A spare monitor and keyboard are handy things to have around, but they’re a bit of a hassle. They are useful for hardware development, plugging in to headless servers, or firing up a Raspberry Pi or similar single-board computer (SBC). If that’s something you do and portability and storage space are important to you, then you may be interested in the CrowView Note.
I got an opportunity to test and provide feedback on an early version of this unusual device, which is functionally a portable spare monitor plus keyboard (and touchpad) without the bulk and extra cables. Heck, it’s even giving me ideas as the guts of a Cyberdeck build. Let’s take a look.
What It Is
It really looks like a laptop, but it’s actually a 14″ 1920 x 1280 monitor and USB keyboard in a laptop form factor.
There is also an integrated trackpad, speakers and mic, and a rechargeable battery. That makes it capable of providing its own power, and it can even function as a power bank in a pinch. There’s an HDMI input on one side, and on the other is a full-featured USB-C port that accepts video input via the DisplayPort altmode.
The CrowView Note is a pretty useful device for a workbench where one is often plugging hardware in for development or testing, because there’s no need to manage a separate monitor, keyboard, and mouse.
It is not a laptop, but attaching an SBC like a Raspberry Pi makes it act like one. The three ports conveniently located on the left-hand side (HDMI in, USB-C out for power to the SBC, and USB-A in for peripherals like keyboard and trackpad) are all that are needed in this case. Elecrow offers a “cable eliminator” PCB adapters to make the process of connecting a Raspberry Pi 5 or a Jetson Nano as simple as possible. The result is something that looks and works just like a laptop.
Well, almost. The SBC will still be a separate piece of hardware, whether connected by cables or by one of Elecrow’s PCB adapters. The result is OK for bench work, but especially in the case of the PCB adapter, not particularly rugged. Still, it’s a nice option and makes working on such boards convenient and cable-free.
What It Isn’t
Visually the CrowView note looks so much like a laptop that it bears repeating: this is not a laptop. There are no processing brains whatsoever inside. It’s a portable and rechargeable monitor, keyboard, mic, and speakers in a laptop form factor.
Also, it is not a laptop kit. It’s got all the right hardware to act like one, but there’s no way to truly securely or semi-permanently attach an SBC. Attaching an SBC like a Raspberry Pi 5 can be done with cables or one of Elecrow’s PCB adapters, but the result is more a convenience than something that would survive being loaded into a bag or backpack and carried around.
Use Cases, and Video Input Options
A device like this is handy for any situation that would require a spare monitor and keyboard, like configuring headless systems or working with development kits. An HDMI and USB cable are all that’s really needed to provide monitor and keyboard/touchpad functionality in this way, and the built-in rechargeable battery means it can power itself as well as attached hardware.
The USB-C port on the left is a 5 V output for exactly this purpose, but the one on the right side is a full-featured port that supports modes such as power delivery (PD) and DisplayPort video over USB-C. Devices that support video in this way include some mobile phones, and portable devices like Valve’s Steam Deck (shown here.)
The only catch for video over USB-C is that both the device and the cable must support it. The DisplayPort altmode is one of USB-C’s high-speed interfaces and requires the cable to have the right pairs connected, or it won’t work. (Since cables all look the same from the outside, this is where a USB cable tester comes in handy.)
The Electrow Note is rechargeable, light, and charges and handles just like a laptop. It’s far less bulky than a standalone monitor and keyboard/mouse. This makes it attractive for use on a crowded workbench, or in field work where portability is key.
Limitations and Quirks
In my testing of an early version of the device, I found a couple quirks that are worth keeping in mind.
One is that this device is a monitor and keyboard/mouse all in one, and they aren’t really completely independent devices. That is to say, if the monitor isn’t getting a useable video signal, the display goes to sleep and seems to take the keyboard and touchpad functionality with it.
For example, pressing CAPS LOCK won’t toggle the caps lock indicator light because the keyboard isn’t “awake” without a video signal. I was unable to use the device just as a USB keyboard/mouse and ignore plugging in the monitor. Similarly, with no valid input video signal functions like brightness adjustment or using the monitor’s OSD menu are inaccessible. (Input switching and battery level display do work, however.)
