How to shop for a laptop by specifications?

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This is not a shopping-recommendation question.

I'm looking for a developer laptop, and my main criteria are hard-disk speed, RAM, weight screen size.

How could one search for a laptop based on these criteria? Is there any efficient way to search for laptops with minimum hard-disk speed, minimum RAM, maximum weight, etc? Or am I doomed to painfully dig through page after page on the vendor sites?

It would be sweet if I could type select * from laptop where ram >= 8 and . . . but expecting that this will never happen, I'm interested in strategies employed by others that have faced this challenge.

Question: Is there any website that allows you to search for a laptop by its specs?

I found that google shopping is okay, because you can type in key words, but it's limited because the searches terminate too quickly as you get more specific. Can anyone help?

Eric Wilson

Posted 2011-04-29T00:02:09.673

Reputation: 6 388

Question was closed 2012-11-06T17:24:24.033

Are you looking for a central location where you can search through all of the manufacturers? – nhinkle – 2011-04-29T00:12:13.270

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Not sure you'll ever find a huge chart by spec, but there are some sites that perhaps accumulate the information into one place? Like THIS? Or just do something like look at laptops at Newegg and use their sidebar with various specs to reduce the available options? I don't see everything, like weight, but there are enough handles that perhaps you can reduce the hunt to 10 and then look at more detailed specs from there?

– Hendy – 2011-04-29T00:19:18.270

@Hendy I agree. I use Newegg to narrow down the possibilities and then look for the best price online. You said newegg doesn't include weight... but they do. Make sure your in the "Advanced" mode at the top of the specs sheet on the left side. Weight is the fourth parameter from the bottom on the left side. It doesn't seem to include hard drive speed though. – James T – 2011-04-29T02:11:59.623

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+1 for Newegg. I don't live in the US, so I can't buy at Newegg, but I still occasionally use their Advanced search to find products matching my criteria. The search at prisjakt.no is also pretty good. It probably won't be interesting unless you live in Norway, but I expect that there are similar sites elsewhere.

– j-g-faustus – 2011-04-29T03:03:06.700

select * from laptop where ram >= 8 and . . .: LOL - You really want to search with SQL queries? :P In fact, this isn't impossible to implement, but it would be very complex and it would require well-designed security controls and proper handling of complex queries. – bwDraco – 2011-04-30T20:14:16.670

1@DragonLord, no that was a joke, a way of expressing that I know that what I'm asking is not really possible. – Eric Wilson – 2011-04-30T21:37:46.717

@James T: you're right! I actually hadn't used Newegg myself for this, but know they are reputable and wanted to see if they'd have something to narrow down the selection. At first glance I only noticed the sliders at the top (I actually was in the advanced tab) and not all the drop downs below. Fantastic -- it really has quite the available handles for searching. Thanks for the tip! – Hendy – 2011-05-02T14:17:47.667

Answers

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I'll check Newegg, too, but I'll also hit pricewatch and froogle because I can at least narrow the field somewhat.

Kara Marfia

Posted 2011-04-29T00:02:09.673

Reputation: 2 000

Google Shopping aka Froogle turned out to be the best for me. – Richard Ayotte – 2012-01-31T13:46:18.893

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You could try http://find-device.com/?c=Laptop. You can search by lots of features and specifications and select only what are good for you like "ram >= 8 GB, Weight< 3Kg". It has quite big laptops database, also can search for other devices like mobile phones, cameras and PC components.

TomasA

Posted 2011-04-29T00:02:09.673

Reputation: 51

Asked: 2011-04-29T00:02:09.673

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Active: 2014-03-23T04:32:53.730