Before buying electronics, a service, or anything with several options, you want to compare them on facts, not on the marketing promises on the product page. In practice that means opening a dozen tabs, holding specs in your head, spotting the real price behind "today only" deals, and combing reviews for recurring complaints — slow, and easy to miss what matters.
The "Compare before you buy" skill takes that work off your hands: it finds current options, reads seller pages and reviews, gathers the common problems from reviews, and pulls it all into a comparison table with a recommendation tailored to your criteria. It compares by what the pages actually say, not by the promise in the headline — and it honestly flags where the data conflicts or looks out of date.
What it does
Given a description of what you're choosing and what matters, the skill either compares the options you named or finds suitable ones itself. It gathers specs, prices, and reviews, reads the key pages, and returns a comparison table for your criteria plus a one-line recommendation.
How it works
- The skill runs several searches from different angles — "X vs Y", "X reviews problems", "X price" — to find current options, prices, and reviews rather than the first product card it hits.
- It then opens 2–4 key pages: seller product cards, a detailed review, a spec sheet. It takes prices and specs from the pages themselves, not from search snippets — that lowers the risk of stale or dressed-up figures.
- Next it compares the options by your criteria and by what you didn't name but clearly matters: warranty, consumables, compatibility, hidden fees. Separately it collects the common complaints from reviews — those are often what actually decide the choice.
- If you didn't set any criteria, the skill asks one short question about the two or three most important ones, so the comparison fits your situation rather than the market average.
What you get
The chat returns a concise breakdown: a comparison table by your criteria — with prices and the date they were accurate as of — the typical problems of each option drawn from reviews, and a one-line recommendation: which option fits your criteria and why. If the data conflicts or looks out of date, the skill says so plainly rather than bending the picture toward a tidy conclusion.
When to use it
When you're choosing between several models and bogging down in specs — the skill pulls them into one table and highlights what matters for you specifically. It's useful before a large or rare purchase where a mistake is costly and reviews are scattered across dozens of pages. It also works for services — plans, subscriptions, contractors — where the key differences often hide in the fine print and hidden fees the skill brings to the surface.