Related to the above, the interface for adjusting monitor functions is basic, and understanding how it works may save time and frustration. As with many laptops, the function key row doubles as device controls with F1 for video input selection, F5 and F6 adjusting brightness down and up, and so on. On the version I tested, the default configuration is to have the function key row act as monitor controls. To send a literal F1 keypress from the keyboard, one must press Fn+F1. It’s possible to swap this behavior, but the setting reverts at the next power cycle, which led to some head-scratching on my part while troubleshooting.
The CrowView Note’s interface — while functional — isn’t completely obvious at first. On a workbench, one might be plugging a device like this into hardware that may not be working as it should, and its quirks can compound troubleshooting headaches unless one knows what to expect.
Does It Have a Place On Your Workbench, Or In Your Next Project?
Tabletop space and storage space are at premiums for most of us. The CrowView Note is an attractive all-in-one alternative to separate devices, especially with its rechargeable battery. That it includes speaker and mic and can work as a USB power bank in a pinch is a nice touch.
Honestly, it is also giving me DIY cyberdeck build ideas. Monitor, keyboard, speaker, mic, touchpad, and a 5000 mAh battery with charging circuitry built-in? It’s not a bad bundle of hardware for $169 USD. Elecrow is currently accepting pre-orders for the CrowView Note via a crowdfunding campaign if you’re interested.
How often do you find yourself needing to break out a monitor and keyboard, and what’s your favorite solution? Do you see a device like this as a space-saving tool, or more the basis of a hardware project like a cyberdeck build? Could you or have you DIYed something like this on the cheap? Let us know in the comments.
So this is great but really reminds me of something that has been bugging me for years.. Why not implement a switchbutton on a regular laptop essentially opening up an HDMI IN and a USB for mouse and keyboard? Essentially this PLUS a laptop inside. Would be the wet dream of an IT Engineer such as myself.
https://a.co/d/eD4T7ig
I’ll just leave this here. Wasn’t sure if I hallucinated this existing..
There are now a couple ‘external USB-C KVM boxes’ that can kinda do that—I’ve been testing one called Pi-Cast, but I believe the Nano KVM may also work in this role.
Looks cool but still.. More stuff to lug around. The laptop you always carry with you, it has good battery, a keyboard/mouse and a screen. Only thing missing (for me) has been a HDMI In and a cable out for USB Keyboard/mouse connection. This should be hardwired and you would probably just flick a switch or something. No need to even boot the operating system. No RDP or VNC or anything. Might be nieche but I know I would have payed greatly throughout my career to have this feature for whenever I am/have been in a datacenter with headless servers to deal with.
Hey, even the kids could hook up their Nintendo Switch or what have you on that car trip.
You’ve put my question/concern in a nicer way: How is this better than a laptop?
That’s like asking “how is a boat better than a car”.
When what you need a is display and input for an otherwise headless computer, then this is all the world better than a laptop because it functions in this capacity and a laptop doesn’t.
Any laptop can Telnet/SSH/VNC/RDP to a headless mini PC, even a low-cost Chromebook, being independent at the same time and costing even less than $169.
I have a $10 HDMI capture device in the laptop bag.
Saves carrying a monitor for testing devices with HDMI out.
Fun fact: also allows you to get around issues with corporate spyware stopping you from making screenshots of your applications and the “top secret” data open in them; just capture the laptop screen to itself/vlc and run OCR.
I’m making myself exactly this.
I was donated a laptop with a dead main board.
The eDP display works. Keyboard and touchpad works. Battery is… Eh…
I’m going to slap an Orange Pi 3b in it (8gb + 2280 slot + eDP + a decent rockchip quad core ARM for $55 USD? Score ) or maybe a Radxa x4 as an Intel n100 option for ~$75.
Then I’m going to convert the keyboard and touchpad to USB.
Next I shoehorn a 1×2 display port kvm switch in it with “machine 1” wired to the SBC, and “machine 2” routed to an external USB and HDMI port.
Build a LiFepo battery pack and be done.
The GPD Pocket 3 has the ability to have that functionality.
sounds like it would be useful for pc repair. being able to plug in one cable and get everything is nice. sure beats the big wiring harnesses i had to connect when i did system integration and repair back in the early ’00s. this thing would have saved a lot of bench space.
i also see it useful as a head unit for sff computers in space constrained situations.
