It seems as though with every communicate yearthe smartphonesin our pocket become more powerful and capable — and more disposed than they ’ve ever been to be the only computing gimmick we involve in our lives . However , before you give away or deal that old laptop computer without replacing it deliberate these scenarios where you really ca n’t beat the functionality of a figurer .
1) Managing email
A bunch of us now see to it our emails on our speech sound and tap out reception when call for , but is this really such a good mind ? test turning off notifications from your wandering electronic mail guest for a while and see if you actually leave out it .
What ’s sure is you ca n’t manage your email on a phone the same way you may on a data processor . Take Gmail on the desktop web and Gmail on Mobile River , for representative . Here ’s just some of the stuff you’re able to do on the web but not your phone : Drag emails between categories , email groups of contacts , quickly shift between sheer schoolbook and rich school text , and send money with a subject matter .
You ca n’t produce filter on your phone either , one of Gmail ’s most herculean putz , and you ca n’t habituate multiple type and colouring material of superstar . impart to that the incommodiousness of typing on a little screen and it ’s a big winnings for save the emailing for when you ’re at your desk .

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Some email clients only be on Mobile River , and these earpiece apps do admittedly make it gentle to sieve through and sort your messages while you ’re stuck on the metro — archive and deleting with a flick — but for serious emailing you need to go back to the estimator .
2) Editing photos
telephone set apps are good for slapping filters on top of photos and that ’s about it . If you ’re doing anything more than uploading something to Instagram then you take to really consider whether a laptop computer or desktop is better for the line .
The rationality are multiplex . First , you ’ve got a much big screen to exploit with , and that stand for incur a better panorama of your icon and the edits you ’re making . secondly , you ’ve induce the welfare of a keyboard and mouse — much more accurate tool when you ’re trying to cut out pixels or blend physique or crop a particular region .
Thirdly , the software is much better on a computer than a smartphone . headphone apps surpass in certain areas , but photo editing is not one of them — Adobe keeps promising it ’s going to put a ‘ full ’ version of Photoshopon the iPad , but until it does we ’re yet to be convinced .

Screenshot: Gizmodo
Do your photos a favor and wait until you ’re back at your computer to edit them . You ’ll in reality be able-bodied to see what it is you ’re doing .
3) Curating playlists
euphony goes everywhere with us thanks to our phone and we ’re by no mean suggest you uninstall Spotify orApple Musicfrom your mobile machine … but there ’s a whole host of extra functionality available in the desktop apps that you do n’t get on your telephone set , especially when it come to curating euphony .
For a start , you’re able to just drag and drop songs or even entire albums into fresh playlist . you could create raw folders for your playlists on the desktop ( via File , New Playlist Folder ) , and you could vary the lodge of playlist much more easily on a computer too .
The desktop apps for Windows and macOS also let you edit play list cover art ( just click the persona to exchange it ) , and reckon a more elaborate song history of what you ’ve been listening to ( fall into place the waiting line button in the lower right - hand corner then History ) .

Screenshot: Gizmodo
It ’s also possible to spell local files into the Spotify desktop app too , which can then be synced to your fluid apps — ready to hand if you ’ve found some gaps in the Spotify program library that you want to plug ( theyare there ) .
4) Writing and editing anything
Obviously , you ca n’t pink out your next smashing novel on a telephone screen as easily as you could on a keyboard . But the benefits of pen on a computer rather than a mobile go way beyond the convenience of the input gimmick .
There ’s the comfort with which you’re able to highlight , imitate and paste , for illustration — the keyboard shortcuts come in handy here — which means you ’re not hampered as presently as you want to do anything other than just type .
Let ’s not draw a blank how simple a figurer makes it to get up multiple windows on macOS or Windows , constitute referencing and cross - referencing considerably easier than it is through the multitasking available on Android and iOS .

Screenshot: Gizmodo
In scant , any sort of extended typewriting — from essays to newssheet — still ca n’t be easily done through a phone , even if you ’ve find a keyboard bind . Perhaps that ’s whySamsungand Huawei are pushing screen background modes for their phones .
5) Getting online
Every modern web browser comes with a mobile equivalent that will mirthfully sync across browsing histories and countersign and bookmarks — but spend any extended meter on the web and it ’s empty the mobile experience just does n’t stand up to what you’re able to get through the web browser on your desktop .
Most sites are appropriately optimize for on-line viewing , and so flicking through tale is straightforward enough … but screen real estate is massively slenderize , which think menus and icons get push to the edges , which mean convey around the web becomes much more of a chore than it should be .
If you’re able to still see bill of fare , filter , and checkboxes , they often become too small to use . bump any kind of word form - fulfill situation or Content Management System and figure out inside a mobile web browser becomes an exercise in frustration — as you ’ll recognise if you ’ve seek to make a meeting place position or hold a hotel on the web in a mobile web browser .

Screenshot: Gizmodo
Loading novel links in background signal tab key until you demand them — the staple of today ’s browsing experience — suddenly becomes a foresightful and draw in - out cognitive process that hardly seems worth the effort . On top of that , you have all the multi - windowpane and copy - and - paste point we raised above : So just go away the serious web browsing till you ’re at your laptop computer or desktop .
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