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Comment by darenr | Hacker News Reader

I use the Pixel, but the point is the same. Recently Google added the "Dex" like feature where I can plug in the phone to a monitor and use it as my "entire computer" - at first I was excited, I can go to a coffee shop and leave my laptop behind, but then I looked at getting a bluetooth keyboard, mouse, monitor - with battery, and it's now a worse experience. There are monitor/battery/trackpad combination products for this exact scenario but they are nowhere near the quality of just buying a Macbook - doubly so the Neo.

A laptop is more than the sum of its parts. Your phone overlaps with it on a technical level, but format is important.

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Nexdock 360.

Granted, its not as good of a "feel" as a laptop. But for the price and the features its great. You can get a good aftermarket track-pad and use that. I use a wireless mouse, because it lets me also use it as a monitor+mouse+keyboard for my Steam deck so I can play FPS games.

thanks for the tip - I googled for a review and found one that's very unflattering https://www.reddit.com/r/SamsungDex/comments/1g4tpi8/i_used_... - you like it? It works well for you? I can give it a try, but the problem remains that the price of these dock type devices are creeping up to the Apple Neo price with significantly less quality. I wish Google would make something just for this space, but I'm not sure there's enough of us out there who want it.

I had a similar experience where I tried out a Z Fold 7 with a kickstand and foldable bluetooth keyboard. I was curious about the feasibility of an all-in-one computing experience; it was clunky but surprisingly somewhat productive.

Then when confronted with scenarios where I had no stable surfaces I realized why the LAPtop form factor reigns supreme.

Peripheral add-ons like the NexDock are very nifty, but at that point you are suffering from the same physical constraints of a phone + laptop lifestyle. All with zero of the benefits of a locally accessible, more mature, and capable OS.

Try Z Fold 7 with a grip case (one with a rubber band on the back to fasten it to your palm). Grip cases make phones in general much more usable on the go, but with a foldable, it's arguably what makes you feel safe using it for laptop-grade work while walking or without a surface to rest against.

Still not a laptop, but for me it's enough that I haven't used my private laptop since getting the Fold 7 half a year ago. Extreme portability can cover for a lot of other UX problems.

My excitement towards Dex is really about it being a stepping stone towards ChromeOS replacement. I only want that because Chromebooks getting the the Google equivelant of the Apple Fast Pair experience will lower the cost of a convenience that my professional life increasingly depends on. Important for people who have too many meetings, I guess.

My use case was when I went to the office and I wanted to get some personal work. I brought a USB-C dock and plugged in my employer's peripherals, hop on my cellular connection and have at it.

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