Samsung DeX
samsung.com
samsung.com
It seems like a neat idea on the surface though, so I wonder why as a concept the phone-connected-to-desktop-peripherals thing hasn't gained more traction. My suspicion is that there isn't really a target user that this makes more sense for. Who happens to keep desktop peripherals on their desk but only does lightweight productivity tasks? CEOs who only answer email? Certainly not software developers or even accounting people.
The person who most wants to use their phone as a PC is the person who can't afford spending $4000 on the entire suite of Apple devices.
That person probably also can't afford a $100 dock (let alone a $300 one) for their phone.
When someone makes a USB-C/Thunderbolt/Intel/Windows device that is phone sized but runs legacy Windows applications (like MS Paint and Quickbooks and 90s-era video games), and connects with commodity connectors, then the idea stands a chance.
(IMHO, Windows Continuum died because of a chicken-and-egg problem -- no iOS devs wanted to pay $1000 for Visual Studio plus a Windows laptop, but no users used the phone because key apps were missing.)
What I think people are more skeptic about is performance and user experience.
People will feel that they can absorb $20 or even $30 extra per month on their plan for a top tier phone. Absorbing any hit over $200 when someone lives hand to mouth makes these a non-starter.
The best chance for mass success for this option is for it to be included in the base purchase.
Also, majority of people just use email and word suite. An S9 is easily capable of doing these tasks and it saves the individual or company cost of a cpu box (400 USD at the low end).
My point is, it really doesn't matter what the reality of the cost/loan is, people who think "$30/mo! I can do that!" are probably not also going to think $200 seems like a good price for basically a cable to plug my phone into my computer.
Obviously, your other point was that it could come with a plan too but that seems doable but also there's yet another cost on top of the phone they were just barely justifying already. I'm not saying you're wrong but I think the price of this device is ridiculous.
I might pay $80 for it if it were really something I needed but, as others have said, I don't carry my phone around to be a computer. I carry it to be a phone. On top of that, I never really have a situation where I've got a keyboard, mouse, and monitor just sitting around waiting for something to activate them. So I'm not sure when I'd use this anyway.
I think that's what the parent was talking about: Most people that wouldn't mind a simpler UX and less performance can't afford this phone/dock in a first place... and the people that would afford this (have an S8 and don't mind buying a $300 dock) will be skeptical about the usefulness and performance of this system.
(I've always had a prepaid smartphone, and the options were atrocious in 2010 and barely existed beyond the Nexus in 2012)
Here in Europe, contracts are the exception not the rule.
Most people just charge with 15 to 20 euros their SIM card whenever they feel like it, and have to pay full price for mobile phone.
Or pay it in rates to only have it unlocked from the network at the end of two years, so they are going to use that phone until it dies or gets stolen.
I'm pretty sure that hasn't been true for years.
"Around 70% of customers in Western Europe and China use prepaid phones with the figure rising to over 90% for customers in India and Africa"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prepay_mobile_phone
I only know people with contracts regarding iPhone, which is the only affordable way to get them new in many of the European countries.
As teamhappy pointed out, I am kind of wrong, as the data did indeed change for contracts, but was is still low in 2015 regarding southern countries, the ones I tend to visit regularly.
But it would still be nice to know if someone can point out to 2017 data.
What has become super common is for home cable provider to provide SIM with around 2G of data in order to pay monthly broadband charge. SIM recharge being easier than vanilla broadband recharge.
> while in Europe the proportion is 50%, reaching 75% in
> Northwestern Europe as compared to 40% in South-Eastern
> European states.
Data is from 2015. Given the overall trend I wouldn't be surprised if even more people have switched to contract by now.
But I do agree from 2012 to 2015 it did change in the direction you meant.
well the atrix costed $400 usd and even with a monthly plan was way cheaper than the samsung galaxy s8
and even on a monthly plan it was cheaper than the current galaxys. still all people bought the galaxys
So I don't need additional computers in my life but if my phone had docking support I'd seamlessly just plug it into my existing setup.