At my last job we had a bunch of headless Linux machines all over the lab. We had a crash cart with a keyboard and monitor available, but when I had to reinstall any of them I’d instead grab one of those USB-C 15″ portable monitors and a small keyboard. It was easier than having to maneuver the crash cart around equipment and wires, then have to find an empty power outlet. This product would be even better as the keyboard is integrated and the display doesn’t need to be propped up against something else.
Does this mean that if the display is asleep, one cannot wake it up by pressing a key on the keyboard? If so, that sounds completely worthless!!
It reminds me of the terminals I used to work with in IBM server racks.
yeah that’s exactly what came to my mind as well. closest i’ve seen is at a trade show i saw an ibm thinkpad stuck to the inside front door of an ibm z series mainframe cabinet. back when i was responsible for a rack (not ibm) that had no head and i would have killed for this thing — only really needed it once in a year but the alternatives were all really painful.
though other than that, i can’t really imagine a use for it. for my basement server that could just use a head maybe once a year, i found a 7″ hdmi lcd that serves my needs. not really understanding the in between case where you want a laptop form factor but you don’t want the brain to really be very portable / self-contained. shrug
” not really understanding the in between case where you want a laptop form factor but you don’t want the brain to really be very portable / self-contained. shrug”
It’s the case where the brain is already integrated into something else, but you occasionally need to access it in an awkward environment. Imagine something like a rack-mount setup where everything’s nice and buttoned up and there are HDMI/USB connectors on front for easy access.
Either that or the case where you plan on integrating the brains into something else, but you want the setup for initial testing.
Your comment reminded me that we also had terminals on “crash carts” when working with a number of racks with multiple servers in each. If a particular rack did not have built-in terminal, it was fairly easy to roll the cart to such a rack.
I work for a company that has 14 locations across my state and each has its own server room with gear in it. None have a rack KVM nor is there room for one and the rooms themselves are not particularly big, so there’s really no where to either setup external gear or any place to store it out of the way. Right now, I have to take my own keyboard/mouse/monitor if I need to access anything directly on the hardware, which means not only remembering to grab it all before heading out, but making sure it works, then schlepping it in and out of the location, and having to deal with setting it up/unhooking it. Never mind either having to find a place to prop it all for use or just sitting on the floor with all that. This would eliminate a lot of that and probably be more comfy for my aging bones.
Sure, it’s not that onerous in the grand scheme of life, but man, something like this would save me a ton of time and effort. I could either slide it into my bag with my work laptop and not have to deal with anything more than probably a mini HDMI to VGA dongle and USB to Serial adapter.
For that matter, I’d probably experiment with just taking this and my phone. Mostly when I’m out and about I just need email/Teams/web browser anyway and if I can hook this to my phone and get those as well, even better.
Yup, came here to post the same thing. Looks like the rack mount keyboard+displays that you can get that slide out, and the screen flips up, perhaps the screen is a bit smaller than it could possibly be. I’m guessing this would be cheaper than an actual purpose built rack display. Sure, you would still need the sliding rails, but that doesn’t sound completely unrealistic.
The pics show a USB-A for keyboard/mouse. Does that mean you need a USB-A to USB-A cable for the keyboard/touchpad portion? That’s a pretty big no-no, according to the USB forum.
I would have expected a micro-B USB port for that, so a standard A-to-micro-B USB cable would work. That would also make it very clear what direction the data flows for that port. Being bidirectional, USB-C is a better forward-looking solution, but not all devices use that yet.
Also, what kind of adapter would be needed to support VGA? There are still many headless servers out there that work best with something plugged into their USB-A and VGA ports, and it sounds like this would be ideal for that with the right adapters and cables.
I’d also love to see an addon that allows one to connect to a UART and display a terminal. You could always cobble one together with a RPi and UART adapter, but a purpose-built one could be cheaper and more rugged.
I suppose something like this would work for connecting to a VGA-only device: https://www.amazon.com/Adapter-Computer-Desktop-Monitor-Projector/dp/B07BKYBKGP
The A-to-A USB cable is still a showstopper for me…
Yeah, the USB-A being used as an input is annoying. It’d be awesome if they had made that a modular bay with some standard-ish connector on the inside that you could just replace the connector set. It’d be more elegant than their adapters, I’d think.
Once this becomes available I’ll probably end up making boards which just plug into it and expand it out to standard HDMI or DP plus USB-C (2.0 only) with an onboard hub.
