Ask HN: Which smartphone can I also use like a computer in 2022 | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Which smartphone can I also use like a computer in 2022

10 pointsquietthrow8 comments

My old smart phone finally died and need to buy a new one.

Spending 1200+ on a iPhone is really painful but I am ok with it if I must. However I am more interested in solutions that allow me to use my phone as a computer too. Light computing is the need: browsing, emails, google docs, gsheets, photos (not editing in photoshop).

If I can do the above with an iPhone that would be great but I know apple will never let that happen - alteast not in the near future, why sell one device that does it all when they can "force" you into buying multiple.

I currently have 1 iPhone, 1 iPad and 1 MacBook Air and would like to be lighter on devices. with these devices, I have specialized use cases, iPhone serves as my ultimate information device. goes everywhere with me and allows me to access my information and worlds knowledge in a pinch. iPad(pro) is largely for reading, I like the large screen vertical form factor when reading reports, magazines articles. MacBook Air is for when I need to higher bandwidth between my thoughts and hands..extremely hard to type fast on the iPhone and even when you get a bluetooth keyboard attached the screen is two small to do things.

Ideally mybest setup would be to have largish phone (6.7inch type or fold) for 60-70% of my use cases and the other 30-40 can be covered by me able to plugin my phone to monitor (which I can keep horizontal for everyday computing and vertical for reading)

Would like to hear what options I have today.

Thanks and Happy Thanksgiving to those in the US!

I Know Samsung (n1 in smartphone market by size) has DEX [1]. It does what you want (theoretically)

you can alternatively combine the Tablet + Desktop part with something like a Windows surface pro.

Instead of this kind of uber-minimalism (what about the smart TV, the i-watch, the ereader...), I will rather reason in term of quality/longevity and repairability/modularity. Apple is only good at the first.

[1] https://www.samsung.com/us/apps/dex/

If you do any software development or IT, you can use Termux (https://termux.dev/en/) on Android devices (smartphones, tablets, and Chromebooks).

It does have to be either sideloaded or installed through f-Droid due to restrictions on the Google Play store.

I have used Termux with both the onscreen keyboard (for small edits) and with an external bluetooth keyboard and it works great.

Vanilla Android is not really designed for desktop replacement, but it is workable for a lot of use cases.

You forgot the termux-x11. Full windowing system within Android and viewable with VNC locally or from elsewhere.

"bVNC" is particularly good on this.

I think you can buy any of the latest Pixels and install some FOSS OSes on them. Was it GrapheneOS or something?

Just buy an iPhone. You can do all the “light computing” tasks you mention and more. And transferring across iOS devices works very seemlessly too.

The OP explicitly explained why an iPhone is unsuitable.

That’s not how I read it. They said:

  > Spending 1200+ on a iPhone is really painful but I am ok with it if I must.

OP then went on to describe scenarios the iPhone can actually do. And you don’t need to spend $1,200 to do it. The cheaper iPhones do it fine too.

For example, you can use external keyboards with them. And external displays[1]. Couple those with a rich set of remote apps (SSH, Mosh, RDP, VNC, etc), and you can get a lot done.

1. https://support.apple.com/guide/iphone/connect-to-a-display-...

Samsung Dex with an attached keyboard, mouse, and monitor.

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