I have a NexDock 360, which I have primarily used with a Samsung S21 but also with a PinePhone.
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.
> On Android with DeX there is no palm rejection, so I ended up keeping the touchpad switched off most of the time.
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.)
I didn't know something like this existed, thanks for a thorough review
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.
I found reading on this screen to be pretty mediocre, and it is quite large to be held like a tablet (but possible, if awkward).
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.
I use a Moto Edge+ (2022) phone that has a feature that allows you to use it as a RDP-like session in Windows. It's called "Ready for PC" and works like any other RDP type session. Copy/paste works, and you can drag & drop files to the desktop.
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.
It kinda seems like a 13 inch tablet with a mouse and keyboard would give you a better experience, better battery life, better screen, be lighter, and so on.
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?
It's pretty niche, but as a Linux phone user I can see the appeal: with a device like this I can totally get rid of a standalone laptop.
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's true it's a bit of a novelty. If I had a laptop in the niche you described, it would cover some of the use cases I used it on.
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.
I can't speak to the battery life of the Librem 5. You can choose to charge the phone or not charge the phone through the NextDock 360 pop-up menu, which can help it last a little longer.
This kit, as noted on the page, is just the NexDock,[1] which itself is essentially a DisplayPort-over-USB-C or mini-HDMI 13" 16:9 1080p touchscreen display on a fold-over hinge, keyboard, trackpad, speakers, micro SDXC reader, headphone jack, and 44Wh battery in a 1.2kg laptop shell.
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.
That is cool as hell, this is almost* exactly what I wanted for my usually-but-not-always desktop’d NUC for many years. Of course it was released right after I gave up and got a laptop, hahaha.
* although getting power to the NUC could be tricky I guess
Be wary of ordering anything from them. My order from 2019 is now ready to ship, but I have since changed my mind and asked for a refund instead. That was about a month or so ago, and while their words assure me that they will do it, they have refused to provide even an ETA for it.
Assuming you are talking about the librem 5, they have only really just started consistently shipping in the last year and have been clearing the backlog of orders going back to 2017 in roughly the order that they were placed. So based on their last update, your 2019 order almost certainly exists physically exists in a warehouse somewhere waiting for shipping details to be confirmed and then to be sent out.
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 can't see why would the market treat this one differently, but if they can keep their costs low they may carve themselves a sustainable niche and perhaps aim for a bigger market in the future
I owned the Motorola Atrix [0] way back when, which also offered a "Lapdock" accessory. It was way ahead of its time, and I always found it unfortunate that it never took off.
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.
The Atrix was indeed ahead of its time, but it was flawed in many ways.
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.
Librem 5 was a crowdfunded project that started shipping backorders in 2020, which was also the year of great supply chain disruptions and in the end it's still going through the shipping queue. It has just reached mid-2019 orders, but things got better now and you should get yours in a matter of months: https://puri.sm/posts/where-is-my-librem-5-part-2/
I bought mine a month before you.. I had all but lost hope but this past week received my email (in my junk folder!) about my shipment being prepared, confirm address, etc. So I don't have it yet but it seems to be getting closer.
I ordered mine in 2017 and still haven't received it or a refund. I've been fighting with the company about it for years. See [here](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33645259) for more info.
I wouldn't spend a dollar on anything from Purism.
Same. I didn't miss an email confirmation or anything. They're very aware of me in the "queue". Contacting support on a monthly basis gets the same answer. I have to wait for some arbitrary deadline on "current pre-orders" and they are unsure about when that'll happen, but are definitely sure it WILL happen... eventually.
Indeed. Even before this the Nokia N900 could run a Debian desktop.
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 Nokia N9 had potential too for this, but was limited by the Micro-USB port. It’s funny, the phones have been “ready” for this idea, but it’s the external lapdock part that seems to be the blocker. USB-C gets us closer, but the NexDock is pretty bad — poor battery life, poor screen quality, bad touchpad. Sadly it’s just too niche I think. By the time a small run lapdock with high enough quality exists, it’s now competing price wise with real laptops with much greater performance…
HP made a really nice dock for their Windows phone back in the day. Many people still use them with DeX, the right hardware version can do it. I wish they still made them.
> Termux is stuck on a version in the Google play store because apps may not longer be published using some features Termux requires.
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/
I miss the Atrix. The desktop mode running Ubuntu was great at the time, and once jailbroken, could install normal packages, which turned it into a great remote access machine between Remmina and terminal.
I think I was one of the few lucky ones. I think I was one of the last batches shipped. I also had the Gen 1 Motorola Atrix's as well. I so badly want a truly ubiquitous device, but the few iterations I've tried just don't quite make it there.
There’s a point when the lapdock becomes almost as expensive as a whole laptop. During previous attempts to make something like this, companies found out the main board of the laptop is a relatively small part of the overall BoM.
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.