This is neat, but what I really need is just a Linux phone that supports calling and texting, slack for work, and google maps because other maps are pretty unreliable in my area. Every time I look...
This is neat, but what I really need is just a Linux phone that supports calling and texting, slack for work, and google maps because other maps are pretty unreliable in my area.
Every time I look for linux phones they're only supported in the EU
Yeah, there is a "given" that doesn't really get addressed, and that's weather or not the actual phone part works in all three operating systems. Beyond that, the multi-boot part actually makes...
Yeah, there is a "given" that doesn't really get addressed, and that's weather or not the actual phone part works in all three operating systems.
Beyond that, the multi-boot part actually makes the whole worse than the sum of it's parts. The phone has 12GB of RAM, which is OK for Android and many configurations for Linux, but it's pretty abysmal for Windows - which for that matter, is not likely to work that great given that Windows on ARM still has plenty of flaws even on Qualcomm's flagship chips purpose-built for it.
Worse, with only 256GB of storage, having 3 operating systems will likely take up between a quarter and half of that space. And why does the MicroSD expansion only allow access to 512GB? 1TB MicroSD cards are still expensive, but they're still fairly readily available and there are already 2TB options on the market.
Perhaps rather than Windows, a better candidate for the third OS slot would've been a "lofi" calls-and-texting only OS akin to mid-00s Symbian that could run with the phone's hardware clocked down...
Perhaps rather than Windows, a better candidate for the third OS slot would've been a "lofi" calls-and-texting only OS akin to mid-00s Symbian that could run with the phone's hardware clocked down to minimums (and even turned off in some cases, like 5G connectivity), both putting a massive multiplier on battery life and filling the growing "modern dumb phone" niche in one shot.
This would give you a nice spread of options. Symbian-like for basic communication, Android for "smart" usage (maps, bank apps, etc), and Linux for pocket desktop usage.
So upon seeing this exact thing show up on another site, someone pointed out that this isn't three operating systems, its actually two. The reason why they are touting "Nex OS" is because it's...
So upon seeing this exact thing show up on another site, someone pointed out that this isn't three operating systems, its actually two. The reason why they are touting "Nex OS" is because it's just Android with some customization to run Linux applications one way or another. Given that it doesn't come with Windows, it's not even a dual-booting system out of the box.
So honestly, this just sounds like some generic Android phone at this point.
Honestly, I think this might be a mistake on their marketing. The phone obviously supports SDXC so it should be able to read/write up to 2TB capacity microSD cards. I'm not sure why phone...
And why does the MicroSD expansion only allow access to 512GB?
Honestly, I think this might be a mistake on their marketing. The phone obviously supports SDXC so it should be able to read/write up to 2TB capacity microSD cards. I'm not sure why phone manufacturers don't state it like this?!
If a phone can support at least 64GB then it should be able to support 2TB. The SD specification exists for a reason.
Yeah that's really weird. Is there some physical reason why they couldn't support greater than 512GB? Some licensing issue? I suppose it doesn't matter as I'll never get a phone like this. I am...
Yeah that's really weird. Is there some physical reason why they couldn't support greater than 512GB? Some licensing issue?
I suppose it doesn't matter as I'll never get a phone like this. I am perfectly content with my iPhone. *runs away*
It reminds me of certain older cpu+motherboard combos with memory limits. They would list a certain memory size limit, but if you put in more, they work just fine. Turns out, when the platforms...
It reminds me of certain older cpu+motherboard combos with memory limits. They would list a certain memory size limit, but if you put in more, they work just fine. Turns out, when the platforms were validated, ram sticks above a certain size didn’t exist. So a motherboard would be validated at 8gb (2 4gb sticks, with only 2 slots, and larger than 4gb sticks didn’t exist). But when ram manufacturing got better and 8gb sticks came out, it would run just fine with 16gb ram.
I realize creating a product is hard, but I have very little confidence that Nex can make this work. I've tried multiple versions of their lap docks in the past and they always have major issues....
I realize creating a product is hard, but I have very little confidence that Nex can make this work. I've tried multiple versions of their lap docks in the past and they always have major issues. Quality control has been a major issue for them.
I'd absolutely love to be wrong and have this thing work flawlessly and be the one device to rule them all we all want though.
This is very cool, but I'm scratching my head to understand who it's actually for. I guess if I was somewhere with just my phone, and there was a USB c dock with a mouse, keyboard, and monitor...
This is very cool, but I'm scratching my head to understand who it's actually for.
I guess if I was somewhere with just my phone, and there was a USB c dock with a mouse, keyboard, and monitor there, and I really needed to do some work that could only effectively be done at a desk, maybe I'd use that functionality?
But android already has a desktop experience where I could do 90% of the work I'd want to do anyway in that situation.
If I had some weird business specific app that only ran on windows, I could see that use case, but that app is unlikely to work well on ARM anyway.
