The advancement of smartphone technology has been meteoric over the last decade. It wasn’t all that long ago we were waiting for ages to browse simple websites that weren’t optimized for mobile viewing and sending MMS messages.
Now, we have the iPhone 14 Pro Max, which is one of the fastest smartphones on the planet, along with the Asus ROG Phone 6 Pro and the latest iterations of the Samsung Galaxy lineup.
It’s one thing to make the truthful claim that today’s smartphones are a thousand times more powerful than the computers that landed us on the moon. It’s quite another to claim that smartphones are faster than today’s laptops. Could that be true?
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Are Laptops Faster Than Phones?
In terms of responsiveness, a gaming or high-end laptop will feel about as fast as a good midrange or flagship smartphone. Most smartphones from popular manufacturers will feel very responsive at carrying out everyday tasks. However, a cheap laptop may feel extremely slow at even the most basic tasks, especially as its storage fills up.
It’s hard to directly compare laptops and phones as they are different types of devices that are often used for very different purposes. Smartphones run on a totally different type of processor architecture called ARM. Your laptop runs on a much more powerful type of architecture, usually x86.
Comparing the speeds of both is not easy and doesn’t always make sense. A laptop’s processor will usually work faster, especially for larger, more complex tasks. In simpler tasks that require a quick surge in power, such as loading a webpage or opening an app, the processor in your phone will likely work faster, because of its more simple architecture.
If you have a very cheap laptop with limited RAM and storage, a mechanical hard drive, and an underwhelming CPU, it’s going to feel very sluggish, even against the cheapest Android phone.
On the other hand, if you’re comparing a premium gaming laptop that has 16GB DDR4 RAM, a large SSD, and an Intel Core i7 processor, its responsiveness is going to be up there with a $1,200 flagship smartphone.
On both these devices, apps will open and web pages will load in the blink of an eye. And either device should power on in just a small few seconds.
Both devices will be lightning fast, too fast for you to pick one over the other.
It’s important to recognize what “speed” means when talking about whether or not smartphones are faster than laptops. Neither of them is going to run the same software. Even when the software is the same thing, there is a PC version and a mobile version.
When comparing whether a midrange smartphone or midrange laptop would be faster, the following conclusions can be drawn based on their components.
Processors
Smartphones use different types of processors than laptops. With laptops, the processors are typically x86 and smartphones use RISC. This puts a smartphone at an advantage because a RISC is less complex and it’s running a less complex architecture.
Related Article: Are Laptops Faster When Plugged In (Explained)
Random Access Memory (RAM)
Smartphones, due to the way RISC processors work, have more RAM than their laptop counterparts (at least flagship smartphones do). RISC processors push entire tasks to their RAM, making it easier to pull and push information when needed. Laptops only place portions of tasks onto RAM, which is a slower process.
Apps are Optimized for Smartphones
Everything you do on your smartphone is optimized for your smartphone. That isn’t always the case on a laptop. Smartphones are designed in a streamlined way, with developers pushing for speed in these apps.
The Operating System
The operating system on a smartphone is much smaller and less complex because it doesn’t need to be anything more than what it is. This gives smartphones another inherent advantage over laptops. The system just isn’t as complex.
We Upgrade Our Smartphones More
Many smartphone owners update their smartphones with the next iteration every year. That’s because carriers like AT;T, Verizon, and T-Mobile incentivize the process through monthly payments.
Hardly anyone upgrades their laptops at that rate. Most people may not get another (probably mid to lower-range) laptop for four or five years. By the time they get a new laptop, they may have had two phone upgrades.
The gulf between the two is widening as well. Laptops are not catching up with smartphones in terms of raw speed. Smartphones have overtaken laptops (in general) and are pulling ahead with each year that goes by. It’s not likely to revert and go the other direction, at least not anytime soon.
Bottom Line
When comparing budget to mid-range models, smartphones are generally faster than laptops, with certain exceptions here or there. However, even those exceptions may not last much longer, especially as companies like Asus are heavily focused on creating gaming smartphones like the above-mentioned Asus ROG Phone 6 Pro.