As the laptop and pc depreciate over time and phone hardware improves with every generation, a DeX platform becomes more attractive as a node on my KVM setup.
I'd love to have just one computing device that covers everything for the sake of simplicity. At times I've found myself carrying a smartphone, laptop, tablet and a smart watch, plus ton of cables and adapters... almost 10 pounds or 5kg of electronics just to cover all my use cases. Dragging that through airports for example is ridiculous.
An iPad is powerful enough for most typical workloads.
Therefore, my iPhone is powerful enough for most workloads.
If I could dock my phone into something that gave me a monitor, keyboard, and (so I don't have to lift my arm up over and over) a trackpad, that would solve my home computing needs 85% of the time.
Apple could pull the trigger on running full OSX on a phone or iPad if they thought there was a market for it but it would be a backwards-looking step.
It’s not exactly an innovation leap to think “hey, phones will match desktop PC performance, we could plug one into peripherals and make a device that can become a desktop”, everyone has had that idea. It just seems a bit backwards looking? In 10 years time the power of a current Mac Pro will probably be available in a watch with 5G+ bandwidth. If necessary, a desktop OS experience could be an app or a cloud service on whichever screen (or headset) is available.
The entire home wall video monitor in the beginning of the movie Total Recall (first version) would be great to have everywhere. Just as you change music you could make your environment look like anything and this same technology would let you grab a little near by space to use as a screen. Too expensive now but in ten years, perhaps.
Expect Xiaomi to release a $25 knockoff for their phones if there's ever a demand for it. I suspect there's very little in the dock hardware itself over a standard USB-C OTG charging hub with HDMI passthrough and an ethernet port. Maybe I'm wrong but the rest is just software on the phone?
It's a useful feature and because we already have too many devices finds little use but once its seamless it could offer many possibilities.
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s50GWuKphTI
[2] https://forum.xda-developers.com/galaxy-s8/how-to/dex-unexpe...
> https://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/09/18/palm_foleo_laptop_u...
For such a setup to work and really make sense though it'd have to be available as near-ubiquitous infrastructure one could expect in every hotel and every office.
I suppose, however, the travelling tradesman / digital nomad target audience just isn't large and profitable enough (as of now at least) to warrant such a large-scale infrastructure undertaking.
If anything I would love to see a modern version of the Droid/Milestone I never understood why Motorola stopped making them, the Milestone was by far the best device I ever had.
The Droid wasn't bigger than an average Android phone at the time and still packed an almost full keyboard and a dpad.
For this to catch on, in my mind, it needs to provided an experience that can replace a desktop, otherwise having to have a dock, monitor, keyboard & mouse, might as well just add an Intel compute stick and have a 10 times better experience.
Wow, this a deal breaker.
Amazon Spaces also has "first party" support.
The one place it really exceeds the desktop is answering calls and responding to text, puts Google Voice and Skype to shame.
I'm somewhat tempted to try it, maybe not at RRP though. Although I get the feeling it will end up in the pile with the Occulus Rift and all the other gimmicky stuff I've accumulated...
It's amazing when you can be completely immersed and not have to worry about bumping into, or tripping into things. Just finished the Rick and Morty and am playing a "shoot the robots" that are trying to kill you game, very intense, a good workout.
It's almost like they have to scrape data by reading notifications, and relaying that, and can't directly interact with the mobile OS on a deeper level. Ultimately not super useful for me, hope Android Oreo provides more opportunities for greater integration.
So you're saying your cell phone makes a better cell phone than a desktop computer? That's about what I figured.
That sort of thing I would never do on my phone or tablet, just because of the form factor I keep my footprint much smaller.
Other than occasional crashes and a tiny bit of lag, my aged phone handles it very well.
On the other hand, when I'm on the desktop I open multiple browser instances with 20+ tabs open on each of them. I guess I have a problem :).
yes, its (at least on android) just swiping twice (once from the top to open the window view and then to the side to close it), but even that takes more effort than just mouse-wheel clicking on the tab.