It's a cool thing to think about being able to do only if you don't think about a specific situation that you'd ever want to do it.
I will admit, the idea of only owning a single computing device that fits in my pocket which I can game on, work on, and communicate on is appealing, but cycling through three different OSes to do it is the opposite of appealing.
This exactly. It seems like the kind of idea that nerds (like me) would find cool, as an experimental thing to tinker around with. But, if i ask myself, i cannot come up with a killer use-case...
This exactly. It seems like the kind of idea that nerds (like me) would find cool, as an experimental thing to tinker around with. But, if i ask myself, i cannot come up with a killer use-case which would need something like this.
Android nowadays by itself can achieve most everyday computing tasks for a layman. I have Windows on my gaming PC because that is what it came with and i am not knowledgeable enough to setup Linux (and i guess Linux isn't really quite easy to setup yet either).
So i game on my PC, consume other media on my Samsung tab and have a Samsung phone to do everything else. A device like this one is not really solving any problems for me. I work on a Windows laptop, issued by my employer, who have all sorts of controls setup on it, so that's not replaceable with something like this, as would be the case with all salaried corporate drones.
Perhaps I just think it sounds cool and want to justify it, but as a salaried drone (programmer) I can imagine using this to travel light and then remote into my work laptop (which I leave at home...
Perhaps I just think it sounds cool and want to justify it, but as a salaried drone (programmer) I can imagine using this to travel light and then remote into my work laptop (which I leave at home wakeable on lan {wireguard baby}) so I can troubleshoot unexpected issues that come up whilst I'm away perhaps?
As it is, for this I take a laptop on any multiday excursion, and that's a fair amount of carrying for something I rarely use.
My main concern is that as a main driver of a phone, it seems I'd lose access to the phone to boot windows? And, like, I need my phone. So this'd have to be a secondary device. 🤔
Cool to see all these alternative phones coming out. That nexDock is so fascinating. It's basically a headless (or maybe bodyless?) laptop. I feel like there's no way this has sufficiently...
Cool to see all these alternative phones coming out. That nexDock is so fascinating. It's basically a headless (or maybe bodyless?) laptop.
I feel like there's no way this has sufficiently powerful compute to not drive me crazy. Being in a desktop environment would put my brain into "expect responsiveness" mode whereas on a phone interface I expect some hanging or sluggishness every now and again. I tried to look up details on the chip but couldn't find the traditional cores+clock speed that I look for.
I also struggle with the need to boot into different OSs. I suppose it's not like you have to use it that way but it seems like a major selling point.
The rugged construction is appealing and the price is very reasonable but unfortunately you can get a MacBook Air for less than the phone+dock. That's not really on them but it's a reality as a consumer.
Canonical and others tried to make this a thing like 10 years ago. I get the idea, it just doesn't seem terribly useful to me, even back then. Laptops are just too small to make the trade-offs...
Canonical and others tried to make this a thing like 10 years ago. I get the idea, it just doesn't seem terribly useful to me, even back then. Laptops are just too small to make the trade-offs worthwhile (my take on it). This is the first link that came up when I searched, but I know there was quite a bit of press on it at the time: https://newatlas.com/ubuntu-for-android/22400/.
I am not currently at the point of my phone ownership cycle in which I'm looking for a new phone, but when that happens I'll probably want something european. Unfortunately this one doesn't even...
I am not currently at the point of my phone ownership cycle in which I'm looking for a new phone, but when that happens I'll probably want something european. Unfortunately this one doesn't even ship from the EU.
This is neat, but what I really need is just a Linux phone that supports calling and texting, slack for work, and google maps because other maps are pretty unreliable in my area.
Every time I look for linux phones they're only supported in the EU
Yeah, there is a "given" that doesn't really get addressed, and that's weather or not the actual phone part works in all three operating systems.
Beyond that, the multi-boot part actually makes the whole worse than the sum of it's parts. The phone has 12GB of RAM, which is OK for Android and many configurations for Linux, but it's pretty abysmal for Windows - which for that matter, is not likely to work that great given that Windows on ARM still has plenty of flaws even on Qualcomm's flagship chips purpose-built for it.
Worse, with only 256GB of storage, having 3 operating systems will likely take up between a quarter and half of that space. And why does the MicroSD expansion only allow access to 512GB? 1TB MicroSD cards are still expensive, but they're still fairly readily available and there are already 2TB options on the market.
Perhaps rather than Windows, a better candidate for the third OS slot would've been a "lofi" calls-and-texting only OS akin to mid-00s Symbian that could run with the phone's hardware clocked down to minimums (and even turned off in some cases, like 5G connectivity), both putting a massive multiplier on battery life and filling the growing "modern dumb phone" niche in one shot.
