Phone as the Primary Computing Device- Through Tecno Camon 19 Pro -Part 2
This is the second and final part of the experiment with how good smartphones have become when it comes to productivity work and possible look at whether Smartphones could replace laptops as the primary computing devices. Read the first part here if you have not seen it. For this part I will concentrate in discussing specific tasks performed using Tecno Camon 19 Pro.
USe of Camera
On camera let us do away with the basic first. On the rear of the device , there is a Triple Camera setup. One of the most complex setup I have seen on a phone so far. The main sensor of Tecno Camon’s 19 Pro is 64 megapixels, while the second lens has 50 megapixels along with the AI sensor. The third lens is a 2MP Bokeh camera. And finally the fourth lens is a selfie shooter of 32 megapixels. From that kind of a camera setup and specs, you know that you can take great pictures and videos. Apart from calls and receiving messages , taking pictures and videos have been the next level functions of mobile smartphones. So I left that for another post
Camera replacing scanners and photocopiers
The great thing about smartphones is that they are not just going to replace laptops, they are replacing so many other things along the way. The time when you had to own a scanner is gone now, what you need is a decent camera phone, the Tecno Camon 19 Pro is more than capable. While working exclusively on the phone I had a number of reports that I had to give some of which required scanning and signing of the documents. I was able to do the scanning two way one, through Google Drive app which seems to come automatically with the Android phones these days or two download scanning apps like Clear scanner. I must admit that before this experiment, I had not known the Google Drive app scanning function until when I started looking for ways to do very clear scanning of the documents.
Signing on the documents on the Tecno Camon 19 Pro
In some cases once you have scanned the documents you need to sign them especially those of contractual in nature. Also when writing official letters like I had to a number of Government officials. Here again you do not need a laptop, there are a number of Android apps that are best for this. You can download and use PDFelement for Android, SignX, Docusign, Fill and Sign PDF, SignNow. My favorite among them is Docusign, and also I realized that it is widely used by business people across the world. It should be noted that signature apps like Docusign also have a scan function. In other words, once you have it you do not necessarily need to use another app to scan and then come back to use it for signature.
Meeting while on the Move
Video chat and Facetime are normal use of mobile phones but virtual meeting is something else. By and large people made it work and where one is not needed to put their video on, you might even realize which participants are using smartphones and those who are using their laptops. One thing that I was afraid might not work well is when hosting a big virtual conference and you have to schedule the meeting, start it, admit participants and keep a tab of those people who do not know how to mute their devices. But hail to the Tecno Camon 19 Pro, I did it successfully. One more thing that I love about using the Smartphone to join the virtual meeting is that you can be at the meeting as you drive to another meeting or just while doing a long distance travel. I remember doing one meeting while going to Busia from Nairobi. The only drawback is if you are using the mobile data of the same phone you are using for a meeting, if somebody calls you on the same phone then the data goes off and you drop off the meeting. So if it is an important meeting then you should not use your main line or sim card that everyone calls you on frequently.
Mobile Journalism
Have you ever heard of the term mobile journalism?
Mobile journalism is a form of digital storytelling where the primary device used for creating and editing images, audio and video is a mobile phone. While doing some posts on Kachwanya.com and Chetenet.com during this period, I did them purely on phone. The stories included shooting videos and editing them, taking pictures and resizing them, writing a post on the notepad and then transferring them to WordPress admin and publishing the stories. This was the real productivity work in its real sense. Having done that on Tecno Camon 19 Pro, I concluded that there is nothing you can not do on the phone at the moment that would require you exclusively use a laptop.
Use of Excel Worksheet
This was the one that I found very challenging and I hope there would be some improvement going forward. It is like Excel was designed to be used on the laptop as compared to other Microsoft products like Word documents. Fortunately, for the likes of Word, there are many alternatives that can be use and then later converted to Word doc or PDF.
Conclusion
My exclusive one month experiment of working purely on Tecno Camon 19 Pro proved success and a testament that it is just a matter of time before a number of people transitioned from carrying bulky laptops to the office. Meanwhile Tecno Camon 19 Pro is a great phone and if you need a phone please do not hesitate to buy it. Goes for Ksh.33,799.