There are a lot of people around today who feel they simply couldn’t function if they didn’t have their smartphone with them, and go into panic mode if they’ve accidentally left home without it or run out of charge. While laptops have always been hugely popular in the business world, there are many smartphone users who don’t own a laptop.
It’s hard to believe that Apple only released the iPhone in 2007, considering that more than 2.5 billion of us have a smartphone of some description today. And according to mobile network experts Ericsson, there will be an estimated 6.1 billion smartphones in 2020, meaning that 70% of the world’s population will have one. And it’s getting to the stage now that we can do so much with our smartphones that we can wonder whether we actually need to have a laptop as well.
When it comes to comparing the relative merits of two such widely used gadgets, it really depends on what you want to do. While it’s arguable that they can cover a range of similar functions, there are certain tasks or times where one really makes more sense over the other.
Entertainment
We all stream music, movies and TV series online these days, and it’s possible to do this with both a laptop or a smartphone. Both also provide us with an almost limitless selection of gaming possibilities. Sometimes, though, the limited size of a smartphone screen could affect your enjoyment of certain types of entertainment. For example, though it’s possible watch movies on a phone or tablet, you tend to be able to get ‘lost in the moment’ a little more if you’re watching on a decent-sized screen, and pretty much any laptop screen will top a smartphone screen in this scenario.
With certain games, both devices are equally good. For instance, if you want to play online casino games, the majority of sites now offer games that are accessible on mobile devices as well as on a laptop. If you’re at home, you might choose to play certain games on a bigger screen, but if you’re on a crowded train, or in a bar waiting for someone, it’s far easier to play a few rounds of video slots or blackjack on a phone. Famous slots like Fortune Panda or Lady which are hosted at sites like Vegas Casino work well on a smaller screen – you can find more here about mobile versions of your favorite games.
Though both devices can be used to play music on speakers at home, it’s probably the phone that wins out here – you can take your music with you on a run or during the journey to work in a way that’s simply not possible with a laptop.
Portability
Of course, the smartphone outperforms the laptop here. Considering that you can now email, manage your bank account, shop and stay up to date on social media, between other things, why would you lug around a laptop anymore? It’s different if you’ve got a long or involved piece of writing to do, although some people are so adept at typing on a smartphone that they might argue they don’t even need their laptop for that either. So, if you’re out and about, or going on a trip for a few days, it’s perfectly feasible to only take a smartphone and leave the laptop at home, especially as cloud storage makes all your data accessible from any device.
As a day-to-day life tool, it seems that there’s no contest. Today’s smartphone beats the laptop hands down as a convenient and portable device for communication, work and entertainment. As well as being able to access all kinds of goods and online services, there are many other ways to keep your life on track with a phone. From setting an alarm to wake you up in the morning, through to notifications of new emails and messages, as well as reminders of what you’ve got coming up in your diary, a smartphone can act as a personal assistant in your pocket. It also eliminates the need to wear a watch or carry a camera – as it can fulfil both these functions too.
But when it comes to doing a written assignment for work or study, looking at spreadsheets, or settling down to watch something on Netflix, you’d be better off using a laptop. For most people, there’s a reasonable case to be made for keeping hold of both these gadgets – for the time being at least!
