I decide well ahead of time what I'm looking for in a piece of gear so it doesn't take me long to determine if it will work for me.
Same with me but reviews are an integral part of that.
I have to ask, why don't you use reviews? Regardless of sample variations they can still give a huge amount of useful information.
They're just opinion pieces. Along with photography, I had a 25 year career as lead test engineer designing, developing and conducting tests so I only accept what I can actually test for myself.
I fail to see how they're "just" opinion pieces. Along with some opinions, there is a ton of objective data in them.
That data is only specific to the particular piece of gear being reviewed. It doesn't really tell me anything about the piece I have in my hand except in the most general sense.
You mean the gear in your hand is the same as the one being reviewed but you don't trust the review? Or do you mean they're not reviewing what you are interested in buying?
If you can't rely on someone else's tests, are you going to test before you buy?
I try a piece of gear at the shops to see if it might have the potential suit my intended purpose. They know me there so I they let me out of the shop to try on local scenes. If it passes that initial try, I'll buy it and then do further testing. I very rarely have to return a piece.
Works great for you. Many of us don't have local shops.
And unfortunately, even if there are local shops, it seems that a lot of shops are carrying less and less cameras.
The BestBuy across the street from my house is carrying less and less cameras. The Walmart in town has gotten rid of all the cameras. It is an empty shelf in their store.
But . . . a potential solution is to buy used.
When I want to test out a camera system, I have been buying an older model used for cheap. I use the camera to see if it does what I want and whether I want to get into the system down the road.
That is how I got into Nikon. I bought an old used Nikon D70s and played with it for years. Then . . . when my daughter got into indoor sports, I kinda knew what the Nikon system was capable of . . . and when it came time to buy a new camera, I felt more comfortable plopping down the money on a new Nikon camera.
I am really liking the new entry-level Olympus. But rather than going directly to getting it, I would buy a slightly older Olympus to test things out first. If I am comfortable with that, then I would feel more comfortable buying new.
Then again . . . if the used camera does everything I need . . . then bonus! LOL.
