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This is the only natural path if mobile chips are going to keep getting faster, everyone with a flagship phone is "wasting" so much good compute resources that

This is the only natural path if mobile chips are going to keep getting faster, everyone with a flagship phone is "wasting" so much good compute resources that never gets utilized. I wonder if we'll see USB-C docks for phones with fans blowing at the device for improved thermals. If they nail the Linux container UX as well as ChromeOS it would motivate me to buy a top-tier device rather than my sluggish Fairphone 4, right now I don't see the usecase other than good camera. Imagine thst a large userbase could just skip the laptop and desktop in favor of a USB-C dock and a decent display :)

saratogacx 1y ago
The original Samsung DeX dock for the S8 was exactly that. USB-C and had a fan in the stand to keep the phone cool. https://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/samsung-dex-first-impressions-review/ https://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/samsung-dex-first-impre...
- wkat4242 1y ago
  Yes I have several of those and they still work with my S23. Not sure why they don't sell them anymore. It was a great idea. The fan is even dynamic, it knows how hot the phone is (even if it's in a case so the phone must be reporting it over USB somehow). There was a second version which was flat so you could use the phone as touchpad. But it was thick, lacked ethernet port so it wasn't really worth it IMO. When you use a dock it's trivial to use a mouse, way better than any touchpad.
MetaWhirledPeas 1y ago
> everyone with a flagship phone is "wasting" so much good compute resources Are they though? Phones already have a broad range of uses. I've seen people try to make laptops out of them and it just doesn't make sense for a number of reasons: - As screen size goes up so do battery requirements, so you're already paying for a screen, a chassis, and a physical keyboard. Why not go the whole way and pay for the silicon? - When your phone is being a PC it's no longer being a phone; you can't do phone calls and camera photos (at least not well) while it's a PC. I have a Samsung and use Dex occasionally, but the uses are limited. In my case it's to check personal emails, which is not allowed on the corporate network. But outside of cases like this I can't imagine ever preferring Dex to a laptop or a dedicated computer. It's much better at being a phone.
- lillecarl 1y ago
  If people waste fancy silicon on phones, yes very much. While people use browsers and apps they're hardly multitasking like you would with a modern computer. A lot of good horsepower left for more advanced use cases. I'm a developer so I have my needs which are unlikely to be "completely fulfilled" by a Phone-as-computer either. However "as screen size goes up so does battery requirements", my thought was to keep the device docked in a Dex dock with PD and a fan for cooling, and since the resolution on modern phones is so damn crazy, as long as the device screen isn't pumping pixels when connected it should be fine to do 2k. While it's a PC it's docked so you can't take calls on the phone easily (unless you have a long cable) but you could with a headset. Now I am not talking about the Dex implementation, I'm in the "what can be" discussion for the future. For "normal people" a good Android desktop would be a lot better than not having a "desktop setup" at all. They don't have to buy a new device but can still get a mouse/keyboard/display combo and so some "productivity tasks". I tried Dex out on a S10 or something but it wasn't enough for me other than as a cool gimmick, but I definitely see a usecase that could become widespread.
  - eru 1y ago
    > If people waste fancy silicon on phones, yes very much. The silicon only has to be fancy, because phones are so constraint in terms of space, power and cooling. Getting phone-like performance in a desktop or laptop form factor and power and cooling budget is a lot simpler and cheaper. > They don't have to buy a new device but can still get a mouse/keyboard/display combo and so some "productivity tasks". The point was that they do have to buy a new device. The only thing they don't have to buy is new silicon. But that's trivial compared to everything else.
    - lillecarl 1y ago
      Thanks for your in-depth simplification of thermal budgets and updating me on the hardness of buying processes silicon? How do you know what the person I replied to mean when I don't?
      - 1y ago
happyopossum 1y ago
> If they nail the Linux container UX as well as ChromeOS … >Imagine thst a large userbase could just skip the laptop and desktop in favor of a USB-C dock and a decent display :) Yeah - I don’t think the user base interested in container UX is “large” in relation to the mobile world. Also, who wants to carry around a display with its own battery, a keyboard with its own batteries, a mouse/trackpad (batteries) and cables for the above? At some point it’s honestly easier to just grab a MacBook Air and walk out the door.
- lillecarl 1y ago
  Umm no, the mouse/keyboard/display combo would be something you have at work and maybe at home... I'm not suggesting people start hauling 27" displays for shits and giggles, computing from a phone doesn't seem that fun. And I don't know, the container UX people didn't exist for ChromeOS before ChromeOS made it easy to run Linux apps that way so.

