I stopped reaching for my phone at my desk, and a cheap tablet is the reason

The phone sat next to my keyboard for years, and I didn't really give it much thought. It was the device I used for music, looking up recipes while cooking, quick video calls, and checking things off my to-do list.

I purchased a Samsung Galaxy Tab A9+ on a whim a few months ago, and it's since taken over that spot. Now the phone barely leaves the charger when I'm at home.

I'd always considered a tablet as an alternative to a laptop or desktop rather than a complement. But now that I have one, it's become obvious that a phone is the wrong second screen for a computer.

Most people use it as one because it's already on the desk, but a cheap tablet is what that job actually needs.

The phone was never the right tool for the desk

It's a portable device forced into stationary work

The phone is built for being carried. The screen times out fast to save battery in a pocket, it's sized for one-handed use, and the camera is tuned for a held device and a moving subject.

Each of those features makes the phone good at being a phone, but they turn into friction as soon as the device becomes stationary.

The phone was on the desk, so I used it there, and the small annoyances were the natural consequence of having one device for everything. When you have a tablet doing the desk jobs, you will see how badly the phone was doing them.

The obvious objection is that this is a second device for a problem I've already solved. But the Galaxy Tab A9+ retails for $159.99 and often drops under $150, which is less than a good phone case plus a year of one streaming subscription.

If I went for a smart display , I would pay the same price for only a fraction of the functionality, while locking me into one company's assistant. A cheap tablet is the cheapest general-purpose fix for the job.

Reaching over beats picking up

The phone needs a stand, but the tablet doesn't

One thing I underestimated was how annoying it is to pick up a phone while sitting at the desk. Tapping a small screen one-handed isn't bad on its own, but doing it twenty times a day while I'm trying to work is.

I tried using a phone stand to fix this problem, and it doesn't really work. The phone wobbles when I tap it, and when I plug in a charging cable, the angle shifts and makes it worse.

The tablet sits flat on a stand and stays put when I tap it because it's heavier and wider. Since the charging port is on the side, the cable doesn't fight with the angle, and I can reach over to use it.

It's such a small thing that looks unimpressive with one tap. But when you're constantly doing this throughout the workday, that difference is what stops the second screen from feeling like a chore and more like a tool.

Music with the lyrics on screen

A control surface, not a player

I didn't expect to care so much about music control. The sound from the tablet is fuller than the phone and a clear step up from my laptop speakers, which I'd already given up on. And that's not even including what the screen does while the music plays.

I keep the lyrics up while a song plays, which I never did on the phone because the screen was too small to read from across the desk, and I couldn't sacrifice any portion of my monitor's screen space for it.

The tablet is far enough from my eyes that lyrics read like a poster, and close enough that I can skip a track without unlocking my phone or pulling up a tab on the computer.

The phone can technically do all of this, but it couldn't do it well enough that I'd bother.

Video calls on a low-quality camera

Eye level is the whole job

On the phone, a long call means I'd have to prop it up and watch the angle drift every time I move around in my chair. Many times, I ended up showing the ceiling or the top of my forehead.

The tablet sits on a stand at eye level and stays there. I can keep working on my PC and glance over at the tablet screen without breaking the call. I often rely on the tablet's camera for video calls more than even the webcam attached to my PC.

The camera on a Tab A9+ is worse than my phone's, but for a desk call, it doesn't matter, because nobody on a work call needs a sharp camera. A steady eye-level shot from an okay sensor is better than a sharp shot from a phone that can't remain stable.

To-do lists, notes, and reading

The tablet doesn't distract with pings

I run TickTick on my tablet, and that changed how I work. The list sits open on the desk all day, and I can reach over to check things off without unlocking the phone, pressing Alt+Tab on the PC, or breaking out of whatever I was doing.

Notes and reading work the same way. A book or a PDF on a tablet setup at eye level is better than on a phone for the same reason a recipe is.

It's precisely what the tablet is missing that makes it better than a phone. It doesn't have my socials on it, doesn't take calls, and the notifications I see on it come from the only two apps I chose to put on it. That means little to no distractions when I'm focused on reading.

A device I don't worry about

Cheap is the feature

A pleasant consequence of getting a cheap tablet is that I don't have to be too careful with it. My phone is more babied. I clean it regularly, I don't take it into the kitchen if my hands are messy, and I think about where I put it down.

At $150, the tablet is cheap enough that I don't constantly worry about protecting it.

It sits on the kitchen counter when I'm cooking, comes to the couch when I want to watch Netflix and don't care about high resolution, and handles YouTube while I'm doing dishes.

None of that is really what a tablet is for, but a cheap and rugged-feeling slab of glass turns out to be useful for all of it when you have one lying around. A more expensive tablet would do all of this better, but I wouldn't use it as much for fear of scratching it.

A second screen, not a second phone

Looking back, the phone on my desk was never really a desk device. It was a habit, and it stayed there because I'd never asked what I actually wanted from a screen that sat next to my computer all day.

The answer turned out to be almost nothing the phone is good at, and almost everything a cheap tablet is. Position, size, a screen that stays on, a device I can tap without flinching, and a notification model that doesn't fight me.

None of that needs flagship power, which is the whole reason the cheap version works, and that's why I've started looking for more jobs that the tablet can take from both devices on either side of it.