John Gruber on spec-based reviews:

Spec-based reviews of computers and gadgets are inherently flawed, a relic of an era that’s already gone. Movie reviews are about what the movie is like to watch. Is it enjoyable, is it entertaining, does it look and sound good? Imagine a movie review based on specs, where you gave points for how long it was, whether the photography is in focus, deduct points for continuity errors in the story, and then out comes a number like “7.5/10”, with little to no mention about, you know, whether the movie was effective as a piece of art.

Spec-based reviews are only important to are the companies building them and geeks. Once you have the fundamentals, like battery life and memory/disk space you enter a realm where the average consumer doesn’t give a shit.
Dual core, quad core, megahertz, open platform/closed platform. Bah!
Just show me how great the experience is.