I’ve actually purchased that very cable within the last year for use with my Dell PowerEdge r820. It’s been such a set and forget that if that Amazon link hadn’t said I purchased it I don’t think I ever would have thought about it again.
Reminded me on the Motorola Atrix Lapdock .
They idea was to connect the Atrix smartphone via hdmi and USB to act like a laptop.
When they where EOF it was common to buy one and connect a raspberry to it.
I still used today as described in the article, but the new one seems more comfortable
Yeah, I think a couple of mobile phone manufacturers did this and I have no idea why this didn’t take off. My Black Shark 5 has more than enough power to make a slick laptop experience.
Quite a lot of years ago I bought a “docking station” for a motorola phone. It is pretty similar to this product. It looks like a laptop with keyboard, touchpad and LCD, but on the back it has micro HDMI and USB connectors for the phone.
These things were expensive when they were new but they quickly dropped a lot in price second hand.
After all, if you build something that looks like a laptop, is as big and heavy as a laptop, but does not work like a laptop because the processor and the memory is missing (those are just some small IC’s, weigh nothing and don’t take up much space) then the whole thing mostly turns into useless dead weight.
If you make something with this size and weight, then it makes much more sense to put in a processor and some memory too. Then you can use regular SSH, remote deskop, wired or WiFi or whatever.
In practice it is really inconvenient to have your little computer hanging off the side of this thing. A product like the Olimex Teres-1 or the pinebook makes much more sense. They are not fast, but you can tinker with the single board computer inside it, where it’s protected from most accidents, and if you’re through for the day, you close the thing and put it in a closet without worrying about damage or connectors.
All the bulk, weight and cost is in the combination of battery, keyboard, LCD and housing. Without those extra few IC’s it just is an extremely niche product for a high cost.
Overall, I’d be more interesting in using an old (thicker, bulky) laptop, gut it out and put a more modern computer inside. Thickness really does not matter much (It’s a ridiculous marketing hype) and with the extra room inside you have some decent place to put your single board computer, and some extra custom hardware to tinker with, and all INSIDE the single box.
I need the “just shut up and take my money” GIF. There are a few quirky things about this, but they’re not bad enough I can’t work around them. Sucks that it’s just on Kickstarter now, since I can’t do that through work, and I’ll have to wait until it’s a real product.
I have a ton of SBCs either set up in dedicated installations or for dedicated software purposes. You don’t often have to access them, but when you do it’s a pain in the neck where you are like “okay, let’s grab a keyboard, mouse, and monitor, wait, what connectors do each of these things have, great, go find this cable and that one, okay, let’s find a cord…” then scrambling to find an outlet, space to set things up, etc.
Being able to just grab a laptop-like thing and just plug it in would just be happy days.
seems like you would still always have a mini-hdmi cable in your hand but need a micro-hdmi to do the task :)
Oh, the “what adapter do I need for this specific board” is always going to be an annoyance, but what I was referring to is actually “what connector does this monitor have now.” We could’ve “standardized” on a monitor and just gotten a bunch of them to fix that part, but it’s never seemed worth it since you still had to scrape for a keyboard and mouse, maybe a hub, etc. and the monitors would get alternately integrated/freed from various other computers/etc.
I’ve seen a few lapdocks out there before but they’re usually expensive or quirky enough that I couldn’t justify “just buy 5-10 of them,” and I tried a ~$250-ish one out for a second before I returned it because the trackpad was literally unusable.
The main question I would ask, though, would be about the display/keyboard/trackpad quality. How bright’s the display, how trash is the trackpad, etc. Quirkiness in the connectors is fine, but if the trackpad’s glitchy/stupid sensitive/whatever, that’s an immediate no.
theres one of these called Nexdock that has been around for a few years now.
I was coming here to mention NexDock. They actually have a mature product by this point. My NexDock is a first gen, and it looks identical to this. The first gen had a nice Macintosh style case, but there was one magic custom cable, and if you lose it, you lose the ability to hook the keyboard and trackpad into your SBC, though it still functions as a monitor and power bank. The use case I’ve had for it lately is getting into the phones of friends whose screens are broken.
