
Show HN: Similar Phone Finder - no_gravity
http://www.productchart.com/smartphones/similar
======
leni536
Your euclidean distance formula is kind of wrong (at least on the site). The
units of each term are incompatible so cannot be added together directly, they
all should be normalized with a weight factor. A sensible weight factor would
be the inverse of the standard deviation of the specific term.

Alternatively you could use the inverse of the covariance matrix as the metric
tensor of the properties since there could be quite a few correlations.

~~~
no_gravity
The values that go into the formula are normalized, but not weighted. So a
similar screen size is "worth" as much as a similar weight. If you find
examples, where weighted results would perform better, let me know. You can
compare the given phone to other phones by clicking them in the list on the
right.

~~~
leni536
Normalized to what? For me normalization or weighting is equivalent. Putting
it this way there could be different normalization factors. Examples:

    
    
       1. Average value over all phones
       2. Standard deviation of the value over all phones
       3. Minimal noticeable difference in the given property (it's quite vague though, it's basically custom weighting factors)
    

I don't think that there is an obvious best, but I don't think it's needed and
all gives sensible results.

A more sophisticated distance wouldn't be Euclidean. If you look at
x-resolutions and y-resolutions independently you won't catch exotic aspect
ratios which should be weighted more compared to a standard aspect ratio
phone.

------
vbcr
This looks good. What I was expecting though was a low price phone which match
the specs on my phone. I know those phones are out there, but I would like to
sort by price (so that I can find cheapest), OS (android/windows/ios),
manufacturer.

~~~
no_gravity
Sorting and filtering is pretty much the main functionality of Product Chart.
It can be done directly on the smartphone chart:

[http://www.productchart.com/smartphones/](http://www.productchart.com/smartphones/)

The similarity finder is a new addon. I want to find out if "distance based on
specs" is an alternative to the usual "customers who bought x also bought y".

------
nolok
If I type my phone "Galaxy Note 4", I get it compared to the "Galaxy Note4"
(missing space), which has different battery/screen/weight specs.

[http://www.productchart.com/smartphones/similar_to_4245](http://www.productchart.com/smartphones/similar_to_4245)

~~~
no_gravity
Thanks, I fixed it.

------
odabaxok
Good idea.

However, I was expecting that a Xperia Z1 Compact would be compared with an
Xperia Z3 Compact, or at least between similar phones.

It is twice the price and twice the max SD card capacity, but besides that, I
think they are quite similar:
[http://www.productchart.com/smartphones/4597_vs_4674](http://www.productchart.com/smartphones/4597_vs_4674)
[http://www.phonearena.com/phones/size#/phones/size/Sony-
Xper...](http://www.phonearena.com/phones/size#/phones/size/Sony-
Xperia-Z1-Compact,Sony-Xperia-Z3-Compact/phones/8283,8744)

Refine the comparing algorithm and it will be awesome.

------
gambiting
The name recognition could work better. For "HTC M8" it said it had no
results. For "M8" it asked me "which M8?", but had only one option. Also -
really? The alternative to HTC M9 is....M8? It's like saying that the
alternative to Galaxy S6 is S5, and to S5 is S4. Not very helpful.

------
k2enemy
Pretty cool. It would be nice to be able to restrict the results to only
current phones. For example, I will upgrade this summer and wanted to find a
phone similar in size and weight to my current phone, but most of the results
were for old phones.

------
tomjacobs
I can't find iPhone original. Ok just kidding. I found it.

Hey want to talk about how you built this phone finder site on Glitch Club?
[http://glitchclub.com/?glitchnow](http://glitchclub.com/?glitchnow)

------
no_gravity
This is a new experiment I added to Product Chart today: You type in the name
of your phone and Product Chart will calculate the euclidean distance over all
parameters to all other phones. And then show the "closest" other phone.

------
dannyrosen
Very cool. Would be interesting to gain insight into how many ROMs are
available for each device, as well as if there's an official Cyanogenmod
release.

------
daddykotex
I like the design. It's the first time I land on this website. Good idea.

Where are the price pulled from? I guess they are US prices?

~~~
no_gravity
Yes, they are synced with amazon.com

~~~
daddykotex
Ok thanks

------
Datsundere
[http://goput.it/h188.png](http://goput.it/h188.png)

~~~
thinkmassive
try: oneplus one

------
column
I would love to be able to filter by platform (e.g. exclude iOS and Windows
Phone)

------
manojlds
Comparing specs doesn't give the whole picture though -
[http://www.productchart.com/smartphones/similar_to_4714](http://www.productchart.com/smartphones/similar_to_4714)

I assure you, the Lumia 925 is more high end than the Moto G.

------
mxmpawn
Cool app!, any chance you could share the dataset?.

------
NDizzle
What about the physical dimensions of the devices?

------
jjnoakes
I see the Droid RAZR Maxx but not the Droid Maxx.

~~~
no_gravity
Thanks, I added it!

------
1123581321
This doesn't do what I want, which is to enter iPhone 4S and find something
faster with good battery that has a similar form factor.

------
lnlyplnt
this would be more useful if it had some subjective measures as well like
"build quality" Galaxy s6 comes up as most similar to the droid turbo which
seems fairly off base to me. CPU chipset generations would also be helpful to
prevent this type of result

