Using phone for "primary" internet browsing? An experiment.

[killster1]

As far as I know T-Mobile does not offer an unlimited plan with their hotspots or modems. They may when 5G hits the market.

oh im confused i dont use phone hotspots ever tho i do have a 4g modem that i plug into a router for failover for my alarm / security . Seems like if they allow hotspotting on phone then why not allow use of modem. Guess that ruins my idea

 

[paperfist]

Yes, of course, however you literally said "any desktop"

You are saying that it is possible for you, with your skill level to buy a $300 computer that beats all phones and I'm not arguing that. However you need to understand that not everyone who buys a computer is as skilled as yourself. I'm saying that it is easily possible to spend perhaps up to $500 on a computer that gets beat by a phone. I'm sure that if I tried to purposely hamstring a computer I could spend $1500 and still have you wishing you were using your phone instead. All it would take is a slow hard drive and slow (dial up, which still exists) internet. Oh yeah, an i7 with a 2080 Ti, 32 GB RAM, but a dial up modem and the smallest slowest hard drive I could find. Of course it would be silly to purchase such a thing but you have never met the people do the purchasing where I work...

Side note: One time at a Community Center they "upgraded" the OS on their computers. The computers did not have enough RAM to support the newer more bloated OS. They literally took an hour to boot. Clicking on anything caused the HD LED to go crazy for a long time.

Of course a modern phone would be faster than a 486, but that’s a paper comparison.

Once you factor in trying to do something productive on the phone the speed advantage is closed by the keyboard and mouse on the desktop.

Phones are over powered for their primary use. I’m sure for most people they are overpowered for their secondary use as well.

 

[lakedude]

Another thing the phone is most likely going to win is efficiency. I just got my kill-a-watt back today so we can compare the phone to the desktop while playing Netflix.

Now keep in mind I still have a desktop and a laptop. If something had to go it wouldn't be the phone.

 

[killster1]

Of course a modern phone would be faster than a 486, but that’s a paper comparison.

Once you factor in trying to do something productive on the phone the speed advantage is closed by the keyboard and mouse on the desktop.

Phones are over powered for their primary use. I’m sure for most people they are overpowered for their secondary use as well.

lulz i guess you didnt read his posts even, he mentions using keyboard mouse with his phone. what is a cell phones primary use? i personally only take calls once or twice a week

 

[lakedude]

DeX pad allows for monitor/keyboard/mouse.

 

[paperfist]

lulz i guess you didnt read his posts even, he mentions using keyboard mouse with his phone. what is a cell phones primary use? i personally only take calls once or twice a week

The OP or the guy I quoted? Cause I didn’t see who I quoted mention kB/mouse at all.

It’s a phone, it’s primary use is to take calls.

 

[lakedude]

It’s a phone, it’s primary use is to take calls.

Um no, not anymore. A phone is primarily a communications device perhaps but we are well beyond voice calls at this point.

 

[lakedude]

Cause I didn’t see who I quoted mention kB/mouse at all.

2nd post in the thread. Then again in the 6th, 9th, 11th, 14th, 40th and 46th posts in this very thread.

 

[lakedude]

Ok, but you could have used a much cheaper Chinese cable from amazon to do the same exact thing, minus the convenience of a dock.

The keyboard and mouse would work via blutooth.

Yes if we were still paying for land based internet, however like the title of this thread says we are using the phone (in the DeX dock) as our primary internet. The cheap tablet would be all but worthless in our case.

Before the switch to the phone based service we had a $35 Chromecast to stream Netflix to the TV. We would shout at our Google Home "Play xyz show from Netflix on TV" and the show would play via the Chromecast.

Now we need to turn on the wireless keyboard, click the Netflix icon, pick the show and click it to start watching. This is not nearly as cool as our Chromecast was but far from backbreaking work.

 

[lakedude]

The Kill-a-Watt tests are in. The phone, mouse and keyboard drew 4 watts at idle (keyboard lights off), 4 /7 watts watching Netflix (lights off /lights on), 7 watts downloading GFX-Bench (lights on) and 7 / 8 watts running Aztek Ruins (lights off/lights on). The higher numbers were when the keyboard was at full illumination. The wattage went down a bit when I turned off the keyboard backlight.

These are remarkable numbers because the phone isn't just playing Netflix like a computer, it is also doing the work of the cable modem and router at the same time.

I'm seeing idle desktop power consumption from 25 watts (Ryzen 3 2200) to 142 watts ( Intel Core i7-6900K) at just a Windows desktop doing nothing at all.

 

[Zaap]

This thread has gone off the rails into silly territory.

Look, I'm glad some people are happy using a phone like it's a basic desktop computer, or some old system from years ago.

I use desktops to do real world tasks no phone can touch. The desktops pay for the house, the cars, the power, all bills- and behold- the phones as well! This isn't uncommon.

This thread is just describing another form of hobby for most people, or something they'd have for their kid, or a setup they'd only use in an emergency when their regular setup isn't available. And other options and hobbies are fine, just no one is pretending it's a substitute for real heavy lifting a full desktop or good laptop can do. Making up silly little benchmarks like how little power you use (my kid's raspberry pi probably uses even less) doesn't really count for anything.

About the only thing that's just now starting to deliver real desktop/laptop performance in a mobile form factor is the new iPad Pro line. Other than that, sorry, these things aren't any mystery to anyone. I've got a Note 9 and have had many flagship phones, plus used my wife's iPhones. NO, they aren't desktop replacements.

And yes, although we all do tend to forget it because sure, they're very powerful and useful for what they are- the main use of a smartphone is... as a PHONE. That IS actually what it is.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Yeah, I was just thinking about switching my primary desktop (probably should use quotes there) PC, to an upcoming ASRock DeskMini A300 Series, with a Ryzen 5 2400G APU in it, 16GB (2x8GB DDR4-2400), an HP EX920 512GB M.2 PCI-E NVMe, Win10 Pro 64-bit 1809 or newer.

It currently is an R5 1600 6C/12T, so instead of moving up (like an 8C/16T AM4, or a 16C/32T TR(2)), I would be "moving down" a little, to an 4C/8T, which, with the Vega 11 iGPU, should be enough to play my games (Skyrim vanilla, Tekken 7, etc.) at 720P60, or 1080P30 (Low). I hope.

But it would free up a lot of space, and cut down the power consumption. I think that I could make that (slight) compromise, and still be happy with it.

Looking forward to its release.

Kind of like, partway from switching from a full-ATX or micro-ATX desktop Ryzen CPU-based PC, not quite to a phone, but to a smaller AMD AM4 APU.

 

[lakedude]

This thread has gone off the rails into silly territory.

Agreed, the title says "Using phone for "primary" internet browsing", not "ILM replaces render farm with iPhone". No one ever claimed the a phone could fully replace a desktop for all applications. Obviously there are plenty of reasons one might need a powerful desktop computer, however surfing isn't one of these.

 

[lakedude]

There has been a learning curve adapting to a phone centric eco system. Downloading printer drivers for the laptop was a 2 step process. Download to phone then transfer to laptop.

Steam will be a challenge when it is time to get a new game.

 

[lakedude]

Didn't have any luck playing a DVD. It is evidently possible but not easy. I couldn't even find the device in /mnt/