Outside of my Switch and Kindle my phone is all I have. It’s a $1300 super device and I find it does more than enough. A magic reactangle with the answers to all life’s problems. The ultimate minimalist device.
Any of you mobile only? What has your experience been?
It would be neat, but 90% of stuff absolutely sucks on mobile. Trying to SSH into a server and transfer files to fix something, banking websites, websites in general, and so on…
Back in high school I tried using my first android smartphone for studies and notes when my laptop had broken down. I connected a (wired) keyboard and mouse, but it got tedious really quick. I guess one can theoretically work off only a phone, but even simple tasks take considerately longer to perform. The only real positive thing was the small carry size and the addition of a touch screen.
Having learned nothing from the first attempt, I later brought only a phone to surveying field work as newly graduated UAS robotics engineer (needing it for route planning, weather stats, auxiliary vehicle integrations, data transfers, etc.), and, well, it could do everything I asked it to do, but it would again have been significantly faster with a proper mobile workstation. Since this was with a phone without USB-C (so no PD hubs) the additional power drain also meant that the phone barely lasted throughout the day, even if I connected it to a power bank every time I did not need it. It also kept overheating in the mid spring sun. I knew that smartphones are bad at heat management, but I hadn’t expected it to be that bad.
At last, I’ve recently had half a year where I’ve used only my phone and a Steam Deck for all my computer related tasks (between jobs, rig was in storage). The SD allowed me to do everything from gaming to light dev work, and the phone was enough for all communication (bank, contacts, E-Mail, etc.) and social network requirements. I guess I could live that lifestyle again for a limited time, but having back my rig is just so much more comfortable, especially for heavier dev tasks.
TL:DR: One can definitely live with only a phone, especially if the lifestyle is less technically inclined, and even a techie can ultimately do most tasks on a phone, but while a properly configured phone can do most tech tasks it’s just so much faster to have proper computer at hand.
My PC has been with me for like 10 years and it's working great. If anything goes wrong with it, likelihood is that I can just replace one component and get working again soon.
All it takes is one slappy toddler or someone knocking into you at the wrong moment, and that 1300 dollar device is not worth the cost of repair and destined for a landfill.
I personally like having purpose-specific machines. I don’t want to associate my mobile phone with work and I don’t want it going off with every work email I get. I also want to be able to work faster than I would with a tiny display and no real keyboard.
At the same time, I want to use my work machines as little as possible, because that means I am working as little as possible lol. I find that physical separation of professional and personal equipment, beyond aiding workflow and efficiency, is psychologically helpful for me destressing when I’m not working.
Plus there are so many things that, sure, a phone can do, but a larger device is just so much better at. Writing anything over 200 characters, watching videos (particularly watching videos, erm, one-handed…), reading and writing anything complex, running multiple programs/tabs, accessing complex sites and apps, and a whole lot more.
Do I use full-sized devices much less because of my phone? For sure. Could I ever imagine going phone-only? Not a chance.
I went to a convention once, deciding that it was redundant to bring my laptop with me when my smartphone alone should have been perfectly capable to do all of my online only Internet tasks.
I ended up having my credit card skimmed from an ATM, and someone withdrew around $500-1000 as a result of that, which was about half of the money that I had on my account, and allocated towards that particular trip.
Let me tell you, it was not comforting, sitting on a hotel bed with a tiny overheating smartphone (Galaxy S2 back then), navigating the bank’s website with my thumbs, on a slow mobile connection, which kept on crashing. Their phone lines were busy for 3+ hours because it was a major event.
I realized in that particular moment, that I always needed a backup, high speed computer (or laptop) with a full physical keyboard and mouse for specifically those circumstances, where time was absolutely critical.
My Australian bank has a full-featured app for apple and android. There is very little you can’t do in the app.
All the emergency, and stop my card type tasks are right there. I’d have to call for a home loan or something big. But pausing, stopping and cancelling my cards is all right there along with easy transfer etc.
This is part of why I use GPay absolutely everywhere I can. It’s impossible to meaningfully skim because every transaction has a newly generated number acting as a proxy for your credit card.
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