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Comment by camelNotation | Hacker News Reader

I want a laptop with a hole where the mouse pad should be.

I want to be able to put my phone into that slot, dock it, and use the screen of my phone as the mouse pad for the laptop.

I want my phone to do all the processing and work. I want the laptop dock to be an extension of my phone, running something like DEX to make the laptop experience work. The only thing I want this laptop dock to do is give me a screen, a keyboard, and maybe extra battery and ports.

Please, someone make this happen. I could use my phone for all computing at that point.

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Something like Project Linda then? https://www.razer.com/projectlinda

It is still a concept, but Razer's two phones have been the same size, so it remains a possibility.

That's very cool as a concept. I'd like to see Apple get all over something like this as well.

Is it just me or would something like that sell like wild?

I very much doubt it. It doesn't run Windows stuff, so it's more of a competitor to Chromebooks, and those haven't sold like wild (less than 5% of new sales in 2016). Coupled with the fact that it restricts you in the choice of phone, and I think it's basically DOA.

I figure that’s a good opening for accessory sales (from a product design perspective). It wouldn’t have to lock you into a phone if the connector was universal (ie, the switch to USB C) and adapters to fit snugly into the slot—they could even be cases. Also has the advantage of modularizing the machine.

And most phones swing above chromebooks for price and power, no? This would be an improvement on the format if you ask me. Especially if it could eventually deliver a proper Linux distro or Mac OS.

"less than 5% of new sales in 2016"

Given how saturated the laptop market is, that's actually not terrible.

How so? It's new sales, not marketshare.

Why would you want to delegate all your computing needs to the point of complete and utter dependency to the closed-source, restrictive hardware/software ecosystem that is the modern smartphone? You can't even disable the baseband on any flagship model, so just there you're enthusiastically advocating for 24/7 cellular tracking as a feature.

In a world where most people can do almost all of their computing activity on a tablet or ultrabook, not too many people are worried about that.

> I want to be able to put my phone into that slot, dock it, and use the screen of my phone as the mouse pad for the laptop.

Minus the hole, that is one of the many features of kdeconnect: Use your android device as a wireless touchpad and keyboard.

yeah but kdeconnect cannot become your desktop from your phone. Thats just not the same kind of use here.

https://maruos.com/

Basically, connect screen to get debian.

Given the variability in phone dimensions, it seems like you'd have to buy a phone specifically designed for your laptop, or vice versa.

Attempts have been made before, like the Asus Padfone line, but it never really caught on.[0]

[0]https://www.asus.com/Phone/PadFone_S_PF500KL/

The Atrix Lapdock was frequently used in Raspberry Pi projects at some point: https://www.instructables.com/id/The-Raspberry-Pi-Lapdock-Co...

Something like https://www.sentio.com/?

An HP Elite Lapdock and a Note 9 will get you 90% of the setup you want. I have that setup, it doesn't dock into a slot, it hangs on the side with a USB C cable, but the rest is just as you describe.

$300AUD+ used! Ouch. I've also been looking at https://www.asus.com/au/Monitors/MB169C-plus/ but it's not clear if I can charge my phone at the same time.

I use this as an external monitor for my Chromebook Pixel which I use when I travel. Asus provides a USB A adapter for the USB C cable. I can plug the monitor's USB C cable into a USB C hub's A port, and do power passthrough and run a keyboard and mouse off the other A ports. Assuming your C hub does power passthrough it should charge fine.

USB C hubs with power passthrough, 3 USB A ports, and an HDMI port exist too, so you could run the USB display, HDMI, and a keyboard and mouse all from a single USB C port.

It will depend on their port configuration and display link integration though. The HDMI port might try to claim the USB display bus or whatever, and I'm not sure if you can put multiple USB displays on a single port like that. One will definitely work though.

Same, although i'd rather the phone replaced the number pad than the touch pad.

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