Let me ask you a question. If you need a new smartphone, how do you decide which one you should buy? You ask your friends and family? You watch YouTube review videos? You read reviews of devices on tech blogs like Techn0Treats? You go through the features, specifications and reviews of devices on retail websites? Or do you just go to a store and buy the smartphone that the shopkeeper recommends? Whatever way you chose, the chances are that it leads to more confusion than clarity. There are so many smartphone options available in the market today. But no easy way to decide which one would suit our requirement best.
But recently, I came to know about a web app that seeks to offer a simpler solution. This is Scantuary. It does not give reviews of smartphones. Neither does it tell about the various features of these devices. What it does is give you a quick comparison of the vital specifications of the various smartphones. You can customize your search by setting up parameters like brand, processor speed, OS, Camera, RAM. And the app will quickly list up all the smartphones matching those parameters. This list mentions the names of the smarphones in the first column and then their prices in the next. Other columns mention the important specifications, including the parameters that you have selected.
Using this web app is very simple. Just visit http://scantuary.com/. Click on the red Get Started button on the top right side. The next page will give you a list of all the available smartphones. Above this list are mentioned the names of popular brands. By default, all brands are selected. You can uncheck All and select the brands of your choice. This will shorten the list to include the smartphones of only your selected brands. Next, click the tab of the parameter that’s important to you. For example, you can click on Price or OS or Camera. The most important of these parameters are mentioned on the blue bar at the top. You can select more parameters by clicking at the Plus button at the end of this blue bar. That will open up a window with more options. Once you are on the page of a parameter, you can set its limit by dragging and adjusting the two ends of the range bar that’s displayed below the blue menu bar and above the list of smartphones. It would have been good had there been some directions mentioned about this step above the range bar. Even two small direction arrows above the handles of the range bar can be helpful. Because otherwise, it is not at once clear that the range bar is adjustable. Especially because its adjustable handles are almost of the same shade as the background and don’t stand out prominently. Of course, the Home Page of the website gives animated directions to how the website is to be used. But in my impatience to get started, I didn’t pay attention to it. And I’m guessing, many others won’t either. And that might lead to confusion at some step.
Anyway, as you adjust the desired range of each parameter relevant to you, the list of available smartphones shortens to include only those matching your criteria. This list makes available at a glance the information like smartphone name, its price and its most important specifications. If you like a device, click on its name and that will open up its page where you can find more information about that smartphone. This includes the color options available, other important specifications and the prices of that device on major online retailers like Amazon, Flipkart and Snapdeal. You can also visit these retailers directly from these pages by clicking on their buttons.
What I liked best about Scantuary is its simplicity. The interface is easy and simple.The color scheme is simple white, blue and gray. The whole website has a very simple and uncluttered appearance which I really liked. I do wish that the detail pages of smartphones offered a couple more images of the device. Also, sharing or saving option of the comparison chart of smartphone pages would be helpful too in case a user is not ready to make a final decision at once.
As the FAQ on the website informs, Scantuary does not sell any product nor is it owned by any e-commerce website. It is only a product comparison site to help users quickly compare devices based upon their chosen criteria. And that too without any need of creating any account on the website or going through any registration process. That is another thing that I liked a lot about Scantuary – no need to make an account on it.
As yet, Scantuary only provides comparison of smartphones. But they plan to include the comparison of other products like laptops, televisions etc too. I just hope the interface and the website appearance will remain as calm and uncluttered when more product categories are added to it as it is now.
