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I was afraid of this answer.  If it was a static product I would be happy to do this but since it is technology in 6-8 months the next "generation" will be out with new models numbers needing descriptions for each one to be re-written which is incredibly difficult to keep up with.

Is there a middle of the road option?  is rel=canonical my best choice if I can't do unique content for every single model?

If so is there a way to maximize the benefit of rel=canonical in this situation?

I run a website that revolves around a niche rugged computer market.  There are several "main" models for each computer that also has several (300-400) "sub" models that only vary by specifications for each model.  My problem is I can't really consolidate each model to one product page to avoid duplicate content. To have something like a drop down list would be massive and confusing to the customer when they could just search the model they needed.  Also I would say 80-90% of the market searches for a specific model when they go to purchase or in Google. A lot of our customers are city government, fire departments, police departments etc. they get a list of approved models and purchase off that they don't really search by specs or "configure" a model so each model number having a chance to rank is important.  Currently we have all models in each sub category rel=canonical back to the main category page for that model.  Is there a better way to go about this?  Example page you can see how there are several models all product descriptions are the same they only vary by model writing a unique description for each one is an unrealistic possibility for us.  Any suggestions on this would be appreciated I keep going back on forth on what the correct solution would be.