the guide changes when a fact changes. A silent edit of a wrong figure is still a correction, so the date moves.

Advertising and affiliate income never decide a recommendation, a ranking or the order of a comparison table. Where a link can earn us a commission, the guide says so next to the link.

Where the honest answer is that it depends on your own case, the guide gives the conditions that decide it, not the phrase 'it depends'.