Razer Shows Off Android Laptop/Phone Hybrid Concept

[phoronix]

Phoronix: Razer Shows Off Android Laptop/Phone Hybrid Concept

Razer's concept device being shown off at the Consumer Electronics Show this year is an Android-powered laptop/hybrid device...

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Razer-Laptop-Phone-Hybrid

[Guest]

Such crazy idea was told to me, by my brother, months ago. I didn't think, that somebody would ever create something like that...

Still, I don't see why would this be better, than separated laptop and mobile devices...

[andrei_me]

If the laptop part doesn't improve the thermals of the smartphone, I don't see how this would be better than 2 standalone devices, the smartphone hardware would have a higher load on it, running a second display, if the apps doesn't run smoothly on it, imagine plugging another screen

[Kemosabe]

It makes only sense if you can keep the "laptop" part and use it with different smartphones. And even if it was intended like this:
It is made for the wrong planet. On earth, we have a super short generation time of devices, no appealing repairing economy and nobody even wants to keep this laptop for years and rather buy the newest shit - there is not even a standard to keep something like this alive.

Nonesense :-)

[schmidtbag]

If the laptop part doesn't improve the thermals of the smartphone, I don't see how this would be better than 2 standalone devices, the smartphone hardware would have a higher load on it, running a second display, if the apps doesn't run smoothly on it, imagine plugging another screen

If the chassis is metal, I'm sure it helps thermals a little bit. But the laptop piece also has a bigger battery and additional connectors that the phone doesn't have. From what I hear, the phone is pretty powerful and uses something like a 120Hz display, so I'm sure it can handle a couple displays at 60Hz.

It makes only sense if you can keep the "laptop" part and use it with different smartphones. And even if it was intended like this:
It is made for the wrong planet. On earth, we have a super short generation time of devices, no appealing repairing economy and nobody even wants to keep this laptop for years and rather buy the newest shit - there is not even a standard to keep something like this alive.

Nonesense :-)

This is Razer, of course it's proprietary.
But even if it weren't, There's not really an easy or elegant way to use any phone you want. They're all just a little bit different.

[Brophen]

Now they just need to borrow Samsung's Linux on Dex idea.

Truth be told, Google should start pushing a KVM* implementation on Android anyway

*Or LXC. But I imagine LXC would be considered less secure, and Google doesn't need any more security accusations

[andyprough]

Works for me, especially if you can do calls and text directly from the laptop. And depending on the price. If this combo costs $2,000, then it's just stupid. If you can get the phone and the laptop shell for $500 combined, then it will make a lot of sense. I have a feeling that it's going to be a $2,000 combo though.

[schmidtbag]

Works for me, especially if you can do calls and text directly from the laptop. And depending on the price. If this combo costs $2,000, then it's just stupid. If you can get the phone and the laptop shell for $500 combined, then it will make a lot of sense. I have a feeling that it's going to be a $2,000 combo though.

The phone by itself costs $700. Remember the laptop portion comes with a battery and potentially may come with a touch-screen IPS display, likely at least 1080p. Slap the Razer emblems on it and I'm sure that'll cost a bare minimum of $400.

But, a lot of service providers offer discounts on phones. So it may not be too outrageously expensive.

[varikonniemi]

Oh my god, imagine this with Unity 8 convergence <3

Take my money!

[RussianNeuroMancer]

Such crazy idea was told to me, by my brother, months ago. I didn't think, that somebody would ever create something like that...

Search for Motorola Atrix Dock (first one AFAIK; Ubuntu 11.04) and HP Elite x3 Lap Dock (available for purchase right now, but running discontinued Windows 10 Mobile that will receive only security fixes). There was Ubuntu Convergence plans that also failed.

Unfortunately every single implementation of this idea failed. I guess probably because every implementation is closed in terms of hardware ecosystem (incompatibility between devices and docks) and software ecosystem (implementations suffer from inability to updated closed source drivers and as result - inability to update OS; drivers is closed source, that also contribute to general issue).

Intel had chances to change this, IF they would gain traction in mobile world (they didn't) and IF they release mobile SoC with Intel UHD Graphics instead of PowerVR GPU (they also didn't).

Since we stuck with crappy drivers, I doubt that Razer attempt have any chances.