Reviews are a very subjective thing, but what happens when a review is written without any first-hand knowledge of the device? Can it really be called a review? MoneyLife, an Indian financial magazine, recently released a “review” of Nokia’s Lumia 800 phone in which the only merit for the review was a comparison of the Lumia 800 directly to the Galaxy S Plus. The reviewer didn’t have the phone available in order to review it properly, so basing a phone’s performance on another phone’s specs is well.. wrong.

So wrong that Microsoft and Nokia both felt the need to jump into the ring to defend the device. Among the many comments left on the scathing article were two that seemingly can be traced back to both Nokia and Microsoft via IP detection. The first from a Nokia employee, reads:

What an crap review!! it’s one of the best phone available, iphone is so dumb compared to this…. Guess some one is paying you lumpsum, congrats..”

The second comment that can be traced back to Microsoft’s Redmond facility is a little bit more damning:

dude, gone are the times when actual consumers just use to care about the technical specificiations of mobiles. today, people want devices which are beautiful, fast and easy-to-use. for most of the consumers, it does not matter if the phone has 512mb or 1gb ram. if the 512mb performs better in real-life, that’t the one customers are gonna prefer. just a small advice, go to a store and use windows phone 7.5 for 10 mins, the last thing you will care is whether phone has a single or a dual core.”

Of course, the sleuth work that came with identifying where these commenters came from is on the author of the original piece, who published a follow-up article in an attempt to justify the shoddy review that was the original piece. His defense is that Indians only want a comparison of specs when it comes to choosing a new phone and not an impression on how the overall device performs based on its merits alone.

Of course, neither of the three parties involved are in the right here, as representatives for a company should never post in reviews without stating their affiliation since it can make the company as a whole look bad. However, the original reviewer can’t be let off the hook here either, as offering an opinion without having experienced the device in full is a sure way to spread mis-information among your readers.

[via Neowin]