My desktop was in the shop yesterday, which reminded me of how clumsy and inconvenient viewing the SDMB is on my Android. Increasingly slow and erratic behavior on the computer’s part was getting to be unendurable. I finally broke down and paid to have the hard drive replaced which has made things much better. Browsing the internet is no longer a teeth-nashing exercise in frustration.
I pretty much exclusively visit usiing my Android phone.
I strongly dislike Discourse, of course, but how is your experience better on a laptop/PC than a phone or tablet?
I totally agree with you on this one. My desktop PC is about 9 years old and will not be eligible for updates in another year. I will probably buy a laptop until I get settled in a new apartment. Once I am settled I will be getting a new desktop and huge monitor.
I cannot handle browsing or doing tasks on my phone or kindle. My eyesight is poor and my fingers are clumsy. I can operate a keyboard far more efficiently.
Mainly it’s that after four years of owning Androids I still am not familiar enough with them to swiftly and easily do everything I want to do, that I do know how to with a mouse and 104-key keyboard. I’m clumsy, I need a full size keyboard, plus I have trouble with touch screens, they simply do not respond well to my fingers for some reason. I much prefer a full-size monitor, using an Android is like squinting through the observation slit of a tank, which in particular makes navigating pages even harder than they can be already.
About six months ago, I switched from a desktop to a notebook computer as my primary home system. I still use the same big monitor and keyboard and mouse; a USB-C dock plugs into the computer, and the monitor, keyboard, mouse and other accessories plug into the dock.
In other words, you may not need to replace the laptop later.
Yes I have given this some thought. I just hate all the charging that comes with laptops. My current set up would need some tweaking.
But yes a good idea!
Normally, my computer sits, closed, in a vertical stand so most of the time, it’s actually just running on AC power while the battery sits at 100%.
When I was on the road two weeks ago, I read and replied here with my tablet - it’s a 10" model, so easy enough to read on, but I still have fat fingers, so I used a lot of voice-to-text and frankly posted a lot less, and certainly with less verbosity!
A while back I tried a BT keyboard for it, figuring it’d help with the whole typing thing which is much faster and more accurate for me, but the model made the whole combo package too bulky for me, though some of the super-slimline options would probably work. But I didn’t want to spend that sort of $$$ on my inexpensive tablet (it’s a $200 5g cellular model from T-Mobile).
Ironically, I was using it a LOT because I agree, reading a lot of text on any cellphone that fits into your pocket is a pain, and while I had my laptop the wifi was so absolutely crappy that I was getting over 50x the speed on my cellular service.
My desktop PC is situated on a giant, ancient roll top desk from the 1980s that sits against a wall. It’s difficult to thread the wires down through the hole in the back to get to the only outlet. I had to chop up the desk a bit to get the monitor and tower to fit years ago.
In the past when I’ve had to use a laptop I sit at my kitchen table or recline on my living room lounger.
I just cannot manage all the contortions necessary to hook up a laptop where my current PC is established.
When I move I will get a much simpler set up that can accommodate both.