About Dadnology
How We Review
We only recommend what we'd actually spend our own money on. Here's the full picture of how a review gets made.
No sponsored reviews. Publishers and manufacturers have never paid for placement or coverage on Dadnology, and they never will. Nothing here is a paid placement or a press-sample deal — the gear we actually rely on was bought with my own money. Affiliate links exist — I'll be upfront about that — but they comeafter the verdict, not before it. A bad product gets a bad score whether or not it has an affiliate link.
I'm Patrick — father of two, keen nature & landscape photographer, and a smart-home tinkerer who automates more of the house than is strictly sensible, living in rural Germany with my wife, two kids (ages 5 and 10 at the time of writing), a dog, and a cat. That mix is the lens: camera gear gets judged outdoors in real light, smart-home and networking kit against a house that actually runs on it, and everything else against family chaos. Most reviews are mine, but the family gets a vote. "Kid-proof" claims get tested by actual kids. "Family movie" recommendations go past the house film council before they make the site.
No lab. No press junket. Just a living room, a kitchen counter, and people who have opinions about whether the thing works.
Not every article on Dadnology is a hands-on test, and we don't pretend otherwise. There are two kinds of coverage here:
- Hands-on reviews — products we own and use in real family life, over the testing windows described below. When a verdict is based on living with the product, the review says so.
- Research-based reviews and buying guides — editorial assessments built from official manufacturer data, specifications, instructions, and broad community feedback. A buying guide compares many products; nobody owns them all, and we don't claim to. The same applies to part of our LEGO coverage: the collection grows set by set, and sets we haven't built yet are judged on official data and our experience with comparable builds — never on invented "experience".
In both cases the same rule applies: verifiable facts come from official sources, opinions are clearly opinions, and we'd rather flag a gap than fake a test.
Testing windows depend on the category:
- Tech & Smart Home Hardware: Minimum 2–4 weeks in daily rotation. Wireless speakers, smart plugs, and cameras get a full month before a verdict. Edge cases (firmware update, rain, power cut) are part of the test.
- Video Games: Through to the credits for story games; 10+ hours for open-world or co-op titles. Multiplayer games are tested with the actual people I play with — my kids or friends, depending on the rating.
- Books: Read completely, often twice. Series reviews are written after finishing at least the first three books.
- Movies & TV Shows: Single viewing for theatrical reviews. A rewatch before posting if the film is structurally complex or the first impression was split. Series reviews cover a full season.
- LEGO & Toys: Sets we own are built and played with — not just photographed — and kids test toys unsupervised at least once. Sets we haven't built yet get a research-based assessment (see above) until they join the shelf.
Ratings are out of 10 and mean exactly what they say. The scale is not compressed — a 5 means average, not "fine". A 9 or 10 is rare.
Half-point scores (e.g., 8.5) are used when the product is genuinely in between — not as a way to avoid committing to a number.
Every category has standard criteria. These are the ones every Dadnology review weights heavier than a typical tech outlet:
Everyday usability — does it hold up in a real, chaotic family home? Setup friction — can it be configured on a Tuesday evening with one eye on homework? Durability — drop test, juice test, toddler test. Value clarity — is the price fair given what you get versus cheaper alternatives? Family suitability — age guidance, content warnings, co-op playability. Long-term experience — does it get better or worse after a month?
Some links on Dadnology are Amazon affiliate links. If you click and buy, I earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. This never influences the review verdict — products get scored on merit, and I'll tell you not to buy something if that's the honest answer. The affiliate structure exists to fund the site; the editorial independence exists to make it worth reading.
Dadnology participates in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program and the Amazon EU affiliate program.
Articles on Dadnology are drafted with the assistance of AI tools (Claude by Anthropic). The opinions, ratings, and testing behind them are ours; every article is reviewed, fact-checked, and edited by a human before publication, and the editor named in the legal disclosure takes full editorial responsibility for everything published here.
Where no official press image or own photograph is available, illustrative images are created with AI tools (Google Gemini) and used for editorial purposes only. Official manufacturer images always carry a source credit. AI is never used to invent test results or product facts — hard facts come from official data, or they don't go in.
Reviews are updated when there's a material reason — a firmware update changes battery life, a price drop shifts the value calculation, or a long-term issue emerges after publication. Corrections are made promptly and noted inline.
Found a factual error? Email info@dadnology.com and I'll verify and fix it.
Questions about a specific review? More about Dadnology →