There are two downsides to online purchases: shipping costs/delays and you can’t physically handle the device to get a feel for the quality or dimensions of your purchase. Sized Up at www.sizeasy.com helps you visualize an item by taking the dimensions given and showing you comparisons between common objects like a deck of cards in different views.
You can add any item and its dimensions to create an object on the left for comparison. Below, I added Amazon’s Kindle and entered the dimensions I got from its description page. Sized Up then created the red object to visualize its size. You can flip through the tabs to have a 3D view, front view, side view, and top view.
By default, it was compared against a deck of cards and an iPhone. Under the ‘Compare to’ tab on the right, you can choose common, everyday objects like a deck of cards, a sheet of Letter-sized paper, a matchbox, or others.
Under the ‘My items’ tab, you can rearrange your objects top to bottom to make the view the best by sending larger objects to the back. You can also turn off visibility for any of the objects by clicking the eyeball next to their listing.
Besides your own size visualizations, you can browse some of the latest comparisons and some of the most popular to see what others are sizing up.
Form factor and size can be a determining factor for portable gadgets, in particular. Sized Up is a pretty cool tool to have handy if you’re shopping for something online and as an early adopter you can’t get your hands on the real thing.