When writing reviews at APH Networks, we try our best to provide the most accurate and informative reviews as possible as well as maintaining a good relationship with our readers, manufacturers and companies. Being the first who published such an article or "site constitution" known as our Review Focus (This article), we take immense pride in our reviews for factual, objective based commentary and analysis on every product we write about. Drafted in early 2006, our Review Focus was first published on March 22, 2006 and has gone through multiple amendments in our continued effort to improve APH Networks.

This is our philosophy of APH Networks Reviews:
To provide the reader the most accurate, unbiased and detailed reviews; giving consumers and professionals alike an informed purchasing decision based on their requirements and needs, with each review consisting of a combination of fun and enjoyability, and highest quality reviews to the best of our ability for everyone.

Award first announced: November 19, 2005 | Products that does its job incredibly well and that we think it's something you should definitely consider purchasing, or that we believe it's the best of its class, will get an 'APH Recommended' tag. It might not necessary have a higher rating than x/10, it's just anything that we recommend will get this award so it is not dependent on points. This is what we consider our most prestigious award, therefore APH Recommended is relatively rarely given; and given out of careful consideration -- something we would most definitely purchase with the price and availability given.

Award first announced: June 16, 2007 | With the APH:Renewal award, the product is not perfect -- any product always has room for improvement by APH theory anyway! However, we believe the product that receives this award has room either for easy improvements, and a great potential for this (Such as software improvements that does not need to be physically implemented). Other drawbacks are easily outweighed by its strong potentials and advantages. Or, it is something that fits into its intended market very well at this point. Or maybe even both. We will still regularly recommend products that receive this award, because, looking at the full picture -- an APH:Renewal product is still quite an impressive product.

Award first announced: November 30, 2006 | APH equal.balance goes to products that achieves it primary purpose well, or that it is innovative; but has certain drawbacks that may or may not consider the end user. With great price to performance ratio, has certain strong advantage, or that is unique by itself but with certain sacrifices will get this award. This award is not limited and not based on points; but as all APH awards, it's based on the characteristics of the product itself.

Award first announced: May 21, 2007 | This is given to the product that is absolutely incredible and achieved new heights of scoring at APH Networks -- and it's not quite limited to numerical scores. It's the product that breaks records, and it is only awarded to the product that currently holds the best rating in any category. The current record holder as of May 28, 2007 is the Logitech G5 V2 with numeric rating 8.6/10 and APH Recommended.

Starting from April 30, 2007, Number Ratings has been dropped for motherboards, RAM, and graphics cards. This is to ensure the most appropriate ratings reflected without the limits of using numbers. Everything else will continue using the Number Rating System.

10/10: This is an absolutely incredible product that's absolutely perfect with no drawbacks at all.
9/10: Excellent product with very minor drawbacks that does not affect the overall product.
-- 8.6/10 -- The highest numerical mark awarded to any product so far is the Logitech G5 V2 --
8/10: Definitely a very good product with drawbacks that aren't likely going to matter to the end user.
7/10: Great product with many advantages and certain insignificant drawbacks; but should be considered before purchasing.
6/10: A product with its advantages, but drawbacks should not be ignored before purchasing.
5/10: An average product with no real advantage; drawbacks and advantages just seems to cancel each other out.
4/10: With disadvantages that slightly outweigh its advantages, you should not get this product unless there are no product alternatives that does its job.
3/10: Disadvantages are pretty significant, and seriously considered before purchase. Disadvantages interfere with the product purpose, and if better alternatives are available, get the better alternative.
2/10: The advantage is not clear and the disadvantages are too obvious or significant to be ignored. The disadvantages interfere with the overall product function. We highly recommend you to get better alternative products if available.
1/10 or lower: Don't get this product unless it's absolutely essential to [something]. The disadvantages interfere significantly to the product's function. In general, however, there are better things out there for your money.

The Blue text indicates the current trend of weighted average of the marks given to reviewed products.

I. Readers
- We promise unbiased reviews. We abide by an ethical standard, with each article written from a consumer point of view. If it's a good product, we will recommend it regardless of who made it. If it's a product that we believe is unsuitable, and that will we not purchase ourselves, we definitely won't recommend them. The company can be the biggest product manufacturer in its market, but that will not have any effect on the rating of their products.
- We try our best to provide the most accurate review and address every aspect of the product we are reviewing that we believe is important to the consumer for an informed purchasing decision. We try keeping it free of unnecessary information so you'll get the information you need, yet retaining a fun to read and enjoyable piece of article.
- It is APH Networks' normal practice to retain products sent to us by companies for future reference purposes. The idea that exists behind this is that we cannot reference to other products in future reviews from products we do not have in our labs at the time. From time to time, we retest products as benchmark programs changes, or that new insights or opinions that were previously unknown or undiscovered to us appears, prompting us to retest the products for newer, updated, and more accurate results.
- For this reason, it has led many to believe that review units sent to APH Networks are 'free'. While on paper that there are no monetary exchanges between APH Networks and the company, we would not consider anything to be 'free'. On each review, it takes a minimum of 14 hours to take the article to completion, and up to 30 or more hours on certain products. This is usually done over 3-4 week's time, from photography, testing, and the actual written phase. This is our commitment to each review, to examine both real life factors and product performance as compared to others. The amount of work put into each review should not and would not be considered the products as 'free', because countless hours of work and efforts are put into it. Consider this -- if you work, you get paid. The money you receive is not 'free money' because one has worked for it. We take 'receiving free products' as an insult because we take reviewing seriously. Lottery money is free money. [That is, if you ever win. ;)]
- The primary aim of our reviews is written from a consumer point of view. Who is the consumer, and what would the consumer want in this product? Based on this, we provide the reader as much information to the best of our ability in order to complete the conclusion in their head -- therefore, in return, making an informed and correct buying decision. We have formulated this because we are consumers too, and we read reviews from other sites as well, and we make purchases ourselves. For this reason, we also believe every review must be written ethically, as we've learned from and seen in many legitimate review sites in which we respect and often visit for unbiased opinions. Being that, we've seen many so-called 'review sites' as well who are the ones looking for the 'free stuff', and writes their articles that sounds almost like an advertisement. We believe this sort of reviews published are derogatory to legitimate reviewers and review sites, an extent of consumer scam, as well as unethical practice. We take great pride in our reviews, and we would not let ourselves be classified as what we hold no respect for.
- We keep advertising and company affiliations entirely separate from our review ratings. Who the company is, how they work with us, and what they do has absolutely zero influence on our articles and product ratings. This is essential to the primary ethical standard of reviews in general. The affiliated or advertising company will gain no advantages to any extent; in which we recommend products based on only the products itself, and how well it accommodates its intended market.
- In the rare occasion that the reader thinks we have made an unfair or somehow biased review, we highly encourage the reader contact us and give us your thoughts and opinions. This is the best way to improve our reviews, because it is our intention to do so. We want a close relationship with all our readers and stick as close as possible to our review philosophy as stated above.
- We work hard to make our reviews as error free as possible. We also love feedback and recommendations from our readers. Please send us an email and give us your thoughts! Your compliments will encourage us and your constructive criticisms will help us improve.

