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Comment by dennisnedry | Hacker News Reader

Microsoft abandoned their Windows Mobile OS years ago.

Yes, but that wasn't desktop Windows. In fact it inflicted some brand damage on desktop windows, back in the Win8 era, by moving all the new stuff to Metro.

(I'm not sure there's ever been a proper decent portable/handheld that ran Real Windows; there's tiny laptops from the Libretto to the GPD Pockect, which is a nice machine. Or there were handhelds that ran Windows CE back in the PDA era. And I've seen very cheap 8" tablets. But a phone-size form factor? Not quite. I suspect the never completely fixed UI scaling is a problem there.)

Trying to press controls intended for desktop Windows on that tiny screen would be an exercise in frustration. Trying using RDP software on your phone and see how productive it is.

1) RDP won’t give you a screen with even the same aspect ratio much less resolution so that’s not a good test.

2) relative pointer position makes small controls extremely usable. You only want absolute position for the keyboard.

If I have to make two remote desktop connections lasting ten minutes each per workday from the beach, which machine am I bringing: my phone/this? Or a full laptop?

Not as obvious a decision for some.

OK, so coming back to the original point, are you going to want a hotter, more power-hungry phone for 10 minutes of non-mobile Excel on it?

Windows 10 for ARM is far from abandoned. It could probably run on a device like this.

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