Mobile phones are getting smarter by the day, but for some reason unbeknownst to man, they still tend to struggle with some of the most popular file types. It’s a strange thought. For all its memory and processing power, your smart phone spits back a simple spreadsheet, as if it were the strangest thing to ever come across its plate. Playing memory-intensive video games on the other hand goes smoothly.

In the end, this issue appears to be unrelated to how big a punch your mobile phone or tablet carries, but has to do with the apps that you’ve got installed. That’s right – with the right apps, you can open Excel files on your smart phone or tablet, too.

Documents To Go (Android)

Documents To Go is my go-to app on the Android phone. It’s a fully fledged office suite, with support for spreadsheets, but also for PDF’s, Microsoft Word documents and Powerpoint presentations. To allow easy access to all your spreadsheets, Documents To Go supports Google Drive downloads and USB synchronisation with Microsoft Windows computers.

The free version allows you to view Microsoft Excel files. This includes both the .xls and .xlsx filetypes. The premium version, retailing around $15, adds additional functionality to the application, most importantly the ability to edit all the aforementioned files right on your smart phone or tablet.

Google Drive (Android) (iOS)

The Google Drive app is available on both Android and iOS devices. However, the Android version is notably more matured. Both applications allow you to view any of the various files hosted on your Google Drive account. This means Google Spreadsheets, but also the supported Microsoft Excel files.

On Android, you can also edit these spreadsheets through the older Google Docs interface. On iOS devices, this is only possible by launching the mobile Google Drive website through Safari. An updated spreadsheet experience is said to be in the pipeline for both mobile operating systems.

CloudOn (Android) (iPad)

If you’ve got an Android or iPad tablet at hand, you’re in luck. CloudOn is a peculiar app. Rather than mimicking Microsoft Excel, or offering a half-baked spreadsheet juggling, CloudOn actually lets you use Microsoft Office through your tablet, free of charge! Of course, with Microsoft Excel being designed for desktop operating systems, it’s a busy use of screen real estate and you might want to consider getting a stylus to improve the experience.

This full-screen Microsoft Excel experience is complemented by CloudOn’s Google Drive, Dropbox and Box integration, allowing for easy access to all your documents in the cloud.

Microsoft Excel Mobile (Windows Phone)

Not surprisingly, Microsoft tries to provide native support for the various Microsoft Office files. For spreadsheets, this means we’re looking at Microsoft Excel Mobile, part of the Windows Phone’s ‘Office’ app.

Microsoft Excel Mobile will please all average, and most advanced users. The app comes with SkyDrive, Office 365 and SharePoint integration, but also — and more importantly — a myriad of advanced spreadsheet tools. These include sorting, filters, graphs, and an extensive function library.

What application do you use to handle spreadsheets on your mobile devices? Do you use a different application for other kinds of documents? Let us know in the comments section below the article!