but how do you judge a product you cannot physically assess ??
You can’t, and I don’t pretend otherwise.
Reviews are to be taken with a pinch of salt as the mags promote the biggest ad spenders, personal reviews are skewed because an individual has spent money on a product. And in any case, reviews are subjective and bike preference is personal.
You could make a loosely informed guess based upon the quality of manufacture of previous bikes, the geo, design of suspension, customer service etc. Oh, and colour (how did I miss that?) :D