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Comment by thesuperbigfrog | Hacker News Reader

It is exciting to see cool handhelds like this! I really want to have a handheld / phone that can handle all of my on-the-go computing and connect to my servers if I need more compute power.

As a tangent, if you have an Android phone and need to do some Linux-style computing on the go, consider Termux (https://termux.com/).

Termux enables your Android phone to run command-line utilities, text editors (vim and emacs), several programming languages (C, C++, Perl, Python, Ruby, Rust, Scheme, and more), web servers, and lots of other tools.

It is one of my favorite Android apps by far.

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Another option is userland if you need a full linux

https://userland.tech/

What I'd really wanted to see, and not sure why it's still not a thing, is some standardized laptop that would allow upgrading it's core SoC. Latest Pis are quite capable for basic tasks and will only get more powerful.

The MNT reform is looking to have it's initial ARM SoC be replacable with a RISC-V one at a later point. [1]

[1] https://mntmn.com/media/news_md/2019-05-20-reintroducing-ref...

Pi-Top seems to be pretty close.

It's a laptop shell (keyboard + screen + battery + i/o) that has a daughter board (connected to the computer via USB and HDMI) and enough space for any reasonable SBC. Comes with Raspberry Pi as standard.

https://accounts.pi-top.com/products/pi-top/

What I want more than anything in the world is a Psion-sized portable computer where the brains are provided by the Rasperry Pi compute module: https://www.raspberrypi.org/products/compute-module-3-plus/?...

I’m genuinely surprised that this isn’t already a thing, since it would make upgrades trivial.

I had a Series 5mx back in the day and it was glorious.

Android has all of the capabilities software-wise, but I have yet to find a device that matches the Psion Series 5mx form factor, specifically the folding clamshell and nicely-sized hardware keyboard.

Most external foldable Bluetooth keyboards are too big, rather finicky, and always running out of battery on me.

I'd say the Gemini and the Cosmo are spiritual successors (same industrial designer as the Psion Series 5/5mx I believe): https://www.planetcom.co.uk/

The pins of the compute module change between versions. It's not as plug and play as it seems.

eoma68 is trying to do that. It's definitely run into some issues though.

https://www.crowdsupply.com/eoma68/micro-desktop

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