No more Desktop ... Not even a laptop .... This is my plan for the near future

[james_bond]

I purchased my first desktop in 2003. Since then I have assembled (by myself) 4 desktops. The situation right now is quite interesting. I was a happy user of Digital Cable but 2-3 months ago my Set Top Box stopped working. I called my Cable company & after testing the STB they said its not possible to repair it & I will have to buy a new one & that I will save some money if I exchange my old STB. I declined their offer & since then I have connected my desktop to my LED TV & streaming everything.

 

We will be moving to a new house soon & once we move I will buy an Amazon Fire TV stick. Once I do that maintaining a PC will make no sense. I will be using my Smartphone as a replacement,

 

Q1) If checking Email & Facebook is the only requirement do you think a Smartphone will be enough ?

Q2) What do you think about this plan of mine ? Please be frank.

[Sarra]

I prefer gaming, and I prefer gaming on a large screen. I guess you could go 'PC free' and still have a console, but...

 

I think you would be fine without a PC, if email and facebook are all you ever do. But if you ever want to do anything beyond email and facebook, besides streaming, then you might need something bigger. Maybe a tablet? I dunno, I do too many things that mobile simply cannot do, so personally, I couldn't imagine living without a PC (I have 3 in front of me right now, and another planned).

[Lord Vile]

9 hours ago, james_bond said:

I purchased my first desktop in 2003. Since then I have assembled (by myself) 4 desktops. The situation right now is quite interesting. I was a happy user of Digital Cable but 2-3 months ago my Set Top Box stopped working. I called my Cable company & after testing the STB they said its not possible to repair it & I will have to buy a new one & that I will save some money if I exchange my old STB. I declined their offer & since then I have connected my desktop to my LED TV & streaming everything.

 

We will be moving to a new house soon & once we move I will buy an Amazon Fire TV stick. Once I do that maintaining a PC will make no sense. I will be using my Smartphone as a replacement,

 

Q1) If checking Email & Facebook is the only requirement do you think a Smartphone will be enough ?

Q2) What do you think about this plan of mine ? Please be frank.

Could just get a mini PC and bolt it to the back of a TV. Gen computing hasn’t needed an upgrade since 2012 if you got a 2600 all That’s changed is an SSD

[aDoomGuy]

1. Well yeah if all you're looking for is basic email functionality.

2. Fine I guess. As long as it works for you. It wouldn't work for me though, I don't like to type on the virtual keyboards so any other than a quick reply I would go on a computer if at all possible.

[Helpful Tech Witch]

9 hours ago, james_bond said:

Once I do that maintaining a PC will make no sense

yeah, but like, you would still have it right?

[Bitter]

How the heck are you gonna print? Have you tried handling documents and printing on mobile? It's an absolute mess, printing from a PC of any kind is 1000% simpler and easier especially when dealing with poorly formatted or just frankly messed up stuff that people send. Can your smart phone open a RTF document? How about a Word 97 .doc? I still get stuff like that emailed from companies all the time because the person running their office is stuck in 2002.

 

I stream almost everything I watch as well, really thinking about dropping the TV subscription more and more since the local cable news channel dried up. I have several PC's, one of which is connected to the TV and is the size of a large shoebox. It's a modest thing with a mobile i7 in a Z87 ITX board with 16GB DDR3 1866 and a GTX 960, it'll handle light gaming on the TV at 1080p and can do some great post processing and upscaling for playback from local files. I've been hacking away at it for years adding this and that here or there and it's done finally and I haven't messed with it for a year. It's quiet and unobtrusive and stays out of the way. With modern hardware you could run something like a Ryzen 3rd gen APU in an ITX board with a SFF PSU and a small case and just tuck it out of the way behind the TV and be incredibly happy with the performance AND still have a PC if needed to handle things like doing taxes, printing, viewing things on an actual screen on a desktop environment, etc. I just can't imagine NOT having a desktop PC of some kind to sit down at but that's me.

[RAS_3885]

9 hours ago, james_bond said:

I purchased my first desktop in 2003. Since then I have assembled (by myself) 4 desktops. The situation right now is quite interesting. I was a happy user of Digital Cable but 2-3 months ago my Set Top Box stopped working. I called my Cable company & after testing the STB they said its not possible to repair it & I will have to buy a new one & that I will save some money if I exchange my old STB. I declined their offer & since then I have connected my desktop to my LED TV & streaming everything.

 

We will be moving to a new house soon & once we move I will buy an Amazon Fire TV stick. Once I do that maintaining a PC will make no sense. I will be using my Smartphone as a replacement,

 

Q1) If checking Email & Facebook is the only requirement do you think a Smartphone will be enough ?

Q2) What do you think about this plan of mine ? Please be frank.

Sounds like for your use case it will be fine. If I took gaming out of the equation I'd be able to get by with just a smartphone and Chromecast for my personal use. I keep thinking about buying a laptop buy really can't justify it.

