The modern mobile ecosystem is selling games consoles when the nerds want mobile Unix workstations.
For example, university students whose main use for a computer is editing documents could comfortably get by with nothing but a nice-ish phone, a monitor, and a Bluetooth KB+mouse.
also, FYI (and for the sake of non-native English readers), it's "unrealistic". ["irrealistic" relates to irrealism, a literary technique that departs from reality]
if it came out today with say 16gb of RAM and used the new Android VM feature I would buy it instantly
It could have been a decent concept if the Tegra 3 chipset wasn’t a little underpowered and the onboard storage so slow.
On new stuff, a Bluetoothu keyboard and mouse more or less solve input, and USB-C should solve video out (and input if you want). Modern phones should be powerful enough for basic desktop use, I just don’t think people want it.
You just described Librem 5.
The StarLabs tablet would be much better suited here, but it’s also 12.5” which is so large that you may as well just get a laptop with more power and better battery life.
They're more powerful than plenty of computers from not too long ago
Controlled BGP enabled switches too.
Fixed database replication issues.
I do most of my light/routine server management via SSH from my phone, plus keeping a version control checkout of my documents that I do actually work on in vim (yes, the limited keyboard is annoying but it's fine for light work). At a previous job, the former extended quite far; I could get paged in the middle of the night, connect to the VPN, SSH into the server, triage, and frequently diagnose and even fix the problem without having to actually get out of bed.
...A smartphone, yes.
> especially since doing work-related stuff on your personal smartphone seems dangerous
It was my work phone, not my personal phone.
As compared to your personal laptop? Or is the 'personal' qualifier that makes you say that?
1. Presents a mobile hotspot, and
2. Supports CardDAV so I can actually sync my contacts
3. Records calls
Kinda sad that it's KaiOS the FirefoxOS fork. One can only wonder what would have happened if Mozilla kept with the project till now. There is huge wave of people wanting less absorbing devices nowdays.
It was only ever Google that didn't
The fact they now make up half the market is what makes it rare, not that other mobile OS' didn't make it available
I guess you can get a mobile hotspot and a dumb phone separately. Looks like 5G Wifi 6 APs are available for ~$100.
I've been more neutral about this in the past, but the current and future integration of LLMs (and other ML models) into the base operating system will mean these mobile phones do less of what the user wants and more of what the user does not want.
Secondly, Apple is in the process of becoming an adtech company and will not provide an alternative to Google.
Thirdly, Google may be forced to divest Android and the mobile business. If so, the buyer is likely to be as bad, or worse, because they'll have to figure out how to pay for the whole thing.
Even just my personal CardDAV account has close to 200 contacts.
I never left. Well, my flip phones have had cameras in them, but. On the other hand, "virtual credit card"? What?? And what good is proper "mobile storage and compute" if I don't at least have a laptop-sized screen and a proper physical input device?
This legal reality is showing itself more and more in the practicalities of actual using "smartphones". The only real solution is what op said, make the modem completely separate from the computing device.
So how about we just stop making "mobile phones" and just sell what they are: pocket computers. And that name immediately tells legislators what's appropriate hardware control, namely: none. If you buy a pocket computer, you can now do with that computer whatever you want, and the company that makes the hardware has no say over that, and the company that makes the OS has no legal basis for locking you out of anything. And if those are the same company, then the EU can finally go "how about no, you get to break up or you will never sell anything in our market again".
I called my mom yesterday (to her landline), and then I sent a text message to my friend from a parking lot to let them know I'd be there soon.
And it's all LTE, your pocket computer needs a network whether you use SMS or some IP messenger. Therefore carriers get involved, and they make horrifying demands of users and manufacturers.
But yeah, i don't want a phone, i want a pocket computer with VoLTE
Apple stopped selling all iPod hardware, including iPod touch, for a reason.
Look up remote attestation.
That's like the tiny moments of freedom that Winston Smith has in 1984 before he is captured and tortured.
We live in a mobile computing dictatorship. There isn't time, money, or energy for millions of people to do this.
And so we are taxed, corralled, and treated like cattle. Google and Apple own smartphones and nobody can do anything about it.
The only solution is government dismantlement of the Google/Apple monopoly. That starts with mandates for web installs of native apps by default, without hidden settings menus or scare walls.
You won't have modern mobile banking or cellular communications in a device without binary blobs or "trusted" compute modules you cannot inspect.
It's time for an antitrust breakup of Google (and Apple).
These two companies control mobile computing like a dictatorship. This is a sector where most people do all of their computing. This isn't gaming or a plaything - it's most people's lives and trillions of dollars of business activity. All gatekept by two companies.
Here's what needs to happen:
1. We need government mandated web installs of native apps without scare walls ("this app is dangerous and may delete your files") and enabled by default without labyrinthine settings to enable.
2. We need the ability to do payments and user signups without Google or Apple's platform pieces. We should not be forced to lock ourselves into their ecosystems.
3. Google search and Chrome cannot be the defaults on mobile platforms. We need the EU-mandated browser / search picker.
4. First party applications should not be treated as first class while third parties are left to dry. Google and Apple should not be allowed to install their platform components by default - a user must seek them out.
5. No more green text / blue text bubbles. All messaging must be multi-platform and equivalent with no favoritism.
6. Google and Apple wallets should not be the defaults, but rather the user should have the ability to configure their bank, PayPal, Cash App, or whatever payment provider they choose.
All phones have these days is "the app ecosystem" which is designed and optimized just to rent you out to corporations. Exposing yourself to it is almost always a loss.