A few years ago when the tablets came to the same, it was widely assumed that they would mark the end of laptops. After all, once you have a more portable and easy to carry device like a tablet, why would one still need laptops? Laptops at that time were still very bulky. In 2013 I even wrote an article wondering whether tablets were edging out Laptops in the world of computing. I could see then that lablets were increasingly becoming very popular but was not sure whether one could predict the future of computing accurately. In particular this line captured my thoughts then
“For them to replace laptops, they have to fully cover the functions of laptops. I am not sure about the exact position at the moment because personally I think it is easy to predict the device trends with any accuracy.”
But there were those who thought then that tablets would replace laptops in just like five years or so. Kenya Government was one of them, through by then Cabinet Secretary of Education Prof Jacob Kaimenyi. He was quoted by Standard media saying that there were clear projections that in the next five years, laptops being used by the majority of people would be replaced by tablets. He further said:
“What Kenya needs to do is to move in tandem with technology so as to avoid the country being a dumping ground for obsolete goods.We have also established that young children prefer touch screen than devices that use a mouse,”
Going back to my thinking back then, I thought the level of productivity of tablets would be the hindrance to them replacing laptops. And if they did improve on that, then tablets had a chance to be the main computing devices. What I did not see at the time was the speed at which the device manufacturer took to improve the productivity of smartphones. Instead of tablets replacing laptops, smartphones replaced the tablets and now on course to replace the laptops sometime in future.
I think Samsung started it off with the launch of the Samsung Note series. Their idea was to ensure that people use a stylus, more closer to the use of a mouse on a laptop. That was the first sign that smartphones were headed to greater functionalities. But then others like Tecno, Huawei,Oppo did not jump to that bandwagon but simply improved the multitasking aspect of their phones.
A few months ago, I got a Tecno Camon 19 Pro and decided to test how good the phones have become when it comes to productivity. The fact that it is a mid range phone was perfect. Using one of Tecno high end phones probably would have obscured the experiment since only a few people are able to use them in Kenya. Its other fitting feature for this is its size . It comes with a broader screen of 6,8″ inches display and a resolution of 1080 x 2460 Pixels (~395 PPI). That size allows the user even those with thick fingers to type faster and accurately.
I found the big screen more useful in many areas but more so for Video-chat, FaceTime and playing games, especially my favorite Chess. The whole point about video chat and facetime for example is to make you feel like you’re actually there. The experience of Video chatting with some of my friends and relatives who are abroad has been great. Better still was my gaming experience, I was able to follow the action more easily and the screen makes it easy to see where you are meant to tap or move the pieces on the chess board.
Multi Tasking
Multitasking has been the core of everything, enabled by advanced processors and Memory sizes. Multitasking is the mechanism by which the CPU of a computer or a phone is able to handle multiple tasks at the same time. With multitasking, tasks to be executed concurrently or in parallel. Can you receive a call and still go back to the blog post you were typing on notes or wordpress, can you go to the web browser, search for something, copy it and still come back to the message you were typing on WhatsApp chat and share that. Can you play games like chess while in a zoom meeting or listening to music? So how did we do with the Tecno Camon 19 Pro on this front? With the highly regarded Mediatek Helio G96 chipset, coming with 2.05 GHz, Octa-core processor, add 8 GB RAM and 256GB storage and your guess is as good as mine. It is amazing that there is no task at this point that you can say you are not able to perform on a smartphone like Tecno Camon 19 Pro.
Part two of this article will look at specific tasks from the Camera being more than a tool for taking photos and selfies, meeting while traveling, blogging on WordPress, video and photo editing. Even before we take a mini break on this story, just know that the phone is awesome and if you have Ks33,799 somewhere, go and get it.