These devices are handy and I’m glad to see more options popping up, even if slowly. I had an idea to make something like this 10 years ago, but it’s very difficult to make one out of a cannibalized laptop. You have to have a driver board for the screen, and a driver board for the keyboard and trackpad, and those often have custom electronics and ribbon cable interfaces you have to sus out pin layouts for, and I’m not at that level of hardware hacker. Then there’s the issue of how to get power to keyboard, trackpad and driverboard so you have all the right power requirements for them. They also seemed to draw more power than the power banks I had. An already-created thing like this is worth a mint to people that need it.
Yep I was going to say the same thing. I had the first Gen and now two others, one with wireless display built in and the other a standard cabled version.
I use it for server crash carts, secondary monitor for my laptop and when I didn’t carry my laptop for the Android desktop mode
Might be interesting to build your own with an ancient laptop and a pi?
The real pity is that there are a bajillion “SBC” being thrown away every year – our surplus/outdated phones, most of them running Android/mostly capable of Linux. Find a way to use these plus the (essentially free) processing power of the outdated nomophobia-preventers and then things might get very interesting.
I should have clarified – use the KVM device in the article plus the phone.
Like a NexDock? http://nexdock.com
I use one of those with my phone and Samsung Dex all the time.
Mine is all wired but the new ones can even work with the phones wirelessly. (Christmas is coming…)
But they still have the jacks for wired connections if you want to use them with a Raspberry Pi or as a KVM or whatever…
Or the old Motorolla Lapdocks?
I think HP sold something like this that people used with Windows phones for a while too when those were a thing.
Folks don’t waste your money for things like that because you will have to carry a shitload of cables…
Better get an old 7″-12″ notebook eg EEE PC , install some light desktop linux/BSD perfect for your hacks..
I 3d printed a sidecar that connects a rpi 4 to a portable DVD player, but it’s composite video and made for gaming because my kid took over my powkiddy. I still have to make a controller of some kind, probably Quake/Doom focused. I got this joystick that’s really for a boom lift or something I’d like to use on it.
I have a 10″ diag lcd that accepts VGA or HDMI, I would gut a laptop and put something like this in it, the existing keyboard & mouse should have 4 USB wires in there someplace, a ribbon cable adapter would probably expose real ports on the back.
I’m sure this is good for server rooms, and it is cheap, but I doubt it’ll change the lives of people working with SBCs.
Cables will never not be a pain in the ass, and you’ll still have tiny boards dangling on the end of heavy HDMI cables etc. A lot of the time it’d be easier to bring the board to your computer, where you could have a fixed docking jig and KVM switch and use your luxury peripherals.
I mean, you might have a Pi installed at the top of a tree or whatever, but in that case you’ve already made remote access arrangements, so you’re only using the KVM setup to update the OS etc., which probably doesn’t need to happen in situ.
It’s unfortunate that the HDMI and USB ports are at right angles to one another on the Pi.
I used to use a phone, the Motrola Bionic which Motorola sold a LapDock, basically the same device discussed here for. This was pre-USB-C so there were two connectors, one for USB, one for HDMI.
Every Bionic had the HDMI and USB connectors in the same orientation and same separation from one another. So the plugs were just molded into a bracket on the LapDock which the phone just plugged down onto.
It made for a very convenient to use setup but not very reusable as no other devices fit. In fact, they even sold a second model of phone, the Atrix which did the same thing but they rotated or swapped the connectors or something like that. So if you wanted to use your Bionic LapDock with an Atrix phone or vice-versa you had to take the docking station apart and flip the connectors. And of course.. once those phones were obsolete the dock was basically e-waste. I mean.. you could get cables with female hdmi and mini-usb connectors and plug those in but it was fiddly and would disconnect if you just breathed on it.
Anyway… what I was thinking.. if a Pi had a USB host connector on the same edge as hdmi… no, I wouldn’t want to make a too-specialized-to-be-reusable dock for it like the Bionic. But maybe just design a 3d-printable shell that a regular USB and HDMI cable gets clamped into and puts the connectors in just the right position relative to one another that both may be plugged in as one. A similar shell could be designed for the dock end and the cables could be tie-wrapped, heat-shrunk or twisty-tied together to make it all one piece.
Of course.. that is a Pi or other SBC solution. Newish phones do it all with a single USB-C cable. If SBCs could start including that tech… things get easier. Even newer Android phones… don’t even need USB-C they can do it all wirelessly. If PIs could get that tech then there you go.. no wires.
As someone who routinely works on servers and lab instruments, it would be good if this had connectivity beyond hdmi, as the servers usually only have VGA.
