A phone can make photography practice easy to start because the camera is often already with you. The useful question is what you are practising. Taking more pictures without reviewing the choices may simply make a larger collection of the same habits.
I would use a phone to work on a small, transferable skill: choosing a background, noticing light, arranging shapes or anticipating a moment. Those decisions matter whether the final photograph comes from a phone or a larger camera.
Set one task for an ordinary walk
Choose a short brief before leaving. You might look for three examples of reflected light, make a sequence of one place at different distances or find a composition with a clear subject and a quiet background. Keep the task small enough to complete without turning the walk into a production.
Make an obvious version of the scene, then one deliberate improvement. Move your position, simplify the frame or wait for a more useful moment. The pair will show you more than a single image whose decisions you no longer remember.
Start with the basic capture conditions
Check that the lens is clean and that the camera is using the mode you intended. Hold it steadily and look at the whole frame before tapping the shutter. These are unglamorous checks, but they keep an avoidable problem from dominating the review.
If the camera app offers focus or exposure control, learn what it changes on that device. Make a test rather than assuming a tap always behaves the same way across apps. You do not need to master every mode before practising composition, but you do need to recognise when the app made a decision you did not intend.
Move to improve the relationship
Before reaching for digital zoom or a crop, consider a different position where it is practical and safe. A small step can separate a person from a sign or remove an intrusive object at the edge. Magnifying the original view would not change that relationship.
For an imagined window-light exercise, photograph the same object from the front and then from an angle. Keep the object in place. Compare the shape of the shadow and how easily you can read its surface. That is a lesson about light, not a contest between devices.
Review beyond the small screen
Choose a few images and view them larger when possible. Check whether the important area is in focus, whether fine detail looks plausible and whether bright or dark areas lost something you needed. Then return to the intended viewing size and judge the composition as a whole.
Do not let a technical limitation erase a useful lesson. A noisy low-light photograph may still show that you found a stronger viewpoint. Record both observations: the composition improved, and the capture conditions limited the result.
Keep a short practice record
Save the brief, the original attempt, the improved version and one sentence about the difference. A weekly review of a few pairs is more manageable than scrolling through hundreds of unrelated frames and hoping progress is obvious.
When a limitation repeatedly prevents the picture you want, you can decide whether another method or tool would help. Until then, keep the practice focused on decisions you can make now. A familiar-location project is a good way to see those decisions becoming more deliberate over time.