After that tab is closed, the browser needs to rebuild the new/old tab. thats even more time you wouldn't have on the desktop.
everything just takes a little longer on the highly performance optimized phone, and it adds up to stop - at least me - from just going into the comments threads. especially because actually opening takes even longer, as you'd have to long press on the link to get that option.
now, with this device you'd be able to actually click/close tabs as fast as on your general desktop. Suddenly, the device is no longer constrained by the slow inputs that the user is giving. And now, the phone will actually need to perform that much better with the same amount of resources. I haven't used the DeX and don't know wherever its able to handle that, but thats (i think) the thing most people hearing about it are worried about.
As for use cases, I think there'd be a few;
1. As you've said, C-levels
2. Home users that don't want a computer, but work from a desk (I actually think this would be a huge market)
3. Weirdo's like me who'd set up a new desk in my home just for this, and maybe use it once. I suspect there'd be a few of us...
4. Mobile 'knowledge' workers, another potentially large market here.
For just about all of those, they're going to be among the least patient users you could ask for so again performance is going to be HUGE. If a Word doc takes more than a couple of seconds to open, then that's a problem.
I have no idea how the software will look though. Maybe it will be just a fancy and reall easy to use remote connection, in the end?
So it isn't a question of computing power, it's a question of utility: who actually needs this? What benefit does it provide over and above just having a cheap PC to do PC things and a smartphone to do smartphone things and syncing documents between the two? It's not cheaper, it's not more convenient, it's not more productive, it's not more powerful, so what's the point?
It should be trivial for me to turn my phone into a computer. I should need only a $20 USB hub in order to power my phone and connect it to a keyboard, mouse, one or even several screens. Or even connect them wirelessly.
Then, the OS should trivially handle this case and offer me access to high quality desktop apps.
I don't think either condition is true now.
When this point is reached I'm pretty sure half of the laptop sales will evaporate within a short time.
Check the Samsung DeX page to see how it looks. The use case you've described is already here.
It's one thing when a random person (no offense, Dennis Aleynikov) does it, another one when you have 6 big companies competing for this segment.
And I'm not sure the software part is here. At least not in a polished way. The closest solutions that come to mind are Microsoft UWP (but Microsoft doesn't seem to be gaining traction due to various reasons, not least because they're Microsoft and few people trust them these days...) and Ubuntu Unity (I think they've abandoned the concept?). From what I've read Android tablet and desktop apps are not really up-to-par, at least today.
Same thing with the built-in Linux desktop on a Asus motherboard I had, I don't even remember the name of the thing.
I believe the concept is here to stay, but like tablet PCs back in 2003 it did not find its niche yet. There aren't just too many occasions you'd have a mouse, a keyboard, a monitor, but not some kind of x86_64 computer near.
Still, it's likely the breeding ground for a number of innovations and it may finally catch up...it just does not make so much sense to me to include only on the flagship products: why would you cut so much people on the mid range out of a feature you don't even know if and where will catch up?
Why so hung up about a keyboard and mouse? Even the local supermarkets here sell them dirt cheap these days.
It's a neat idea, ultimately, but I think we're a few years away from a good way to do it UX wise.
Here's one it could (but doesn't quite) solve.
At my office everyone carries around their laptop and is constantly trying to get it to work with the telecomm and video software. Some people have a work phone, a work laptop and a personal phone too. I even know some people who add a tablet to that mix. Sometimes I see them bouncing around between all those devices.
For most employees (not necessarily coders) it probably makes sense to just have one device: a phone that you can edit excel and powerpoint on. A universal dock should exist in every meeting room and on every desk.
The major impediments to this are currently the power of the device, the ability to use the os for actually making things, and the existence of a decent dock.
With this dock and the power of the latest generation of phones, we're just stuck on the fact that no one has been able to make an os that actually works well on both mobile devices and as a keyboard/mouse driven system for creating things.
Yeah, I'm looking straight at you, Windows 8.
