Samsung phones have DeX widely available across their flagship devices, allowing users to plug their phones into a screen, connect a mouse and keyboard, and work as if it was a laptop or desktop PC.
Do you find features like this fitting into your workflow? How would you feel about a Google equivalent?
I think it’s a total shame this has not been done properly to date. Phones have enough horsepower to power a decent laptop or tablet and there are no technical roadblocks.
From the little I played with it, a Raspberry Pi has plenty of horsepower for a good desktop experience. Surely my phone should be able to do so much more, given the price
In the future, nobody will have desktops. Phones will evolve to the point where they are your desktop, and you can plug them into a screen+ mouse and keyboard anywhere, anytime.
But, they are nowhere near that power right now. 2023 flagship phones are way more powerful than a computer from 20 years ago, but compared to the 2023 desktop hardware thats out right now they have a looooot of catching up to do. Most mobile CPUs are ARM based, so they can’t even run full desktop software. You would probably need 256gb or more to store your files, there is no dedicated GPU on most phones so you need one of those to run any serious software / games, I think GDDR6X ram would be fine to support a desktop, all of this hardware would probably make the phone use more battery, though if optimized correctly it wouldn’t affect battery when unplugged.
So really, all we need is better mobile CPUs with x64 support, and mobile GPUs to make this work. And software support. And it will probably get really hot when used to its full potential, so some time of cooling dock that you can plug the mouse and keyboard and other stuff into would be nice. And it might weigh a bit more because of the GPU
To be fair though, we could also take the approach of keeping the GPU external from the phone, in the dock with a thunderbolt connection. That would remove a lot of these restrictions, & keep the weight down. Then when you are plugged in you can use the GPU. Then all we need is a dock, software support, and better CPUs. But then its no longer as versatile, you would need either multiple docks + GPUs when you travel or to bring the dock with you.
I wish they would be standard. I only use a browser and ssh on my laptop so it would eliminate my need to lug around another computer.
I tried it and hated it. I bought a Samsung tablet for the hardware but the software just wasn’t up to snuff for my usage. So I sold it and bought a laptop (miss that thinness and oled screen)
I used a Samsung device with DeX and a lapdock as my sole PC for a year. It was…challenging. I expect that a first generation “desktop experience” on Android from Google would have issues, too.
I also have big concerns about Google’s invasive new ad platform which monitors your browser history to serve you ads, and how integrated it also seems to be to apps which use Chrome on Android.
All that said, I’d probably still be all-in for a Pixel that becomes a ChromeOS device when plugged into a monitor.
Pixel with a Dex-like environment could be amazing since it would likely mean GrapheneOS would get the features too and therefore be private.
I’m very excited about usb-c output on a phone: mostly because it means I could watch youtube videos on my way to work via a usb-c video out to a pair of wearable screens (xreal air)
I like the idea, as an even more portable laptop
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