That reputation came about due to their notorious review of the Nokia Lumia 900 in 2012. The reviewer gave it lower numerical scores than the iPhone on various factors like ergonomics and camera even though the review text didn't imply that it was lower quality.

That led to accusations of Apple bias, especially because of editor Topolsky's love of all things Apple back during his Engadget days.

I think it's still their most-commented article ever.