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It kinda seems like a 13 inch tablet with a mouse and keyboard would give you a better experience, better battery life, better screen, be lighter, and so on. T

It kinda seems like a 13 inch tablet with a mouse and keyboard would give you a better experience, better battery life, better screen, be lighter, and so on. This thing looks just as heavy as a really cheap 13 inch laptop, except that it's missing most of the important parts and you must supply those by connecting a phone. So, am I missing something? What's the point of this? Assuming it had a better screen and good battery life, would it be useful?

michelledepeil 4y ago
It's pretty niche, but as a Linux phone user I can see the appeal: with a device like this I can totally get rid of a standalone laptop. For situations where you can easily connect 3 peripherals to create a desktop experience, indeed, this is inferior. But it's exactly the in-between situations - sitting on the couch but want to be slightly more productive than using an on-screen keyboard - that I think something like this would shine. But again, admittedly, niche. Right now I use a separate, old Linux laptop and SSH to my Linux phone to emulate the above, but that feels wrong somehow, and requires me to keep multiple devices in sync, connected to WiFi or Tailscale, etc.
ppseafield 4y ago
It's true it's a bit of a novelty. If I had a laptop in the niche you described, it would cover some of the use cases I used it on. It is much smaller and lighter than my laptop, which also has horrible battery life in Linux. It didn't cost as much as that laptop either. I was able to use it for 1. A quick screen/keyboard for a raspberry pi, the PinePhone I mentioned, and a Mac mini, 2. Taking notes during TTRPG sessions while having my app-only (at the time) character builder on the same screen, 3. One-off tasks on my phone suited to a larger screen and keyboard (e.g. responding to an email chain that started to need a longer explanations without having to log in to another computer), 4. Browsing and looking things up on the couch, and 5. Third monitor for my laptop at my desk, and a second monitor for my laptop while traveling. It was nice to not have to log into something else or transfer files back and forth between my phone and another computer. It also has a headphone jack, which my phone did not. So there were several small niches where it worked OK, none where it excelled.

michelledepeil 4y ago

It's pretty niche, but as a Linux phone user I can see the appeal: with a device like this I can totally get rid of a standalone laptop. For situations where you can easily connect 3 peripherals to create a desktop experience, indeed, this is inferior. But it's exactly the in-between situations - sitting on the couch but want to be slightly more productive than using an on-screen keyboard - that I think something like this would shine. But again, admittedly, niche. Right now I use a separate, old Linux laptop and SSH to my Linux phone to emulate the above, but that feels wrong somehow, and requires me to keep multiple devices in sync, connected to WiFi or Tailscale, etc.

ppseafield 4y ago

It's true it's a bit of a novelty. If I had a laptop in the niche you described, it would cover some of the use cases I used it on. It is much smaller and lighter than my laptop, which also has horrible battery life in Linux. It didn't cost as much as that laptop either. I was able to use it for 1. A quick screen/keyboard for a raspberry pi, the PinePhone I mentioned, and a Mac mini, 2. Taking notes during TTRPG sessions while having my app-only (at the time) character builder on the same screen, 3. One-off tasks on my phone suited to a larger screen and keyboard (e.g. responding to an email chain that started to need a longer explanations without having to log in to another computer), 4. Browsing and looking things up on the couch, and 5. Third monitor for my laptop at my desk, and a second monitor for my laptop while traveling. It was nice to not have to log into something else or transfer files back and forth between my phone and another computer. It also has a headphone jack, which my phone did not. So there were several small niches where it worked OK, none where it excelled.