Smart phone or laptop?

rnln · 01-27-2011, 01:00 PM

I always have a small, if not smallest, phone which can open to talk and close to hang up. That was all I need. When getting on the internet, I have computers at work and at home. Now, my company is encourage not to get on the internet at work to help the traffic. I have 2 images in mind:
- a smart phone
- a normal phone and a laptop with "internet everywhere"
Service prices is about the same right? Is the smart phone too small for searching the internet daily while you are not at home? Laptop with internet everywhere is "too much" to carry around?
What is your experience?

gprsh924 · 01-27-2011, 01:23 PM

It depends totally on expected usage. General surfing with light typing... then the smartphone will be great. If you are attempting heavy browsing/typing/work then the laptop is probably a better choice. However, you would only want to pull a laptop out of a bag when you planned on using it for some length of time. With a smartphone, you can reach into your pocket to check the weather or settle a stupid argument with friends.

This was sent from my iPhone while attempting to get some work done.

Porsche-O-Phile · Porsche-O-Phile's Garage

I use my laptop for actually storing files on and CAD/Revit/3Dmax/Sketchup... The iPhone does everything else. Actually there's an Autodesk product (Autocad WS) for the iPhone that allows me to do CAD work on it, but for obvious reasons it's limited to simple viewing, toggling layers, panning around, checking distances, etc. I wouldn't want to actually draft that way.

scottmandue · 01-27-2011, 03:50 PM

Have you looked at a "netbook"?

masraum · 01-27-2011, 05:13 PM

One if the newer, more powerful Android phones with a big screen works well. A netbook works well. Or another option would be a tablet, preferably android based.

Halm · 01-27-2011, 05:20 PM

If you can, hold off a few months. A large number of new phones and tablets will be released within 3-4 months. And Apple tends to release a new phone in the July time frame. Also make sure the phone or tablet can use the new 4G networks that are being rolled out now by all the carriers.

rnln · 01-27-2011, 05:35 PM

Can someone explain more into 3g and 4g network?
Thanks.

masraum · 01-27-2011, 07:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rnln

Can someone explain more into 3g and 4g network?
Thanks.

3G is fast. 4G is a bit faster.

When browsing on my old phone, I'd see 3Mb download speeds. On my new phone, I usually see 4Mb and even occasionally 6Mb.

If I was buying something, I'd want something that supports 4G. There are enough devices that do these days. But if there's a device that you REALLY like or really want, then don't let the lack of 4G dissuade you from getting it. The odds of most people seeing the super high speeds that are theoretically possible are VERY slim.

Halm · 01-28-2011, 07:09 AM

We thought about switching to T-Mobile and tested a MyTouch 4G for a couple of weeks. I don't remember the exact speed test results, but they were well above 4 Mb, maybe into double digits. As best I remember from CES announcements, the slowest of the 4G implementations was better than 20 GB (theoretical).

masraum · 01-28-2011, 07:31 AM

Your results probably vary depending upon the network in your area. Houston's network may be much more congested than your local

Spede · 01-28-2011, 07:40 AM

Regular web surfing on a smartphone is pretty painful. It's really only useful for a quick lookup like addresses or some light use.

I would get an iPad or some other tablet with Internet connectivity if I had to surf.

krystar · 01-28-2011, 07:52 AM

there is some hype about 4G. just like there's hype about 3G. it's like clutch manufacturers claiming "stage 2" "stage 3" clutch. it tells u stage 3 is better than stage 2, but nothing to compare it to another mfgr's stage 2.

whether on iphone, droid, or any of the other "big screen" form factorphones, i could never check emails or browse for more than 10 minutes to lookup something. i still like my phone but not going to use it for primary browsing.

as a side note, is the company actually encouraging that workers surf the web on their phones? sounds....anti-productive.

rnln · 01-28-2011, 11:45 AM

Lunch and breaks

Thanks all for input.

Quote:

Originally Posted by krystar

there is some hype about 4G. just like there's hype about 3G. it's like clutch manufacturers claiming "stage 2" "stage 3" clutch. it tells u stage 3 is better than stage 2, but nothing to compare it to another mfgr's stage 2.

whether on iphone, droid, or any of the other "big screen" form factorphones, i could never check emails or browse for more than 10 minutes to lookup something. i still like my phone but not going to use it for primary browsing.

as a side note, is the company actually encouraging that workers surf the web on their phones? sounds....anti-productive.

campbellcj · 01-28-2011, 09:29 PM

Sorry but the company's position on this sounds silly to me. Why the heck do they have an internet connection if they don't want employees to use it?

What I did when bandwidth became a concern is simply add a $40/month Verizon ADSL circuit to supplement our $400/mo T1. (Unfortunately we can't get cable modem or FIOS service in our building.) A Cisco load-balancing router splits the traffic between them. However that was not trivial to configure.

To your original question, I agree with the other replies that a tablet or small laptop/netbook is much more practical for web browsing, email etc. compared to a phone. I love my iPhone but for anything entailing serious typing or reading I gravitate towards another machine.