Poll results: The smartphone edges out the PC

The latest flagships from Samsung and Huawei both feature methods to connect them to PC peripherals and use them as a PC. We asked our readers if they felt comfortable ditching the desktop and using their smartphone for all their computing needs. 

Modern flagship phones are becoming more powerful with each successive generation, and are now more than capable of taking care of most people's daily computing needs such as web browsing, multimedia and word processing. Now that the best of them can also connect to your keyboard and desktop monitor, it seems like they are even closer to usurping the traditional home PC.

Samsung uses its DeX dock to connect the S8, S8+ or Note 8 to PC peripherals, and the Huawei Mate 10 Pro doesn't even need a dock to perform quite effectively as a desktop. We asked you whether you would use your smartphone as your main computer and the results surprised us.

A divisive topic. / © AndroidPIT

A narrow majority use their smartphone as their main computer, with people chiming in to confirm that they either very rarely or even never use a desktop PC. This phenomenon isn't just limited to users with the latest high-end phablets either, but some enthusiasts have barely touched a PC in years.

For the majority of users, a best-of-both-words situation may be approaching where phablets are powerful enough for all day to day tasks, and easy connection to desktop peripherals and smart home devices may render the classic old PC tower obsolete. Even laptops may find themselves in a disappearing niche as mobile powerhouses catch up to the mid-range notebooks in hardware.

Of course, many users that require powerful tech, such as hardcore gamers, video editors and so on, won't be able to fit all the hardware they need into their hand. At a near 50-50 split even among a community of mobile enthusiasts, it looks like the handset still remains more of a companion for the personal computer, but it is increasingly the main focus of the ordinary person's tech use. With devices like the Mate 10 Pro being easily able to connect to monitor, keyboard, and other peripherals, we could see the home PC sidelined even further.

What do you think? Are smartphones that can adapt to desktop use the future?

Source: Poll results: The smartphone edges out the PC