Flip that around. By having a (business) laptop around all the time, I am carrying a CPU, storage, webcam and audio I/O which are redundant if I have a smartphone with me.
At home I have a big screen, keyboard, big speakers, nice webcam. At work I have a big screen, keyboard, etc. If I could work from my phone I would not need to carry anything for my commute.
But you’re already describing having an additional screen and keyboard dock.
For argument’s sake, the laptop’s cpu is cooled properly thanks to its larger form factor, the storage is removable and therefore upgradeable, and the ability to run full windows/PC programs without relying on cloud compute or absolutely nuking your battery by trying to run an emulated or mobile version.
For me the argument of “A phone can do everything my job needs” doesn’t work for anything but email jobs, because a lot of them require a physical computer with USB, cat5, hdmi etc to connect to hardware that phones simply cannot talk to through some tangle of docks stuffed into one USB C port.
Yeah if you work from home why would you need a laptop if you have a desktop, but then we’re back to “Why would you need a roll out screen?”
It seems like putting a massive weakness into your laptop screen for the sake of a gimmick.
To be clear, I’m talking about a scenario for people are used to laptops because they are constantly moving their location and do not have any type of hot desk with traditional docks. Let’s call them “on-the-go” workforce.
laptop’s cpu is cooled properly thanks to its larger form factor
The CPU is not the bottleneck for the majority of office/email/conferencing applications, which what most on-the-go people need.
the storage is removable and therefore upgradeable
So it is on my phone. It’s rarer to find phones with SD slots nowadays, but not that difficult.
and the ability to run full windows/PC programs
Again, most on-the-go people don’t need that. Even software developers nowadays can go by through a lot of the work by using some GPT-like (or OpenClaw-like) assistant.
absolutely nuking your battery
The phone would be plugged to this “lapdock”, so it wouldn’t be using its own battery.
a lot of them require a physical computer with USB, cat5, hdmi
That’s I/O. Which could/would be provided by the lapdock.
For those people we already have tablet computers, but none of these things are inproved by having a screen that rolls out to wide, especially if a phone or tablet with some peripherals is enough for them to do their job.
Any software developer worth their qualifications isn’t ‘coding’ with an LLM, and they surely aren’t accessing terminal through their phone.
Lapdocks are alright until you need to actually plug into a device where there isnt a desk to put all the accessories needed to do the function of an actual computer. Imagine trying to access a piece of hardware that needs you to run a virtual windows 95 machine just to communicate, not going to happen if you’re on android or a mobileOS
A tablet still means another small screen and a whole separate computer. It doesn’t replace the phone, it’s just a more portable version of the laptop.
Any software developer worth their qualifications isn’t ‘coding’ with an LLM
Go ahead and tell that to the management of any tech company in the past 18 months. Developers are not exclusively working through agent CLI/TUI, but the majority of the work on tech (regardless of being big corps or small startups) involves code development via LLM-assistance.
the accessories needed to do the function of an actual computer.
That’s what the lapdock was! The lapdock itself provides the base for the keyboard + trackpad + the display connection. All one would need to do is connect the phone. I don’t understand why the concept seems so complicated.
another small screen and a whole separate computer
Like having a lapdock and its associated cable adapters, the rollout screen (unless you want a fragile as hell screen made of thin plastic on your phone, and the associated space within the phone’s frame for the rolling mechanism) doesn’t count as an additional item just because you connect your phone to it.
The lapdock itself provides the base for the keyboard + trackpad + the display connection. All one would need to do is connect the phone. I don’t understand why the concept seems so complicated.
Im not suggesting it’s complicated, I’m saying there’s a reason it didn’t take off; it serves the function of being worse than the device it’s designed to replace by having less features.
Much the same way an LLM does every job you give it worse than a real human being, because it’s not smart, just designed to mimic a human well enough to convince middle management to hand over their wallets lest they miss out on the new tech du jour.
Developers are not exclusively working through agent CLI/TUI, but the majority of the work on tech (regardless of being big corps or small startups) involves code development via LLM-assistance.
And how’s that going for them?
Everyone using it is agreeing that it’s the best thing since sliced bread?
The token system is costing more than human staff would?
