Tool Kit: A System Clears the Clutter When Buying Tech Products

I don’t know about you, but to me, that sounds remarkably close to what buying tech products can feel like. (Or maybe I’m too emotionally invested.)

Think about all the variables you have to account for when buying a new TV, printer or laptop. First, you have to figure out what it is you want to buy — which is often no easy task, given the plethora of brands out there.

Some brands even have their own plethora of models. Have you ever looked at Panasonic’s site for TVs? It has seven different 65-inch TVs for sale. Not three, not even five — seven. Who can sort through all that, much less keep the model numbers straight?

Once you have sifted through all the details and made your decision, it would be nice to know that the product you’ve set your heart on is not going to be replaced soon. Nobody wants to suffer the indignity of getting the Platinum 3300xl, only to discover that a new Platinum 3400xls (now with TurboLasers!) will hit stores next month for the same price.

Then you have to figure out where to buy your carefully considered choice. And there, you run into two major issues: You don’t want to pay too much, but you also want a retailer that is reliable.

I’ve developed a little system to address these problems, a series of steps that helps ensure I’m getting a good deal when I am shopping — whatever the product I’m buying. Once I’ve run through it, I can rest easy knowing I got what I wanted and paid the right price for it.

CONFIRM YOUR CHOICE. There are many variables to consider when deciding whether a product is right for you. That being said, when I shop for tech items I generally go to the same few sites, either to confirm the choice I reached on my own or to help guide me to a choice if I am not well versed in the category.

The first site I always go to is thewirecutter.com. The Wirecutter could also have been named showmethegoodone.com, because that is what it does. Its independent reviewers do not provide an exhaustive library of product reviews; they just tell you which product is the best in a given category. If you are looking for, say, a laptop on The Wirecutter, you will find a well-annotated shortlist of laptops organized like this: “best laptop,” “best gaming laptop,” “best cheap laptop.”

There are only a few subcategories for each product type, so you are not caught between meaningless distinctions: “best laptop for students” alongside “best laptop for teenagers.”

Each selection is bolstered by an authoritative, concise article that explains how the reviewer came to this conclusion.

Even better, The Wirecutter stays up to date. Recently, under the entry for “Best Laptop” (the site awards this designation to Apple’s 13-inch MacBook Air, and I would have to agree) was an update made two days after Apple announced upgrades to its laptop line. “We’re waiting for the reviews of the new Ivy Bridge-powered MacBook Air and other competitors,” the entry reads. “Should be any day now. Give us a week or two, and don’t buy anything right now.” Couldn’t have said it better myself.

WATCH FOR OBSOLESCENCE You want to know that what you want to buy is the most current version — and will stay that way for a while.

A couple of years ago, some exceedingly bright minds from the worlds of computer science and business created Farecast, a site that takes reams of data about airline ticket pricing and analyzes it to let consumers know if the fares for trips they want to take at a given moment are going to go up or down soon. The price-prediction engine was later bought by Microsoft and incorporated into that company’s Bing Travel site.

The founders of Farecast then turned their attention to consumer technology. This was much more challenging because new products are being replaced by even newer products at an alarming rate. Decide.com is the result.

On the Decide site, you can search for tech products and find out whether one is about to be supplanted by a newer, better model, as well as whether the price is likely to rise or fall. Decide uses all kinds of algorithms, machine learning and artificial intelligence to comb not only pricing data, but also articles and blog posts to predict a product’s price and life span.

Armed with that data, you can either move ahead and buy with confidence, or lie low for a little while and feel extra knowledgeable.

FIND THE RIGHT RETAILER. Decide can also send you to an online retailer. But it pays to do a little double-checking.