Smartphones vs. laptops: Of mice and... touchscreens

10 May 2013
Greetings GSMArenians and welcome to an interruption in our usual program. No need to change the channel though. It’s still the familiar place and good old us, and no, we haven’t run out of phones to review. But are we likely to run out of laptops? Ludicrous idea...

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Laptop will stay with us for a long time. Tablet and smartphone is intended for a media consumption device. But laptop is still better in media productivity. Even if you can attach keyboard and mouse to a tablet, the OS nature (Android iOS you name it) will reduce the productivity nature of the device. Never that i can remember, when i can directly copy and paste from app to app with just changing my viewing focus to different app window, not switching apps like a stack of cards.

The only viable Laptop replacement is the Microsoft Surface Pro i think. But the hardware and power consumption is still not mature enough for a tablet definition, still needs more refinement.

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    • AnonD-125478
    • vfx
    • 11 May 2013

    [deleted post]so??
    any probs?

      • ?
      • Anonymous
      • Ja}
      • 11 May 2013

      Well it was about time some company to kick Intel's butt since Intel has become lazy doing almost no innovation they integrated a GPU unit into the desktop CPU that's completely useless for more than 50% of users that have a discrete GPU card while keeping the cores on most models only to 4.
      4 cores plus one useless GPU unit and a monster power usage that's what you get with Intel inefficient architecture.
      Hey Intel you dumbasses your CPU consumes some 50 Watts doing almost nothing I think that's a big big problem to consider since that means the CPU is just running in an infinite loop like an error does consuming so much power for no reason, that's a big big flaw right there. So since you only know how to design flawed CPU's don't be surprised if one day not so far in the future you'll gonna get bankrupt.

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        • Anonymous
        • sG%
        • 11 May 2013

        AnonD-56222, 11 May 2013Smartphones/Tablets will NEVER replace Laptops/PCs, you jus... moresmartphones will never replace laptops because of its size, but no doubt its possible for tablets to replace laptops... example I have a samsung galaxy note 10.1 which i use alot for university, it allready has basic microsoft word, excel and powerpoint and i can attach a mouse and keyboard to it.

        Its a very productive device, which provides a pen and features such as multi-windows to make it an alternative to a laptop.

        In 5 years time, i feel that tablets would be used as an alternative to laptops.

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          • Anonymous
          • XMF
          • 11 May 2013

          "it will be a while before writers, accountants,
          architects, designers, software devs, photographers will be
          able to their job on a phone or tablet. Maybe never."
          Really Gsma?? As we speak (write), there's already tablets out there with dual OS which can do pretty much everything a mobile and a laptop can do. So, maybe never??

            • J
            • Jay
            • w0P
            • 11 May 2013

            Im still using my laptop untill now I bought since 2006. and it still doing good, well,. in a phone,, it only lasted for me for 1.5 to 2 years.

              • j
              • jay
              • w0P
              • 11 May 2013

              laptop all the way

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                • Ian
                • w0P
                • 11 May 2013

                Ok, next compare PSP and PlayStation if which is better

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                  • AnonD-88399
                  • yM9
                  • 11 May 2013

                  compare it with sony or latest toshiba portege/kira laptops. those 2 gigantic japanese company always give the best kind of laptops in terms of durability, feature and design (some with many bloatware apps) but once really useful. because laptops (computers) creates smartphone and world will never changed.

                    • m
                    • marcpierre14
                    • Lxs
                    • 11 May 2013

                    Great article guys.....would love to see an article on Tablets vs. Smartphones

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                      • Psycho_Gen
                      • iwp
                      • 11 May 2013

                      There's nothing to debate on. Entertainment wisely
                      Smartphone way ahead just like this review . But
                      Entertainment is not everyones purpose. as a professional laptop worth more than everything to me

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                        • Primark
                        • vpc
                        • 11 May 2013

                        Majority of my work is still done on my laptop, specially the critical ones, only some minor tasks are performed on my smartphones (xperia v and xperia x8), but to be honest the productivity of a laptop cannot be matched by a smartphone at least for this generation, but hey, if in the future a smartphone can pack a hologram type of screen that can expand, and holographic keyboards that can also expand, and if it can process the same amount of data as a laptop then maybe just maybe we will need only one device for all our work.

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                          • AnonD-67124
                          • 8yR
                          • 11 May 2013

                          did you read this on a laptop? case closed

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                            • AnonD-70923
                            • XMV
                            • 11 May 2013

                            I think Smartphones will never replace laptops coz smartphones now dont even have java creator or something highly graphic games that smartphones cant run.

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                              • Anonymous
                              • 0Tv
                              • 11 May 2013

                              AnonD-56222, 11 May 2013Smartphones/Tablets will NEVER replace Laptops/PCs, you jus... moreOn mobile screens no, but you can dock them on a larger screen/KB combo and do your serious work there and when you're done you get your work back to your pocket. What's there not to love? Mobiles get seriously powerful to ignore such possible functionality of theirs...

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                                • H
                                • SqJ
                                • 11 May 2013

                                Anonymous, 10 May 2013I would said that Intel Company is finished once the new AR... moreHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

                                What? Are you high or something? For your information, Intel has an R&D capable of buying ARM and the land under it!
                                Intel made a marvelous job in its mature CISC-based x86 architecture compared to ARM with its lousy RISC-based ARM. I agree that the power consumption is still high but it's advancing. Take the Cortex-A9 vs the Cortex-A15, the A15 is much faster than the A9 but it consumes a lot more than it. While Medfield vs Clovertrail had a performance boost and power consumption reduction!
                                Check the numbers of the Lenovo K900 and the heat it's making with only dual-core processor to the bigdogs of the ARM quads.

                                Intel still hasn't use the Haswell architecture and by then I hope you get yourself used to anal-rape as you'll see that in ARM...

                                  • D
                                  • AnonD-18905
                                  • uup
                                  • 11 May 2013

                                  i'll only comment on this debate when i can actually write an app or a programme or do graphic designing on my smart phone



                                    • D
                                    • AnonD-56222
                                    • iFr
                                    • 11 May 2013

                                    Smartphones/Tablets will NEVER replace Laptops/PCs, you just can't do a professional work like coding/website editing/music editing/photo design/3d modelling proper high-end gaming etc... that's just won't happen on mobiles.

                                      • ?
                                      • Anonymous
                                      • t7X
                                      • 11 May 2013

                                      In all this stuff there needs to be a reality check with all this mobile versus desktop/laptop stuff. I use my PC mainly for picture editing, managing my picture archive and my contact database. Can I use my mobile to handle Photoshop? NO. Can I tether my mobile to my 22/24 inch monitor? NO. Are there any 2 and 3 Tb micro SIMs out there to store my images? NO. Oh I forgot, there's cloud. And there, who do you think owns your data on cloud. Not you.

                                      While mobiles are good for making phone calls and making good with some applications, they are disposable - as in "throw away" devices. My HTC XL is a great phone - with serious limitations - as in its 16 Gb storage. Can I add more? NO. Can I plug in a USB key storage device? NO. While its a "good companion" to my CRM contact management app on my laptop, that's all it is. While I can afford to lose my mobile phone, I can't afford to lose my laptop. This is the real world...

                                        • ?
                                        • Anonymous
                                        • Kxu
                                        • 11 May 2013

                                        They should've compared the loudspeaker test with the HTC One!