 

15 minutes ago, Bitter said:

How the heck are you gonna print? Have you tried handling documents and printing on mobile? It's an absolute mess, printing from a PC of any kind is 1000% simpler and easier especially when dealing with poorly formatted or just frankly messed up stuff that people send.

Formatting of stuff on mobile does suck, but my experience with printing basic docs (which let's be honest, base on the OP is likely all they will need to do) from mobile has been seamless. I have a wifi Brother laser printer, installed their Android print service, and it shows up as an available printer every time. Super easy.

 

For more complex stuff, no, it wouldn't work. But OP doesn't sound like that's what they need if they are considering getting rid of a computer altogether.

[Rybo]

You're missing one thing: redundancy.  Phones have a tendency to find themselves at the bottom of toilets and under car tires for some reason, so if something does go wrong with your phone, you'll be tech free until you get it replaced -- and anything you stored on your phone will potentially be kaput.  Laptops carry similar risks.  Desktops that just hang out in the corner -- even if they're rarely used -- are a good thing to have as a backup.  

[Arika]

id say at a minimum to have at least a laptop for those times when you want to type out something long.

 

Otherwise if you get a Samsung Galaxy device, you can take advantage of DEX and have a fairly "decent" desktop experience powered by your phone.

[TetraSky]

14 hours ago, james_bond said:

Q1) If checking Email & Facebook is the only requirement do you think a Smartphone will be enough ?

Yes.

 

14 hours ago, james_bond said:

Q2) What do you think about this plan of mine ? Please be frank.

If you aren't using the computer for anything other than emails and facebook, getting rid of it in favor of just a phone is "ok".

Though personally, I would still keep the PC, just in case you do ever need to do more than just do a few things on the phone. Especially anything that involve typing long text, or possibly even proper photo editing.

[Mooshi]

Depends on what you do. If it's basic web browsing stuff, even a cheap budget tablet will do.

 

I personally couldn't imagine going without a PC. Can't do art on a phone (not well anyway), typing documents, number crunching or game. (let's be real, most mobile games are rehashed suck riddled with ads)

[james_bond]

7 hours ago, Bitter said:

How the heck are you gonna print?

I don't need a printer. I just need to print only one page once a month. Its the receipt of the electricity bill which I receive via email in case I made the payment electronically. I copy it to a USB flash drive & take it to a nearby cyber cafe for printing. 

[Energycore]

If you don't need it, you don't need it. And if you start needing one at some point in the future, you can get one then.

[DarkEnergy]

Email and facebook only, yeah you just need a phone. If you plan to peruse the interwebs however I think simply having a larger screen to view would be more comfortable for the eyes. A budget large screen tablet with a bluetooth keyboard/mouse would greatly increase productivity. A used ipad would be a good budget option.

[Andreas Lilja]

I only use my PCs for gaming. 

 

Everything else is smartphone or tablet. 

[james_bond]

I am asking this to everyone who replied. Is it possible to check Gmail using an Amazon Fire TV stick ? The Amazon Fire TV stick runs on Android right ?

What about the Facebook app ? Can I install that on Amazon Fire TV stick ?

[Bitter]

Amazon devices run a walked garden version of Android but some devices can install the play store and regular apps may work but some may not.

[divito]

A smartphone technically can get you by, but there will likely be times that it will be frustrating, and relying on trying to get things working on a Fire stick is probably not great.

The most basic way around your situation is probably a cheap Chromebook. Nothing really to maintain and no wasted performance or upkeep with some other type of laptop, whether old and used or new and slow.

[Guest]

If you don't need it don't get it. You're prolly gonna keep at least one pc just in case you overlooked something but as far as some of my friends go, they have smart phones iPad and cell phones and xbox. That's it. 

[BlueChinchillaEatingDorito]

The only draw back I can see is when typing or reading long emails. I've always found it awkward and difficult to do that on a small screen. But in general, phones are well capable of email. If anything, Windows Continuum really demonstrated how capable a phone is to be a desktop or laptop replacement in general tasks. 

[Bitter]

There's a HP all in one 21" touch screen on ebay with Win10 that ends in 2 hours, probably going to go for under $100. It's small and unobtrusive but can do all the computer things but you can also just walk past and tap at stuff fast like a big tablet. Might be a good compromise?

[Bitter]

https://www.ebay.com/itm/383803602404

 

Ones like that usually sell around $100 and would be 100% fine for doing taxes, printing forms and documents, or those times when you need a real screen, mouse, and keyboard.

[Dissitesuxba11s]

I don't want to be Frank, that's weird /s.

 

If the Fire Stick is my only entertainment option, then I would get annoyed by the ads in the YouTube videos (unless you put a Pi-hole, or if the Fire Stick has an ad blocker). But if it saves you money then more power to you.

Edited November 17, 2020 by Dissitesuxba11s

[Fatih19]

Move to a farm lmao.