II. Companies
- If you received an email requesting a review unit, please make sure the email is from Jonathan Kwan and originates from . We will not be held responsible if it was a fake request from anyone else, and that they walk away with the products and to be never heard from again.
- Our commitment is to review a product in a fair manner, therefore we do not guarantee a positive rating on any products. If it's a deserving product, it will get a positive rating; while the reciprocal will receive a corresponding review.
- Please allow a reasonable amount of time for us to test your product(s) to ensure a quality review. Because of the amount of products we review, please allow up to six (6) weeks for review completion (Most of the time it takes less time than that). We will communicate with you and make sure you'll know approximately when the review will be published.
- We will send you a link to the preview of the review before it goes fully public. However, if we don't get a response from you within two (2) business days, the review will automatically go public. By going public, it means that the news will be distributed to our network over nearly 300 affiliated news sites, as well as the appearance of the article on APH Networks.
- Unless otherwise agreed upon beforehand and clearly stated in our emails exchanges prior to sending us the review units, all product samples sent to us for review will automatically become property of APH Networks. We cannot send the reviewed product back to your company if it is not agreed before shipment that it must be returned. We'll need to keep your product(s) for future review references to enhance our overall review quality to the reader and improve the accuracy of our articles. It will be nearly impossible if we cannot keep your product(s) for use with future reference -- this will definitely lower the quality of our reviews and we do not wish this to happen as it goes against our review philosophy. If agreed upon beforehand in our email exchanges prior to sending us the product(s) that the product(s) needs to be returned, you must agree to pay for the shipping back to your company.
- At certain times, we may give away certain review units as prizes and/or promotional purposes if deemed not needed for future reference. This is what we believe is a mutual opportunity in benefiting APH Networks as well as the manufacturer for advertising purposes. Additionally, we may sell the products to support the products to cover the high running costs of APH Networks and pay for the servers. It will also allow us to create more room for our review unit inventory.
- For all cross-border shipment, due to customs regulations, you must mark your review unit below $20 USD (Depending on carrier) as well as declaring as 'no commercial value' to avoid tax and/or brokerage fees. If it is a requirement to mark above a certain amount, your company must agree to pay any taxes and/or brokerages as we will not accept any packages with the balance unpaid. Please contact your shipping company for more information in regards to this.
- Every manufacturer or company that provides us with review samples and permits us to retain it for future reference purposes will be linked to by us in here. This is our way in appreciating your support and making our reviews possible.
- As stated in our Copyright section, you MAY quote a section of our review onto your website ONLY, and if your product received an award, you MAY use the award image on your site as well. If you wish to use it for print or any other purposes, please let us know beforehand -- we usually agree.
- We accept absolutely no money or otherwise beneficial compensations in exchange for our reviews or recommendation (Including online forums). This is unethical practice; we recommend based solely on the product's positive and/or appropriate attributes in the proper occasion.
- We rate products by how well they perform their job. The best way to 'convince' us to give you a better rating, is to make a better product! We do not and will not bias against or for your company in any shape, way or form. Just because you aren't as big or as famous as this or that manufacturer doesn't mean you'll get an unfair disadvantage nor advantage in the review of your product. If your product is truly a good product, we will give it the proper rating it deserves. If there are any misunderstandings that may have been in our reviews, contact us immediately.
- As APH Networks is costly to run and maintain, advertising is one of our primary revenue sources besides financial support from our readers through donations. However, sponsored advertisements and/or banners will have no effect on our reviews and recommendations -- the advertising dollar goes only toward the banner ads, and not our articles. We take each article we publish seriously and with great pride in the quality of each, without bias.
- So what with your company's product got a negative review? Please do not be discouraged. We may have overlooked certain aspects, so please do let us know. Our aim is to help you in improving the product as well. When we get a good product from your company, then we'll give the proper rating. We always like to provide suggestions and work with manufacturers and designers to improve their products.
- Are you a company or manufacturer that wants to get your product(s) reviewed? Please don't hesitate -- Contact us immediately!