saratogacx 1y ago

The original Samsung DeX dock for the S8 was exactly that. USB-C and had a fan in the stand to keep the phone cool. https://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/samsung-dex-first-impressions-review/ https://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/samsung-dex-first-impre...

wkat4242 1y ago
Yes I have several of those and they still work with my S23. Not sure why they don't sell them anymore. It was a great idea. The fan is even dynamic, it knows how hot the phone is (even if it's in a case so the phone must be reporting it over USB somehow). There was a second version which was flat so you could use the phone as touchpad. But it was thick, lacked ethernet port so it wasn't really worth it IMO. When you use a dock it's trivial to use a mouse, way better than any touchpad.

MetaWhirledPeas 1y ago

> everyone with a flagship phone is "wasting" so much good compute resources Are they though? Phones already have a broad range of uses. I've seen people try to make laptops out of them and it just doesn't make sense for a number of reasons: - As screen size goes up so do battery requirements, so you're already paying for a screen, a chassis, and a physical keyboard. Why not go the whole way and pay for the silicon? - When your phone is being a PC it's no longer being a phone; you can't do phone calls and camera photos (at least not well) while it's a PC. I have a Samsung and use Dex occasionally, but the uses are limited. In my case it's to check personal emails, which is not allowed on the corporate network. But outside of cases like this I can't imagine ever preferring Dex to a laptop or a dedicated computer. It's much better at being a phone.

lillecarl 1y ago
If people waste fancy silicon on phones, yes very much. While people use browsers and apps they're hardly multitasking like you would with a modern computer. A lot of good horsepower left for more advanced use cases. I'm a developer so I have my needs which are unlikely to be "completely fulfilled" by a Phone-as-computer either. However "as screen size goes up so does battery requirements", my thought was to keep the device docked in a Dex dock with PD and a fan for cooling, and since the resolution on modern phones is so damn crazy, as long as the device screen isn't pumping pixels when connected it should be fine to do 2k. While it's a PC it's docked so you can't take calls on the phone easily (unless you have a long cable) but you could with a headset. Now I am not talking about the Dex implementation, I'm in the "what can be" discussion for the future. For "normal people" a good Android desktop would be a lot better than not having a "desktop setup" at all. They don't have to buy a new device but can still get a mouse/keyboard/display combo and so some "productivity tasks". I tried Dex out on a S10 or something but it wasn't enough for me other than as a cool gimmick, but I definitely see a usecase that could become widespread.
- eru 1y ago
  > If people waste fancy silicon on phones, yes very much. The silicon only has to be fancy, because phones are so constraint in terms of space, power and cooling. Getting phone-like performance in a desktop or laptop form factor and power and cooling budget is a lot simpler and cheaper. > They don't have to buy a new device but can still get a mouse/keyboard/display combo and so some "productivity tasks". The point was that they do have to buy a new device. The only thing they don't have to buy is new silicon. But that's trivial compared to everything else.
  - lillecarl 1y ago
    Thanks for your in-depth simplification of thermal budgets and updating me on the hardness of buying processes silicon? How do you know what the person I replied to mean when I don't?
    - 1y ago

happyopossum 1y ago

> If they nail the Linux container UX as well as ChromeOS … >Imagine thst a large userbase could just skip the laptop and desktop in favor of a USB-C dock and a decent display :) Yeah - I don’t think the user base interested in container UX is “large” in relation to the mobile world. Also, who wants to carry around a display with its own battery, a keyboard with its own batteries, a mouse/trackpad (batteries) and cables for the above? At some point it’s honestly easier to just grab a MacBook Air and walk out the door.

lillecarl 1y ago
Umm no, the mouse/keyboard/display combo would be something you have at work and maybe at home... I'm not suggesting people start hauling 27" displays for shits and giggles, computing from a phone doesn't seem that fun. And I don't know, the container UX people didn't exist for ChromeOS before ChromeOS made it easy to run Linux apps that way so.