I think there's a slightly different model that makes even more sense ...
What we see with DeX (and Altrix, etc.) is the phone as the CPU that gets plugged into larger devices.
But what I think makes more sense is a smaller module, as the CPU, that gets plugged into larger devices including a phone.
So instead of plugging your phone into your "PC" you would move the core module from your phone, to your PC.
That way the core module can be much smaller and can power future phone upgrades, etc.
I think a PCMCIA[1] card (a "PC-CARD") would be a great form factor for the compute module...
[1] People Can't Memorize Computer Industry Acronyms
With "Linux on Galaxy" I guess you'd be running whatever DE you like. Unless they've done it differently and you're in DeX desktop but can run full Linux apps there. Not sure.
Microsoft has been trying to throw Windows onto ARM for a long time, to no commercial success, because the entire value proposition is the enormous back catalog of Win32 applications which will never run performantly on ARM. So the best bet is Linux leading the change, with Linux on ARM powering desktops and driving demand for desktop apps to be compiled to ARM - but yeah, not going to happen any time soon.
On the local machine? People whose serious work is done remotely, e.g., using Virtual Desktop infrastructure or cloud services. Heck, with even gaming starting to be doable remotely in the cloud, it's more credible every day that people can live with just light productivity and persistent browser state locally.
Tablets had been done before without success, then Apple released the iPad. You don't have to be first to market to win. The failure of others in the same segment is not a predictor of future failure.
Execution is everything.
I was already doing this in 2013 with a Nexus 5. I had a wireless mouse, wireless keyboard, wireless display connection, wireless charging, and Linux for Android running Ubuntu. It was terrible, because all the wireless things created lag, it was like screen sharing on a bad connection with someone in Asia. I bought a slimport cable and it was still terrible. USB 2.0 simply didn't have the bandwidth to push FHD display resolution without artifacts.
I see USB-C in the bottom of that stand. If that's USB-C 3.1 gen2 then it has 10GBps and enough bandwidth to push 4K at a decent refresh rate. I see the potential to have a wired keyboard and mouse using the monitor as a USB hub. This is already a much better solution than has been offered before by other companies.
What general productivity task at mobile compute scale would optimally leverage 4K resolution at a decent refresh rate?
The DeX already runs a version of Photoshop, and the Samsung store folks were pushing the DeX as an option for website development, especially as their browser supports both desktop & mobile modes. (If I recall correctly, I think he even said the desktop browser has some developer tools built-in, but I haven't been back to the store to check that.)
I think the DeX is limited to a 1920 x 1080p display, though.
But despite these, overall it's been a decent experience. I download torrents like I did on my PC, I watch movies. I have all my data with me at all times, which I like very much. I used to have a laptop but it was mostly furniture; with a small kid at home I didn't have time to even open it in most nights. And when I did have time, all I did was watch a movie or download a torrent, which is what I do with the Dex anyway.
I wish it would've had a USB 3.0 port.
I was sure I could get away with using something that's essentially a chromebook but I was surprised how well apk files replace any program I would have google "function of program .exe" I can search for the equivalent apk file. Really neat for editing videos as well, since the graphics chip is optimized for video encoding it seems that the programs use that to their advantage when exporting large files.
To really put the DeX to the test I'm uploading as many videos as I can edited and shot all on the s8/DeX. http://youtube.com/c/DennisAleynikov
Yeah, zooming is a fucking mess. To zoom in firefox, doubleclick the mouse, and while HOLDING ON THE SECOND CLICK you can move the mouse up and down to zoom. Neither control +/- and control + scroll wheel work.
Selecting text: click on a word and hold the mouse button down. This works exactly like long-pressing on a touchscreen and getting the text select pop-up.
[1] https://forum.xda-developers.com/galaxy-note-8/help/firefox-...
But I do really really want to simplify my life in terms of identity and storage. I'd like to simply have the same view of data on all my devices, with probably my phone acting as a central source of truth in terms of identity and carrying around a hot cache of important data.
