Hi Dimentia,
To me the reviews in Rodale's are a good place to start. For most pieces of equipment they will give you at least a basic description of various brands and their features. No product review source is going to be 100% complete in terms of models, however -- there are just too many. Also -- the reviews are rather "general" -- if your typical diving profile/philosophy/gear configuration is different than that of the reviewers (cold water, technical, DIR, etc.), things that are important to you may not have even been evaluated by the author(s).
So, as I started diving last year and buying equipment, I used Rodale's as a starting point, but it was discussions on boards like this with other divers and face-to-face conversations with divers here in New England which had the biggest impact on my decisions.
Bottom line -- the RSD reviews are a good place to start and should be considered one useful data point in your purchase decision,but they are certainly not the only data source you should consider.
Hope this helps.