Computer strength varies from one device to another

I feel like I am going crazy but I just did a little experiment to prove it.

If I use the lichess app on my phone and select to play against the computer at level 1 it is pretty darn good. If you make a mistake it will punish it very fast. The best I can do against it is to win a pawn or two and win a long and hard endgame.

If I play on the computer on the lichess site and play against the computer at level 1 it's like playing against a 5 year old. You can pretty much make random moves and wait for it to hang something. It misses simple recaptures, doesn't punish mistakes, etc.

So my question if they are both supposed to be level one why is my phone playing at 1700-1800 and the computer 1000 ish?

Is this the game you played against Stockfish on your phone?

It doesn't seem to be playing any better than your game against Stockfish here:


Maybe you were more comfortable at the computer than using your phone, and it felt easier because of that?

No both those games where on the computer I played two to make sure it was pretty consistent. It doesn't log the game when you play it on the phone since you are playing "offline"

I noticed that Level 1 on mobile doesn't play very differently from Level 5

I've also noticed that there is something very wonky about how the AI level 1 plays. It's almost like it adjusts the difficulty based on how I play.

If I play very wildly and just mindlessly attack, it will often decline even very obvious recaptures and make blunders even a child wouldn't miss.

If I play more carefully and the game starts lasting longer, it will start to really do some sophisticated tactics and the difficulty starts to ramp up and it won't slip up at all.

I'm not a strong player by any means but I definitely notice that the difficulty varies wildly, I'm just not sure what causes it.