To still prefer browsing via my laptop than a phone?

[MissMarplesCat]

I run a small business online so have used a laptop for web related work now for many years - site maintenance, building, etc. Obviously a lot of this kind of work doesn't fit well 'in-app', so an ipad or phone would be arsey.

Reading my stats I am aware that over 96% of my visitors are using Android mobile, followed by iphone. Of course I see this all around me, so it isn't quite news, but it did make me realise that I have a preference.

Whenever I have to access the net via my phone the experience always feels much poorer, a bit hemmed in, and less immersive?

At home I will watch film, view art/photography and shop on my laptop, as well as using it for work purposes. It isn't just the larger screen, I find it better for posture, general chilling out and just moving around the web. I do prefer the ipad to view app related stuff such as instagram, but would always use my laptop to view mumsnet, because the app feels a bit too 'locked in' and and there seem to be fewer choices around navigation and jumping between browsers, etc.

ipads seem to be somewhere in the middle, and according to stats, a much younger age group prefers them. That makes sense, especially for children, but I can't get my head around why adults prefer to do most of their browsing on a phone. My sister is one of them, and has barely used her ipad in years. She's developing a bloody hump!

But what probably concerns me the most is that in-app browsing feels very corporate controlled and restricted, so many apps are like a walled garden that don't have much fluidity regarding getting out of them without losing your place, IYSWIM?
So if I am reading a site like Reddit in an app, if I pop somewhere else for a moment the damn thing resets when I pop back. This feels really limiting and utterly fucks with my attention span.

I’m the opposite. I maybe only open my laptop once every 2 or 3 weeks. I find it fidgety & awkward. Using the mouse pad takes too much coordination. I don’t like being hunched over. I’m also confused to a set place/position.

I haven’t looked on Mumsnet on a laptop for maybe a decade.

im on my iPhone all the time.

I can easily go from app to app without losing my place.

it feels more secure. I don’t have to worry about viruses or crashing.

all my photos are there so I can share them.

I use it out and about.

I can have my phone in front of me but the tv on in the background too.

I can’t type well so I find I do lots of typos on the laptop. The iPhone autocorrects me.

I’ll normally have 10 + apps open plus 100-200 tabs open on safari.

I mentally associate the laptop with work and the phone with leisure. So the laptop Feels like a chore.

the phone lives in my pocket. I even check it on the loo!

id have hundreds of messages if I only saw them when I was in a position to switch on a laptop. It doesn’t last long before needing charged with is a bigger more awkward charger. My phone charger is permanently by my bed & I take extras out with me when away. It can even charge in the car. My laptop runs down after 2/3 hours. My phone lasts all day.

YANBU I only use a mobile to text or phone. That's it. I find any mobile I have had takes ages to call up a page, laptops/desktops are lightning fast. I am also a fast touch typist and it takes me around 30 seconds on a laptop what takes me around 4 to 5 mins to 'type' on a mobile. I will never, NEVER understand why people want to browse on such a tiny thing. Does anyone remember back when the bigger the pc monitor, the better? Now, it's the smallest mobile, the better. Everything is back asswards.

I can't be bothered browsing on my phone, and only do it as a last resort - and it usually disappoints me when I do. Other than texting and messaging, and a rare call, I don't use my phone much at all. Why do something on a tiny screen when I can use a bigger one?

My laptop runs down after 2/3 hours.

You must have an old laptop. Mine lasts about eight hours and it will charge up quickly

I prefer my laptop for most things but I do wonder if that is a privileged position - I can afford both a mobile phone and a laptop and I don't have school age children who would have priority on the laptop for study, for many I would have thought that may not be achievable.

I see your point, but it also made me wonder if it has something to do with how we began using the web.
I began on a desktop, then moved over to a laptop in 2010.
My sister was always a bit tech shy so avoided getting online for a while. When she did, she accessed it via her phone as she already had that, if you see what I mean.
They do have an ipad and an old laptop my parent's gave to her but she is 100% phone only.

A lot of younger people will have started on tablets, so maybe familiarity counts, too?

Those I know who took to the web late in the day all seem to use their phone only.
I also think a LOT of people who really didn't like computers or have any interest in the net before the Facebook era will have started off using their phone to access the app, so will never have gained any interest in laptops as computers in themselves don't interest them..

When I am out and about on trains, the vast majority of people are slumped over their phones. A small percentage sit with a laptop, usually business or study related.

End of sociology report

Yes I agree. I worked for an IT company back in the 80s, so it was bloody huge machines, then massive desktops, then eventually laptops.

One thing I can't do is that swipey typing on a phone.