5 ms·

>It sure is a shame that we can’t do more with this power. I think it’d be really cool to be able to plug in your iPhone to an external USB-C monitor and run St

>It sure is a shame that we can’t do more with this power. I think it’d be really cool to be able to plug in your iPhone to an external USB-C monitor and run Stage Manager with an external mouse and keyboard. Maybe one year. To dissipate heat you need volume/mass to soak it and surface area to dissipate it. Phones will never have the volume/mass or surface area to compete with normal size computers.

brianshaler 2y ago
Current generation computers, sure, but I think there's still steady progress toward increasing amount of compute per unit of energy. For phones, that's almost as important for heat dissipation as it is for battery life, as we're less likely to get more energy per unit of volume in the near future.
giobox 2y ago
The concept works just fine, Samsung etc have at various times demoed this exact concept with their own android handsets. Sure it might not be able to run at 100% load for long periods due to cooling restrictions, its still going to be more than fast enough for a lot of the activities most people do. One of the nice things CPU improvements bring us - the amount of thermal "volume/mass" needed for a given task is going down all the time, and right now an iPhone would comfortably drive a monitor and keyboard, just like the iPad with similar cooling constraints and physical architecture already does. The screen on the latest iPhone runs at up to 2,868 x 1,320 at 120hz on the Pro Max - some desktop monitors would actually be easier to drive (1080/60 etc) than its own internal display.
- jsheard 2y ago
  > The concept works just fine, Samsung etc have at various times demoed this exact concept with their own android handsets. More than a concept demo, it's been a production feature in all S, Note and Fold series Samsungs since 2017. https://www.androidauthority.com/samsung-dex-3156766/ https://www.androidauthority.com/samsung-dex-3156766/
- michaelmrose 2y ago
  The average person spends about 800 on a phone and about 700 on a computer most commonly a laptop. The latest and best iphone is about $1200. To use it you are going to want an acceptable battery, a screen, a case, keyboard. I should think This will run at least $300–500. You have not for the same amount the average person paid acquired a good phone and a mediocre laptop. You also have no redundancy if one device is stolen, lost, or broken. For value minded folks stepping up to a phone nice enough to serve as a mediocre laptop is a non-starter not to mention they probably already have an acceptable version of one when they are shopping for the other. For the folks more concerned about quality than value they are apt to be very disinterested in stepping down. There is basically no market for this. This is a nerd trap its one of the ideas that seems like it ought to be able to made sense of which has no practical application.
jauntywundrkind 2y ago
For this use case, since we are already talking about the phone being wired to some physical infrastructure, I don't think it's too much of a leap to imagine a dedicated cooling dock for the phone. Put a Frore AirJet MEMs fan (or conventional fan) on a holding pad, and that phone could sustain vastly better performance. Ideally I'd love to see gaming handhelds so the same. I would love a Deck with for example the upcoming Strix Halo APU, that has to throttle way down when portable, that can't effectively cool itself and doesn't have the batteries to run at it's real capabilities. But then you dock the Deck onto a big power supply with active cooling and boom: gaming monster. We ought to be building portable systems that need external cooling assistance to be fully utilized. Scaling down is enormously effective & advantageous today. The other point I'd make is that while, yes, maybe even an unaided phone isn't going to win a sustained benchmark, most users on desktops are probably near idle 90%+ of the time. the phones inability to sustain high power isn't really a key factor at all for most computing usages. That there happens to be a big display and keyboard and mouse doesn't really mandate more than what a phone already offers, for the vast vast vast majority of desktop use. So why not?! It'll be exciting to see Android 15 finally bring forward this promise and potential. I doubt it'll cause a big shift fast. But these capabilities are going mainstream, and phones should be up to it!! Can't wait till we start getting USB4 phones!
- troupo 2y ago
  > Can't wait till we start getting USB4 phones! Apple still ships non-pro models with USB 2 (mostly to pretend that the 4 models they produce every year have any meaningful difference besides size)
wenc 2y ago
I find that for writing (not coding, writing) I don't need the external monitor. There's an even simpler solution. I just pair my phone with a lightweight butterfly-foldable BT keyboard ($40) and I can type on the train, plane, etc. It works really well, no laptop needed. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0C1VSRZ59/?th=1 https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0C1VSRZ59/?th=1 It's a great way to take notes in a lecture hall too, or to do some writing in a cafe while I'm traveling. I've done lots of long-form writing this way and it's perfectly fine. Also great for writing HN comments with. Lugging a laptop around always seemed overkill to me. Even an iPad is too much weight to carry around. A phone and a foldable keyboard is all I need.
- heraldgeezer 2y ago
  >Lugging a laptop around always seemed overkill to me. Even an iPad is too much weight to carry around. I am sorry but do you have some kind of a physical disability?
  - wenc 2y ago
    No, but I don't carry a backpack due to back issues. Instead I have a small messenger bag which I lug, and you'd be surprised how much a 1 lb iPad Pro 10.5" bears down on you when you are carrying it all day.
Atreiden 2y ago
You could create a cooling, charging dock for that purpose with an HDMI or DP out. Hell, you could put it in the base of the monitor even. It's definitely feasible for a company like Apple and I could see a market for it in the corporate space.