There are dirt cheap VGA to HDMI adapters.
Love the idea and was about to pledge the Kickstarter. However, maybe I’m just petty, but the high shipping cost was a deal-breaker. $130 USD for the device and $40 USD for shipping.
I too was intrigued by the Crowview when spotted on Kickstarter and earmarked to look into later, so your comments were quite timely and interesting to read Donald. I had also found that Dopesplay dot com have very similar products and specs, though theirs boasts touch screen, double capacity battery, ability flip screen into tent and optionally wireless Wifi and BT connectivity albeit at a slightly higher price. Unfortunately the site is rather thin on details. So i was wondering if you have any opinions of the Dopesplay products or might venture into checking it out…
At this point, why not include a dedicated space to plug a compute module?
I mean, the Crow Pi already did something similar.
Here, the design is sleek, and it seems really a useful tool, but two more connectors, and it could have been a really handy raspberry pi able laptop.
Oh well, if I am not happy, I shall do it myself I guess? It’s already nice they make this product.
Oh, dear lord, that’s what they should have done for an output port connector! Have a Compute Module connector where the USB A/mini-HDMI/USB-C power connectors are, and include a “dummy” module which plugs there and just pushes the connectors out. Then it just automatically becomes a Pi laptop if you replace that module with a compute module and a dummy connector cover or something.
Yes, make it just a laptop, maybe with a built in KVM switch. The electronics for the brain of a laptop is so small and cheap there is really no reason to not include it.
What would be a possible interesting project is to make a box for “under” a laptop, with spools for the cables. This reduces the cable hassle a lot:
1). You have some storage space for the cables.
2). The cables are always attached to the laptop.
3). You don’t pull the cables out further then you need them.
4). Just wind the cables back up when you’re done.
An extra compartment for ether adapter cables / plugs or DIY projects so you can store your breadboard also in the single unit is a plus.
I like your spooling idea!
Nexdock, lapdock, udock
Nothing new here.
Or do I miss a thing ? Price maybe.
https://fr.aliexpress.com/item/1005007553502452.html
Ils a good thing to have more of this, I hope it will force smartphone brands to use usb3 for their usbc instead of USB2 (shame at you Xiaomi)
For me, this sounds like something I have wanted for some time. Ok bigger screen but the idea sounds good. I will look in detail more later.
I play games and I am unable to sit at desk for long periods so I choose a sofa and use a gaming laptop. It is fine but I imagine a world, mine of course, where I have a regular cased PC with GPU and all the good stuff beside me or behind the sofa. Plug this (not) a laptop in and I am running with better and cheaper pc, maybe more robust.
So, why would this not work??
Steam link with USB tethering?
I suspect you would be better off with the computer behind a TV and wireless HID be that some form of controller or keyboard and mouse (or wired if that isn’t going to be too much of an obstruction/trip hazard in the room) or something like a steamdeck than this – both I’d think would end up more ergonomic and prove durable and affordable.
That said something like this in theory at least would do the job you want very well, the computer brains itself should be more performant, upgrade able and cheaper than the laptop. With this user interface unit being relatively disposable should it get damaged. Though I do wonder how well the USB tether would survive such use, and if the display output would remain really stable – my experience with USB-C is it is the most garbage thing imaginable in stability and reliably unless all you want is USB2 – it often won’t break fully, but frequently throws visual artifacts…
(Also right now you’d probably need an adapter to turn a DP/HDMI and USB port from the computer into the one cable USB-C solution – but that is likely preferable, even despite my dislike of USB-C. Seems a better choice than having more relatively thick and stiff cables stuck in the side to tether this to your desktop)
What no. Hook up to the TV and use wireless peripherals.
I mean this product is great for fixing a server lacking ipkvm, but not gaming on a touchpad comon
The target market could be hobbyists and IT contractors.
If you’re thinking this would be good for large data centres, any IT manager for such place will tell you that nobody is accessing the rack room for routine or emergency maintenance anymore.
All systems have “lights out” access via an independent network port (e.g. Dell’s IDRAC).
The only moment when people are entering the physical area where systems are, it’s when these get commissioned and decommissioned.
Or during a major hardware incident.