This would give you a nice spread of options. Symbian-like for basic communication, Android for "smart" usage (maps, bank apps, etc), and Linux for pocket desktop usage.
So upon seeing this exact thing show up on another site, someone pointed out that this isn't three operating systems, its actually two. The reason why they are touting "Nex OS" is because it's just Android with some customization to run Linux applications one way or another. Given that it doesn't come with Windows, it's not even a dual-booting system out of the box.
So honestly, this just sounds like some generic Android phone at this point.
Yeah I feel like they kinda skirted around all those big pink elephants lol
Honestly, I think this might be a mistake on their marketing. The phone obviously supports SDXC so it should be able to read/write up to 2TB capacity microSD cards. I'm not sure why phone manufacturers don't state it like this?!
If a phone can support at least 64GB then it should be able to support 2TB. The SD specification exists for a reason.
Yeah that's really weird. Is there some physical reason why they couldn't support greater than 512GB? Some licensing issue?
I suppose it doesn't matter as I'll never get a phone like this. I am perfectly content with my iPhone. *runs away*
It reminds me of certain older cpu+motherboard combos with memory limits. They would list a certain memory size limit, but if you put in more, they work just fine. Turns out, when the platforms were validated, ram sticks above a certain size didn’t exist. So a motherboard would be validated at 8gb (2 4gb sticks, with only 2 slots, and larger than 4gb sticks didn’t exist). But when ram manufacturing got better and 8gb sticks came out, it would run just fine with 16gb ram.
I realize creating a product is hard, but I have very little confidence that Nex can make this work. I've tried multiple versions of their lap docks in the past and they always have major issues. Quality control has been a major issue for them.
I'd absolutely love to be wrong and have this thing work flawlessly and be the one device to rule them all we all want though.
This is very cool, but I'm scratching my head to understand who it's actually for.
I guess if I was somewhere with just my phone, and there was a USB c dock with a mouse, keyboard, and monitor there, and I really needed to do some work that could only effectively be done at a desk, maybe I'd use that functionality?
But android already has a desktop experience where I could do 90% of the work I'd want to do anyway in that situation.
If I had some weird business specific app that only ran on windows, I could see that use case, but that app is unlikely to work well on ARM anyway.
It's a cool thing to think about being able to do only if you don't think about a specific situation that you'd ever want to do it.
I will admit, the idea of only owning a single computing device that fits in my pocket which I can game on, work on, and communicate on is appealing, but cycling through three different OSes to do it is the opposite of appealing.
This exactly. It seems like the kind of idea that nerds (like me) would find cool, as an experimental thing to tinker around with. But, if i ask myself, i cannot come up with a killer use-case which would need something like this.
Android nowadays by itself can achieve most everyday computing tasks for a layman. I have Windows on my gaming PC because that is what it came with and i am not knowledgeable enough to setup Linux (and i guess Linux isn't really quite easy to setup yet either).
So i game on my PC, consume other media on my Samsung tab and have a Samsung phone to do everything else. A device like this one is not really solving any problems for me. I work on a Windows laptop, issued by my employer, who have all sorts of controls setup on it, so that's not replaceable with something like this, as would be the case with all salaried corporate drones.
Perhaps I just think it sounds cool and want to justify it, but as a salaried drone (programmer) I can imagine using this to travel light and then remote into my work laptop (which I leave at home wakeable on lan {wireguard baby}) so I can troubleshoot unexpected issues that come up whilst I'm away perhaps?
As it is, for this I take a laptop on any multiday excursion, and that's a fair amount of carrying for something I rarely use.
My main concern is that as a main driver of a phone, it seems I'd lose access to the phone to boot windows? And, like, I need my phone. So this'd have to be a secondary device. 🤔
Cool to see all these alternative phones coming out. That nexDock is so fascinating. It's basically a headless (or maybe bodyless?) laptop.
I feel like there's no way this has sufficiently powerful compute to not drive me crazy. Being in a desktop environment would put my brain into "expect responsiveness" mode whereas on a phone interface I expect some hanging or sluggishness every now and again. I tried to look up details on the chip but couldn't find the traditional cores+clock speed that I look for.
I also struggle with the need to boot into different OSs. I suppose it's not like you have to use it that way but it seems like a major selling point.
The rugged construction is appealing and the price is very reasonable but unfortunately you can get a MacBook Air for less than the phone+dock. That's not really on them but it's a reality as a consumer.
Canonical and others tried to make this a thing like 10 years ago. I get the idea, it just doesn't seem terribly useful to me, even back then. Laptops are just too small to make the trade-offs worthwhile (my take on it). This is the first link that came up when I searched, but I know there was quite a bit of press on it at the time: https://newatlas.com/ubuntu-for-android/22400/.
I am not currently at the point of my phone ownership cycle in which I'm looking for a new phone, but when that happens I'll probably want something european. Unfortunately this one doesn't even ship from the EU.