But I don't just mean using dropbox everywhere. That's really clunky to me. I want it to be better, but no one's really put it all together right yet.
I feel like plan9 was on to a lot of this stuff a long time ago but it fizzled out, an idea ahead of its time, with bits and pieces of its ideas taken out of context and rendered largely useless (please don't tell me linux does filesystem namespaces now, it's really not the same).
Would a NAS from Synology or QNAP offer what you're looking for?
It's an ambitious project because ultimately you need to coerce all the apps with valuable data to export to or be compatible with upspin to realize the dream, so to speak.
However right now I've already found it useful for storing my personal files and media and I've enjoyed reading the codebase.
Not sure if Apple is having some heavy hands in this but I think 4.9G and 5G will fix this within next 10 years. While it is still a little too early to tell, it does have the potential to be used as the sole connection in many areas.
have you been reading my ssb log[0][1]? or lurking in our matrix room[2]? that's kind of exactly what the libre software project i contribute to is trying to build. we're a small team rn, but i think the direction we're going is pretty cool.
[0] https://viewer.scuttlebot.io/%256GAD8%2F8qQC26qFTgYvQZ3q97qY...
[1] https://git.heropunch.io/%251BtG8h6Oh6uI7kjnZkvK20wqLrCZlbbF...
[2] #heropunch:matrix.org
It's a cool trick though.
So that's a market size of one then? You could sell this solution to Samsung, and pretty much nobody else.
But no, it has not happened. We still fumble over connectors.
Given my failed ability to get anyone interested in going Chromecast I doubt I could persuade anyone to get DeX sorted for the meeting rooms.
But then you've got to add a keyboard and a mouse and probably the biggest problem, you've got to figure some way of getting the monitor to an ergonomic height.
Wish this worked with iOS.
Unless you just want to not be carrying anything.
Slap a 1080p or 2560p panel in it, and the laptop is a monster!
What newer laptops have is USB-C/TB3 and that allows for eGPU. Which means you no longer need to own a PC if you're a gamer (and don't wanna opt for game console).
I found the smallest sling bag that it would fit inside, and quickly became accustomed to carrying it at all times.
When my Nexus 5 died, I barely felt it. I went months without a phone because it just wasn't a pressing issue.
There's no way I'd trade it for a phone dock and desktop peripherals.
I've been carrying a backpack for work for, I dunno, 4 years now? Lately I've taken to just leaving my laptop at work on weekends and I really enjoy the trip to/from the office those days. I commute via public transit or walk, it's only 2 miles and we have decent busses here in Philly. Not having to deal with a bag of any kind is really nice.
The current MacBook Air has slower CPU (single- and multi-core) compared to the latest iPhone 8/X.
At the end of the day, I'd love to grab my phone off a cradle and then, when I get home, if I need to keep working, drop it in a different cradle and have my window session ready and waiting for me. As a GCP user, basically 100% of my development consists of browser sessions and tmux sessions. That should be really portable state on a phone.
I don't know if this really solves that, though ...
I would like to maintain the same compute environment from phone to laptop but I would still need to bring the laptop (or, rather, the laptop shaped dock) with me everywhere.
This is because you can't possibly plug untrusted/unknown devices into computers you own. There is no way I am plugging my "CPU" into a hotel/airport/Regus workstation.
But, the older people I know have PCs that sit around collecting dust and that they are not at all comfortable in using. But they do have phones that they use every day to communicate via text messaging, email and Facebook.
This seems like a good solution to bridge the gap for them on the occasions where they are interested in a desktop experience as it provides a familiar environment using the phone OS and removes the worry about managing or navigating a desktop environment.
Maru has stable builds available for the Nexus 5 and 7 right now and we have some early builds for newer devices like the HTC 10 on the way. We are always looking for contributors to improve and help port Maru to the latest devices so please stop by our Github if you're interested!
