Side by side

Compare tech products side by side

Put two to five products in the tray and see the whole picture at once: today’s best price at every store, the effective price after card offers, the deal score against each product’s own history, what three years of ownership costs, and the specification differences that actually matter — with a written verdict naming a winner and saying who should buy the other one instead.

What each row of the comparison means

Best price today: The lowest price across every store we check for that product, read from the store's own page.
Effective price: That price after the best card offer or coupon it qualifies for — what you would actually pay.
Deal score: How good today's price is against what the product has cost before and what the other stores ask, out of 100.
3-year cost of ownership: The price plus the accessories and cover it needs over three years, less what it should sell for at the end.
Overall score and the ten areas: Performance, camera, battery, display, build, software, audio, portability, thermals and value, each out of 100, from the specification sheet and the price.
Released, brand and our verdict: When it came out, who makes it, and whether we would buy it at today's price, wait, or skip it.

A row nobody reports is left out, and the best figure in each row is marked unless two are tied. Put exactly two products in the tray and they are also compared area by area: each area goes to the one that scores higher, and anything within three points is called a draw rather than a win.

Straight answers

Questions people ask

5 answered here. Tap one to open it — every answer is written out in full, not summarised.

How many products can I compare at once?

Two to five. Five is the ceiling because a table any wider stops being readable on a phone, and a comparison of one product is just that product’s page.

What is the effective price?

The price after the card and bank offers that apply at that store. The listing price is what you are quoted; the effective price is closer to what actually leaves your account, which is why the two are shown separately rather than one replacing the other.

What does the deal score mean?

It compares today’s price against the prices recorded here for that same product, not against other products. With fewer than fourteen days of recorded prices there is no score at all — a first-day price has nothing to be cheap against, and saying nothing is better than calling it a bargain.

Why does the cheaper product sometimes lose?

Because the comparison counts what three years of owning each one costs, not only what it costs to buy. A cheaper machine with a shorter warranty, a dearer battery replacement or a worse resale value can finish behind one that costs more today.

Does the verdict pick one winner?

It names a winner and then says who should buy the other one instead. Most comparisons on this site are between products that suit different people rather than between a good one and a bad one, and a verdict that hides that is not much use.