i can read books on it and it’s decent. but multitasking on a phone is terrible, i do basic googling around on a phone but i need a pc for any serious diving into anything. also anything that would need more than just typing out a few notes is slow and annoying on a phone.

it is possible once you get used to it depending on how you learn, if that’s what you have. i suggest you try around a lot of different apps for the things you will need. finding a good workflow helps more than people realize.

Not me

Might be of interest: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/articles/202407/5-ways-to-help-your-brain-learn-better

4. Location. Location. Location.

The hippocampus is the brain’s primary gateway to memory. Essentially, all new information must pass through this neural structure in order to be converted into consciously accessible long-term memory.

Lining the hippocampus are millions of tiny neurons called “place cells.” These cells continuously and subconsciously encode both the spatial layout of whatever objects we are interacting with and our physical relationship to those objects. For instance, if I were to place you in a maze, place cells would map out not only the global pattern of the maze but also your unique location within that pattern as you walked through the maze.

As a result, spatial layout is an integral aspect of all newly formed memories. This is the reason why, when it comes to reading comprehension and retention, hard copy always beats digital.

Print ensures that material is in an unchanging and everlasting three-dimensional location. You may have noticed that after reading from physical media, you can typically recall that a particular passage of interest is “about halfway through the book on the bottom, right-hand page.”

The unvarying location is embedded within our memory and can be used to help trigger relevant content in the future. Digital media have neither an unchanging nor an everlasting spatial organization. When reading a PDF document, words will begin at the bottom of the screen, move to the middle, then disappear out the top. When content has no fixed physical location, we lose a key component of memory and cannot draw upon spatial organization as a cue to recall content in the future.

Modern e-readers allow users to “flip” (rather than scroll) through the “pages.” Although a step in the right direction, this still omits the important third dimension of depth, which allows for the unambiguous triangulation of information.

If your primary purpose for reading is not memory (for instance, if you’re searching for key terms), then digital tools will often prove more effective than print. Furthermore, if you have a physical or mental impairment which necessitates the need of text interactivity, then digital tools may be essential.

However, if your aim is learning and if you have the luxury of selecting between different media, then print it out.

I have not studied in some time but may have to coming up. I do believe the best way to study is to hand write notes and rewrite them in iterations with other sources. so write in classe, listen to recording in dorm and rewrite. Pausing and rewinding as need to get what you want down, read text book chapter and rewrite as you do that. Its incredibly time consuming but effective. Given that I have not done anything close since college and did not even do it to that level at college. One and maybe two rewrites at most. Now I will likely just use a laptop and I might make and rewrite notes in a way I did for test prep which is more like consolidation. Bringing it down more and more to the key parts.

I do somewhat, but prefer my laptop. I think it would be helpful to be able to print or otherwise have a physical textbook, but my uni doesn’t have a printer for us to use and we all know physical texts are crazy expensive.

For my phone, I use the NaturalReader app. Its text to speech, but you can highlight and annotate the text as well. If you tap on a word, it’ll highlight the whole sentence so you don’t have to do the tedious drag-to-highlight thing. Not sure what it does with graphics, however. In that case I’d try out Zotero for mobile. Not sure how great the app is on the phone but I like it a lot in my laptop.

I use my smartphone for notes, and an eReader for text.

I’m not in school anymore, but I read on my phone all the time (mostly articles and forums, but I’ve read at least a few ebooks on a phone or tablet too).

I prefer a laptop but I don’t always have one on me. Physical books are good too, but again they’re not always on me.

I used to do absolutely everything on my phone, until I got a ThinkPad.

But yeah, I went from a terrible HP that had SMR HDD and a TN panel where I constantly had to move my head depending on what I wanted to read because it had no contrast to 2-in-1 ThinkPad with pretty nice touchscreen IPS and NVMe SSD that I can charge with the same power bank and wall adapter I use for my phone.

I am not really joking with that screen. When I wanted to do something beyond text, I’d either connect it to TV, or use a HDMI USB capture card connected to my phone.

I would like one of those A4 size eink tablets with a stylus for this exact reason but they are unfortunately prohibitively expensive.

I study with 3x5 index cards, mostly, but I will use my phone to look things up and refresh my memory while making or using the cards.

When taking notes I write in a standard notebook, but if I need to review I transfer the relevant info to the index cards.

When I went back to college about 10 years ago, I did everything on an iPad. From note taking to studying. Everything was done digitally and synced to online backups.

As a current college student on a budget, if I need to print a section of a digital textbook out, I will ( at school because I never run out of credits with the way I print ). Otherwise, I try not to spend money on textbooks because they’re all either overpriced or, in the case of the last one I bought for around $50USD, it’s a year long license for the book.

As for smartphone, I have done a few classes where I had the required textbook on my phone, but I mostly just keep them on my laptop/desktop.

I do prefer something like a PDF or something similar for studying, though. I find it better for me to be able to search for something I need rather than just memorizing what page it’s on, but that’s down to personal preference with me.

I do things mostly digitally except for things like math and diagrams where it’s easier to draw it by hand.

If you’re stuck on your phone, you could use Anki for flash cards.

10 inch android tablet using the Notewise app

If you need more screen realestate, consider getting a phablet (aka plus sized phone these days). If you can carry a tablet with you, that would probably be even better.