The Lapdock Kit
puri.sm
puri.sm
The NexDock 360 is an OK device. The battery life lasted me about 2-3 hours, which isn't long enough for me. On Android with DeX there is no palm rejection, so I ended up keeping the touchpad switched off most of the time. PureOS might handle this better. The screen has touch input, but it's a pretty poor display - colors are washed out, and it isn't terribly bright.
It was nice to be able to take notes without carrying around a full laptop, and I think with a better screen and battery life it would be much more useful for traveling. It has a mini HDMI port, and I did use it as a third monitor for my laptop for a bit, but I eventually just got another desktop monitor with a better screen.
I want something like this for reading PDFs (in tablet mode) and possibly coding from my phone, that I can carry around in my backpack when I'd rather not bring my whole laptop too.
If you would like to code on your phone, you would most likely need something browser based, or something running Linux like the Librem 5 here. It's not as easy to set up a decent development environment using Android.
This has been my experience on Linux as well with my NexDock Touch. As best I can tell the touchpad is only presented to the OS as a mouse, so it can't do palm rejection in software (and you'll never get those fancy multitouch gestures in e.g. GNOME).
The only lapdock I've ever used that did this right is the HP Elite X3's lapdock. It's thus my favorite of the ones that exist, but it can't seem to supply enough power over USB-C to charge a lot of devices during use including the Librem 5. Still holding out for one with both the touchpad (and keyboard) quality of the HP lapdock and the power output of the NexDock. (I suspect I'll be waiting a while though, it's a very niche product.)
You can also pair the phone to a display (USB-C or USB-C-to-HDMI). With a BT keyboard and mouse, it works like a desktop. You can also use the phone screen as as a trackpad. I beleive this is pretty similar to DeX as you describe.
Additionally, it'll connect via BT to a Smart TV to be used as well.
There's a couple more modes such as mirroring the Android display, or keeping it to a particular app. You can also use the phone as a Webcam under Windows, but it's a bit laggy.
This thing looks just as heavy as a really cheap 13 inch laptop, except that it's missing most of the important parts and you must supply those by connecting a phone.
So, am I missing something? What's the point of this? Assuming it had a better screen and good battery life, would it be useful?
For situations where you can easily connect 3 peripherals to create a desktop experience, indeed, this is inferior. But it's exactly the in-between situations - sitting on the couch but want to be slightly more productive than using an on-screen keyboard - that I think something like this would shine. But again, admittedly, niche.
Right now I use a separate, old Linux laptop and SSH to my Linux phone to emulate the above, but that feels wrong somehow, and requires me to keep multiple devices in sync, connected to WiFi or Tailscale, etc.
It is much smaller and lighter than my laptop, which also has horrible battery life in Linux. It didn't cost as much as that laptop either.
I was able to use it for
1. A quick screen/keyboard for a raspberry pi, the PinePhone I mentioned, and a Mac mini,
2. Taking notes during TTRPG sessions while having my app-only (at the time) character builder on the same screen,
3. One-off tasks on my phone suited to a larger screen and keyboard (e.g. responding to an email chain that started to need a longer explanations without having to log in to another computer),
4. Browsing and looking things up on the couch, and
5. Third monitor for my laptop at my desk, and a second monitor for my laptop while traveling.
It was nice to not have to log into something else or transfer files back and forth between my phone and another computer. It also has a headphone jack, which my phone did not. So there were several small niches where it worked OK, none where it excelled.
The NexDock is $299 and its desktop mode features are already compatible with several Samsung, Huawei, Motorola, and a few other Android phones with video output. Since it's basically just a display, it also works with any USB-C/HDMI device, including Raspberry Pis, Steam Decks and other PCs, Nintendo Switches, etc.
Purism charges $40 more and adds a magnetic mount (if not this $15 mount on Amazon,[2] then one very similar to it) and USB-C cable.
1: https://nexdock.com/explore-nexdock/
2: https://www.amazon.com/Magnetic-Desktop-Monitor-Foldable-Por...
* although getting power to the NUC could be tricky I guess
There's a decent chance they tried to contact you via email to confirm that the shipping address was still good (so they don't mail it to some appt you don't live in anymore). If not they will likely send you an email soon as people w/ 2019 orders started getting their confirmation emails in the last few weeks.
Your best bet if you haven't gotten an email from them is to just contact them, confirm your shipping details, and request an estimate delivery date.
I (now) know someone who ordered earlier than that, who has been trying for years to get a refund for his device.
[1] https://www.theverge.com/2012/2/21/2812424/ubuntu-for-androi...
Even though the phone is long dead/gone, the Motorola Lapdock turned out to be fairly hackable, and I was able to repurpose it to be a screen for a Raspberry Pi.
It's cool to see some version of this tech return. Current phones are far more capable of delivering what the Atrix promised.
From reviews of the era, I remember that performance in the lapdock environment was poor. And since it ran an entirely separate Linux OS, the integration with Android wasn't great.
Motorola had a good idea, but the execution felt more like a hack job than a product they were willing to support and improve. They soon abandoned the concept, and it wasn't until Samsung took it up with DeX that we saw an improvement on it.
This iteration by Purism looks interesting, but my main concern would be performance. And whether Purism is dedicated to supporting it, or if I'll be left with a USB-C monitor in a couple of years.
Never getting my money back, almost certainly never getting a phone.
I wouldn't spend a dollar on anything from Purism.
Shame “phone as a computer” hasn’t really gone anywhere in all this time.
I found Samsung DeX to be usable, if a bit awkward at times. By far the most annoying limitation was being limited to Android and not being able to install more powerful software. Termux is stuck on a version in the Google play store because apps may not longer be published using some features Termux requires.
Years ago Microsoft did try the other way around - making Windows into a touch/mobile interface - but made both the desktop and mobile experiences a bit worse. Several linux-based projects are attempting to bridge the gap there, but they are often limited by compatible hardware and a lack of openness mobile device component manufacturers exhibit.
Google and Apple have very little economic incentive to open up their ecosystems. It really shows comparing how open Android used to be in comparison to how it is now.
The Google Play Store version was considered deprecated long before the feature issues; You should use the F-Droid version instead: https://f-droid.org/en/packages/com.termux/
There were many issues with it. Poor trackpad, poor software integration, unstable connection.
It worked well enough for me to realize it's not a product that I'd ever realistically use.