brianshaler 2y ago

Current generation computers, sure, but I think there's still steady progress toward increasing amount of compute per unit of energy. For phones, that's almost as important for heat dissipation as it is for battery life, as we're less likely to get more energy per unit of volume in the near future.

giobox 2y ago

The concept works just fine, Samsung etc have at various times demoed this exact concept with their own android handsets. Sure it might not be able to run at 100% load for long periods due to cooling restrictions, its still going to be more than fast enough for a lot of the activities most people do. One of the nice things CPU improvements bring us - the amount of thermal "volume/mass" needed for a given task is going down all the time, and right now an iPhone would comfortably drive a monitor and keyboard, just like the iPad with similar cooling constraints and physical architecture already does. The screen on the latest iPhone runs at up to 2,868 x 1,320 at 120hz on the Pro Max - some desktop monitors would actually be easier to drive (1080/60 etc) than its own internal display.

jsheard 2y ago
> The concept works just fine, Samsung etc have at various times demoed this exact concept with their own android handsets. More than a concept demo, it's been a production feature in all S, Note and Fold series Samsungs since 2017. https://www.androidauthority.com/samsung-dex-3156766/ https://www.androidauthority.com/samsung-dex-3156766/
michaelmrose 2y ago
The average person spends about 800 on a phone and about 700 on a computer most commonly a laptop. The latest and best iphone is about $1200. To use it you are going to want an acceptable battery, a screen, a case, keyboard. I should think This will run at least $300–500. You have not for the same amount the average person paid acquired a good phone and a mediocre laptop. You also have no redundancy if one device is stolen, lost, or broken. For value minded folks stepping up to a phone nice enough to serve as a mediocre laptop is a non-starter not to mention they probably already have an acceptable version of one when they are shopping for the other. For the folks more concerned about quality than value they are apt to be very disinterested in stepping down. There is basically no market for this. This is a nerd trap its one of the ideas that seems like it ought to be able to made sense of which has no practical application.

jauntywundrkind 2y ago

For this use case, since we are already talking about the phone being wired to some physical infrastructure, I don't think it's too much of a leap to imagine a dedicated cooling dock for the phone. Put a Frore AirJet MEMs fan (or conventional fan) on a holding pad, and that phone could sustain vastly better performance. Ideally I'd love to see gaming handhelds so the same. I would love a Deck with for example the upcoming Strix Halo APU, that has to throttle way down when portable, that can't effectively cool itself and doesn't have the batteries to run at it's real capabilities. But then you dock the Deck onto a big power supply with active cooling and boom: gaming monster. We ought to be building portable systems that need external cooling assistance to be fully utilized. Scaling down is enormously effective & advantageous today. The other point I'd make is that while, yes, maybe even an unaided phone isn't going to win a sustained benchmark, most users on desktops are probably near idle 90%+ of the time. the phones inability to sustain high power isn't really a key factor at all for most computing usages. That there happens to be a big display and keyboard and mouse doesn't really mandate more than what a phone already offers, for the vast vast vast majority of desktop use. So why not?! It'll be exciting to see Android 15 finally bring forward this promise and potential. I doubt it'll cause a big shift fast. But these capabilities are going mainstream, and phones should be up to it!! Can't wait till we start getting USB4 phones!

troupo 2y ago
> Can't wait till we start getting USB4 phones! Apple still ships non-pro models with USB 2 (mostly to pretend that the 4 models they produce every year have any meaningful difference besides size)

wenc 2y ago

I find that for writing (not coding, writing) I don't need the external monitor. There's an even simpler solution. I just pair my phone with a lightweight butterfly-foldable BT keyboard ($40) and I can type on the train, plane, etc. It works really well, no laptop needed. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0C1VSRZ59/?th=1 https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0C1VSRZ59/?th=1 It's a great way to take notes in a lecture hall too, or to do some writing in a cafe while I'm traveling. I've done lots of long-form writing this way and it's perfectly fine. Also great for writing HN comments with. Lugging a laptop around always seemed overkill to me. Even an iPad is too much weight to carry around. A phone and a foldable keyboard is all I need.

heraldgeezer 2y ago
>Lugging a laptop around always seemed overkill to me. Even an iPad is too much weight to carry around. I am sorry but do you have some kind of a physical disability?
- wenc 2y ago
  No, but I don't carry a backpack due to back issues. Instead I have a small messenger bag which I lug, and you'd be surprised how much a 1 lb iPad Pro 10.5" bears down on you when you are carrying it all day.

Atreiden 2y ago

You could create a cooling, charging dock for that purpose with an HDMI or DP out. Hell, you could put it in the base of the monitor even. It's definitely feasible for a company like Apple and I could see a market for it in the corporate space.