Before You Buy (Audio)

Before You Buy was a product review show from the TWiT (This Week in Tech) network where staff members got their hands on the latest gadgets and gave honest, practical assessments. Hosted by Fr. Robert Ballecer with regular appearances from Leo Laporte, Megan Morrone, Jason Howell, and other TWiT personalities, the panel format meant you'd hear multiple perspectives on the same device in a single episode. Episodes ran a tight 35 to 55 minutes, which was refreshing for a review show — no filler, just straight-to-the-point evaluations. The team covered everything from smartphones and tablets to cameras, drones, audio equipment, and smart home devices. What made it genuinely useful was the "before you buy" framing: every review was oriented around whether a regular person should actually spend money on the thing. No spec-sheet worship, no hype cycles — just real-world usability. Important to know: this show is no longer in production. It aired from roughly 2011 to 2015, with about 50 episodes in the archive. The TWiT network has kept the episodes available, and honestly, the review methodology still holds up as a template for how consumer tech should be evaluated. If you're interested in the history of tech podcasting or want to see how gadget reviews worked before every YouTube thumbnail became a shocked face, the back catalog is worth browsing. Just don't expect new episodes — this one has earned its place in the TWiT Archives.