Smartphones, tablets, laptops – which mobile device to choose?

You might have heard the phrase that a modern phone is much more powerful than all NASA computers used to send astronauts to the Moon. This statement is so popular that it is almost a cliché now. Still, it is true. These small devices in our pockets are super-computers. It does not mean those good old laptops are doomed to denial, though. And there are also tablets.  

As a rule, an average family possesses all kinds of devices – smartphones, laptops, and tablets. However, you might need to choose one device only. Like, decide what to take with you on a business trip or vacation or what to upgrade when your budget is limited. We have prepared this article to help you make the right choice. 

Laptops, smartphones, and tablets – the pros, cons, and specificities

All these devices have something in common – they are all mobile, freeing you from the office chair and letting you work and have fun from any location. But the differences are more essential. When you consider which device to choose, you need to know its specificity. In brief, it is what you want to be done by the devices and whether that device is capable of that. 

Smartphone – a permanent assistant in life online and offline

It is the most popular device. The release of a new iPhone model is an event you can compare with the “Avengers: Endgame” premiere. App Store and Google Play can offer you the solution for almost any problem. It won’t be any exaggeration to name a smartphone as device #1. How did it come? 

• Communication. There are messaging apps with voice and video. “Old-fashioned” phone calls are actual too. Add social media and emails, and the possibility to access almost all content on the Web.
• Entertainment. We still find it a little bit strange to watch some big movie on a smartphone screen, but it is okay for many people. E-reading apps let you get rid of dedicated reading devices and use one phone for everything.
• Work. You can hold an online meeting while sitting on the mountain peak and design a graphical masterpiece on your iPhone. If you are googling something like can I send a fax from iPhone, don’t be concerned – you surely can. And there are countless other work scenarios covered by smartphones.

Does it mean that a smartphone is an ultimate, perfect solution? Some cons prevent us from switching happily to them only:

• Screen. Even the best phone screens are small. It does not help the eye health when you are searching for detail on a small screen or must view the picture in fragments because it does not fit the resolution.
• Keyboard. The problem is, even with the mobile app for Microsoft Word, it is uncomfortable to type a lot of text on a smartphone, let alone format it. The device targets content consumption first of all, not content generation.
• Power. Many smartphones are fast, and the applications deliver the required functionality. But they aren’t powerful enough for professional software you may need for work.

The producers remind us that a smartphone can be “extended” by connecting a large display and a physical keyboard. Then, the smartphone becomes the core of the system. However, in practice, people prefer using laptops for that. 

Laptop – a mobile personal computer

It is a lightweight device (the latest models are thin, light, and elegant) with a big screen and hardware to run the resource-heavy professional software. You can get your laptop anywhere – it is much bigger than the smartphone, but not even close to the old cumbersome desktop computers.

The minuses of smartphones we mentioned earlier are simply absent in laptops. The screens are large, letting you both watch entertaining video content and work productively with different kinds of data. The physical keyboard allows you to type substantial texts comfortably. And laptops are the most powerful of all such devices even with the much higher battery consumption. 

In this comparison, smartphones and laptops are opposites. However, there is one more device – the tablet. 

Tablet – that one between the smartphone and laptop

One more portable computer is not as popular as the other two devices, but it still has its niche. If you have a question like “what is the difference between laptop and tablet,” it will be very similar to the smartphone. 

Like smartphones, tablets use a virtual keyboard (but many models allow you to connect a physical one and thus turn the tablet into a hybrid laptop). Besides, they are smaller and much lighter than laptops but are larger than smartphones. It makes them more convenient to serve as a video player or an e-book. 

Conclusion

Which device to choose? You will certainly need a smartphone just because our lifestyle is shaped by it. And a laptop is necessary for productive work. But if you just want some device to communicate and consume content on vacation, a tablet will be the best option.  Maybe, smartphones will replace all other devices in the future. There are already some steps towards it. But not today.