I now have an e-reader, a laptop that docks, a gaming console, a phone, a fitness tracker, an iPad, an Amazon Echo, a Roku, and a watch. Even though the laptop could do almost all of those things, I'm happier with a few excellent discrete devices. I'm actually very happy with my tech life these days and don't feel many pain points anymore. If I had one wish, it would probably be for Amazon to drop DRM on Kindle titles.
DeX has one HDMI port (1080p), two USB 2.0 and one Ethernet.
I can't wait for the Linux on Galaxy project to see how working with Ubuntu through DeX would feel like.
... and a DeX station.
The dongle version of the station works even better cuz it can lay flat on my desk and the finger print scanner is easy to reach.
If 2 years down, Android and ChromeOS merged their foundation components and Pixel 5 switched between Android UI and ChromeOS UI when docked, I think it would totally make sense.
Not sure I'm interested in a Samsung Android and a self baked OS from Samsung.
Alas Tizen on mobile has been only used for sub $100 phones targeted at developing markets.
Local display performance should be snappy, but compute done in the cloud with a resource level I can choose at appropriate expense.
Timeshared machines were wonderful for usability. PCs took over due to performance per dollar. 25 years later can I have my cake and eat it too, please?
Edit: yes, I know about Chromebooks. I never tried the high-end Pixel, but the cheap ones had underpowered local compute and were disappointing.
It allows you to plug your phone to a laptop device with a 13" screen, trackpad and speakers. I am just dropping you this here if you want more information about the Mirabook from Miraxess : https://miraxess.com/miraxess-products/mirabook/
I've already got a lot done even without the superbook, with all the delays they've had haha. https://www.youtube.com/c/DennisAleynikov
Unfortunately I don't see a release date and I don't see how I can easily check if my device is compatible (it's USB C - OnePlus 5, but "Smartphone with DisplayPort over USB C technology"? I don't know).
If this were available NOW and .. ship/sell to me, then I'd give this a try in a heartbeat.
In the short-term:
Would I set this up at home for personal use? Likely not as I would have my laptop already for this purpose. At home, I would want the flexibility to be able to move between my desk and couch, at least.
Would I use this at work? I already have a powerful work laptop - this would definitely not substitute.
If my employer had many traveling employees, would they setup DeX workstations for those who are visiting for a few hours? Maybe. For work use, it's too limited in power and applications to be a serious competitor.
In the long term: If I were a casual user of tech, whose primary needs were email, documents, videos and photos, would this let me not buy a separate laptop altogether? Yes - possibly. This is the killer use case. Eventually, the phone will get more and more powerful and internet speeds will get faster. For the casual tech user of email, documents, media and web browsing, this will more than suffice. Having two machines to buy and maintain, that do the same thing for you, will seem clunky and out-dated.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/bensin/2017/10/16/huaweis-mate-...
The GearVR transforms the phone into a pretty decent VR headset. Now this accessory will transform the phone into a workable desktop computer.
Maybe it's been done before, and maybe the market for the device is limited; but it does position Samsung as a supplier of versatile and ubiquitous devices.
We could have had this many years ago already. The technology was there, the performance was there, it's just that the willingness of phone manufacturers to enable users to do it was lacking and still is for the most part.
Probably because there's not that much demand for it either, outside of techie circles.
https://www.engadget.com/2017/10/19/samsung-introduces-linux...
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Also, the processors in your phone are closer to desktop performance that you might think. If you put any weight in GeekBench scores, single core scores for the new A11 are about the same as the single core scores for the Ryzen 1800x.
Frankly, 1/8th 1800x and a whole A11 is about the same power budget, so that's not entirely surprising.
There is a reason Tesla watercool every individual metal 18650 cell.
Of course synthetic benchmarks aren't the best, but it is interesting how close arm has gotten to x86.
Essentially you install Ubuntu on top of Android. You then VNC to the Ubuntu Desktop from Android.
Android (using USB on the go) out of the box supports keyboard and mouse.
Not all devices support MicroHDMI, but the S3 did.
Ubuntu phone was a step in the right direction. But the phone experience wasn't great so they gave up.