There is no use case for an ultralight “crash cart” in a data centre.
data centers aren’t the only places with racks, and if you can find a place to stick a crash cart in an outdoor closet, you’re better than me
Really struggling to see how this is really better than one of the server rack concepts that does much the same thing without internal batteries for most folks. I’m sure there are users for which this is the right tool – with a ‘Perfect’ in the comments here perhaps having one, and for folks that only own a smartphone but want a tolerable text input device for more real computing perhaps. However on the whole ever problem this seems to ‘solve’ in age of such fast networking a problem better solved via a cheap laptop/chromebook tethered to the powerhouse machine over a network link or a battery free server rack style HID.
Though I’d love if more laptops did support taking an input display signal and using their keyboard and mouse as peripheral for external devices, and I’m sure some folks will make great use of this it just feels little too limiting (on the details available anyway). To me it feels like it really needed more internal space or at least some CAD files so you can make more internal space when you need to and internal headers – could pop the bottom off and connect your SBC or broken screen phone of choice internally if you want to – then it really can be your ‘universal’ DIY laptop kit to help justify the internal battery.
FYI.
This type of device is usually called a “lapdock” (laptop + dock).
They have been commercially available since at least 2015.
The “primary” use case seems to be using a phone as a laptop, which is becoming more and more viable as phone get more grunt, and a desktop interface for external monitors gets more refined.
Samsung DeX has apparently been usable like this for a while. But Samsung’s android flavor is awful. So no.
Google’s “stock” desktop interface has a way to go before it is usable. But at least it is actually being worked on now.
And more phones are releasing with proper display port alt mode support too
Cheers for this. I knew I’d seen this same concept elsewhere, but couldn’t put my finger on it. I think in particular it was the NexDock I’d seen a while back.
While doing all the things over USB-C is nice (and probably a mandatory feature on these products), there is a certain appeal to also having an HDMI in. I’ve been having to use a USB capture card, laptop, and physical keyboard a lot in the past couple of weeks dealing with issues on headless systems, which definitely wouldn’t handle the one-cable solution.
I used to have a Motorola Bionic with a lapdock.
That was great! But it became to slow, to far out of date.
Motorola at first had what was basically a Linux desktop but with not much more than a browser installed which they marketed as a solution to go with web-based online tools. But.. my understanding was that it could be unlocked to allow one to apt-get pretty much whatever as a regular Debian distro on your phone.
Motorola killed that right at the time I bought mine with a software update. After that it was only android apps but that worked, I just used Android RDP and VNC clients with it to talk to desktops.
But Motorola killed that too!
Now Motorola has some sort of similar solution again.. I haven’t seen it.
I’m not a big Samsung fan but standard Android isn’t ready and I don’t trust Motorola not to take the feature away after I get used to using it so…
I used an S9+ with a Nexdock for years.
Android apps again but that’s ok, there was more available during those years. Even a full Android development environment that ran on Android! What happened to you, AIDE???
But that version of Dex… it like to go into this mode that was like Capslock but not quite… number keys would make their shift-alternate characters. And the only way out was to hit the caps lock button, type a character, then hit it again. It would do this mid-sentence for no apparent reason. Sometimes it would take a few tries to get out too.
Samsung support had no interest in discussing this issue.
But I lived with it because.. what else was there.
Now I have an S24+ with a newer Dex.
Now I find that non-letter keys don’t map correctly if I use GBoard. But it works right if Samsung’s keyboard is selected. But Samsung’s keyboard doesn’t have all the languages I use. And it’s swype suggestions pick strange words!
So I have to switch between keyboards every time I plug/un-plug my NexDock.
This does NOT seem like an idea that should be so hard to implement that no one gets it right!
This is just a modern hardware version of the Superbook
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/andromium/the-superbook-turn-your-smartphone-into-a-laptop-f
DIY Instructable: https://www.instructables.com/DIY-Portable-KVM-Crashcart-From-Recycled-Laptop-Pr/
I think I can haul this along with my NUC (and its power adapter) into a coffee shop…
A USB 3 soft KVM is a way cooler option than a “dummy” laptop. Check out Cytrence Kiwi, for example.
Let’s hope I won’t have to replace my trusty NexDock Touch 14″ anytime soon. Sadly, they don’t make them anymore
The CrowView Note would be a great lapdock but the lack of USB-C charging is a dealbreaker, especially in 2024. My best guess they skimped on it to avoid having to include an way more expensive Type C charger in the box.