Qualified users are complaining they have to do twice the work just checking the outputs?
I’m saying there’s a reason it didn’t take off; it serves the function of being worse than the device it’s designed to replace by having less features.
Another possible explanation: companies are not interested in creating a solution that can cannibalize their laptop line of products.
And how’s that going for them?
I am not defending it, but it’s a separate discussion and for the purposes of the argument it does not matter.
Flip that around. By having a (business) laptop around all the time, I am carrying a CPU, storage, webcam and audio I/O which are redundant if I have a smartphone with me.
At home I have a big screen, keyboard, big speakers, nice webcam. At work I have a big screen, keyboard, etc. If I could work from my phone I would not need to carry anything for my commute.
But you’re already describing having an additional screen and keyboard dock.
For argument’s sake, the laptop’s cpu is cooled properly thanks to its larger form factor, the storage is removable and therefore upgradeable, and the ability to run full windows/PC programs without relying on cloud compute or absolutely nuking your battery by trying to run an emulated or mobile version.
For me the argument of “A phone can do everything my job needs” doesn’t work for anything but email jobs, because a lot of them require a physical computer with USB, cat5, hdmi etc to connect to hardware that phones simply cannot talk to through some tangle of docks stuffed into one USB C port.
Yeah if you work from home why would you need a laptop if you have a desktop, but then we’re back to “Why would you need a roll out screen?”
It seems like putting a massive weakness into your laptop screen for the sake of a gimmick.
To be clear, I’m talking about a scenario for people are used to laptops because they are constantly moving their location and do not have any type of hot desk with traditional docks. Let’s call them “on-the-go” workforce.
The CPU is not the bottleneck for the majority of office/email/conferencing applications, which what most on-the-go people need.
So it is on my phone. It’s rarer to find phones with SD slots nowadays, but not that difficult.
Again, most on-the-go people don’t need that. Even software developers nowadays can go by through a lot of the work by using some GPT-like (or OpenClaw-like) assistant.
The phone would be plugged to this “lapdock”, so it wouldn’t be using its own battery.
That’s I/O. Which could/would be provided by the lapdock.
For those people we already have tablet computers, but none of these things are inproved by having a screen that rolls out to wide, especially if a phone or tablet with some peripherals is enough for them to do their job.
Any software developer worth their qualifications isn’t ‘coding’ with an LLM, and they surely aren’t accessing terminal through their phone.
Lapdocks are alright until you need to actually plug into a device where there isnt a desk to put all the accessories needed to do the function of an actual computer. Imagine trying to access a piece of hardware that needs you to run a virtual windows 95 machine just to communicate, not going to happen if you’re on android or a mobileOS
A tablet still means another small screen and a whole separate computer. It doesn’t replace the phone, it’s just a more portable version of the laptop.
Go ahead and tell that to the management of any tech company in the past 18 months. Developers are not exclusively working through agent CLI/TUI, but the majority of the work on tech (regardless of being big corps or small startups) involves code development via LLM-assistance.
That’s what the lapdock was! The lapdock itself provides the base for the keyboard + trackpad + the display connection. All one would need to do is connect the phone. I don’t understand why the concept seems so complicated.
Like having a lapdock and its associated cable adapters, the rollout screen (unless you want a fragile as hell screen made of thin plastic on your phone, and the associated space within the phone’s frame for the rolling mechanism) doesn’t count as an additional item just because you connect your phone to it.
Im not suggesting it’s complicated, I’m saying there’s a reason it didn’t take off; it serves the function of being worse than the device it’s designed to replace by having less features.
Much the same way an LLM does every job you give it worse than a real human being, because it’s not smart, just designed to mimic a human well enough to convince middle management to hand over their wallets lest they miss out on the new tech du jour.
And how’s that going for them?
Everyone using it is agreeing that it’s the best thing since sliced bread?
The token system is costing more than human staff would?
Qualified users are complaining they have to do twice the work just checking the outputs?
It’s gone rogue and deleted entire databases?
Another possible explanation: companies are not interested in creating a solution that can cannibalize their laptop line of products.
I am not defending it, but it’s a separate discussion and for the purposes of the argument it does not matter.