When I can have a fully fledged Linux desktop on my device, parallel to the native phone services and with pocket-portable screen connectivity I will stop carrying a laptop. My 2013 Apple MBP is dying, and the replacement won't be Apple, since 95% of all I use on Apple is open source anyway, and the prices are stupid. Looking at NUC/BRIX devices, phones, etc.
Samsung, please make out of the box Linux a priority. The cloud stuff is useless here in China (Google/MS/Samsung) and I just want to use my own device as I see fit.
Screen can be upgraded to 1080p and beyond, parts are very well priced, nearly everything is still user serviceable, and you can pick up a T440 for not much. Debian & Arch both have full support for the hardware too!
Check out some of the stuff I've made using the s8+ and a dex dongle https://www.youtube.com/c/DennisAleynikov
Enterprise companies with large workforces seems like an interesting market for this. Employees would only receive a phone (no laptop), doable when work relies on MS Excel + email. For instance, consulting and sales orgs seem especially interesting, given their mobile workforces and lack of fixed office seating.
Are these the best examples they could come up with?
So far what I've seen is that when you keep a phone connected to power, the battery eventually degrades faster. I hope they solved that problem for this product.
* UI of the actual product may be different.
* Microsoft Office requires users to purchase licenses.
* Microsoft Word and Microsoft PowerPoint require a download to use.
* DeX Station and HDMI / Charging cable are sold separately.
* Screen image simulated.
* Certain apps may not run or require license (for purchase) on Samsung DeX.
* DeX Station supports Galaxy S8/S8+ and Note8.
No more WiDi to set up, no more meeting room PC's, no more cable spaghetti. Just drop your phone in, grab the wireless keyboard/mouse and start boring people to death.
I guess it's a race to see whether Samsung phones can become desktops before Chromebooks can become phones
Furthermore, I already have a very powerful desktop hooked up to a large screen. I want to be able to leverage its power! So what I'd really like is a way to easily transfer activities or work between devices.
The best execution of this I've seen so far is from Apple, with iOS and macOS's continuity features. Unfortunately, I have an Android phone, which means I can't use that functionality.
Transferring files between devices is still such a huge pain! Between Apple devices, AirDrop has the best experience I've used. My cross-platform solution is running an HTTP server (`python -m SimpleHTTPServer 8080`) and zipping up the files I want to send. Since zeroconf is widely available, it's usually not much hassle to type in the address. If I'm dealing with devices on different networks, I use instant.io.
Here's a typical scenario for me: I arrive at home and want to play a game on my desktop while I continue to listen to the audiobook playing on my phone. In that case I'd love to pipe the audio from the game to my phone's headphones. That would let me move around to the bathroom and kitchen without having to pause the audiobook, let me know if the game match is starting so I can rush back, and avoid being a noisy neighbor with obnoxiously loud speakers.
There's so much more potential for ease of use improvements! For example, while programming, since my desktop is much more powerful, I'd love to offload builds from my laptop when I'm at home. I know I can setup things manually, but it's a lot of hassle and usually ends up kinda brittle. Then if I take my laptop out to some place without network connectivity, I'll have to stop everything and perform additional setup.
The bezel is < 1/4". I have two side by side and the combined bezels are .45" as near as I can measure.
I'm not having a go but I did also find it genuinely funny.
If enough people vote here (AMA style?), I'll be motivated to connect kbd and monitor and do some tests :)
Seriously, Android, OTG cable, chromecast and a powered USB hub. Done.
Where is the innovation in portable screens/keyboards?
I will stick to a surface pro.
...But Continuum feels pointless to me, I left the dock in the box. I have computers anywhere I am going to use a full computer. Or my Surface Pro. I guess maybe this sort of thing might be appealing to the "mobile only" crowd who never owns a PC again?
Windows Mobile gives me the feature set of a Android with the security competency of an iPhone.
The HP Elite x3 not supporting Verizon for so long was really tragic too. It's an enterprise focused phone... But over half of enterprises use Verizon.