cross-posted from: https://wolfballs.com/post/9468
There've been some attempts to wrap computers all together in to some singular system, like the "lapdocks" which allow smartphones to be able to plug in to a lapdock device which has the screen size of a laptop and a laptop-sized keyboard, but uses the computing power of the smartphone.
There have been the UMPCs or mini laptops that you can fit in your pocket.
Then there is the "good old" laptop which is both pretty portable and pretty good for stationary use but doesn't fit in the pocket.
Then there's just a smartphone itself, which can run desktop apps in some cases (but may lack ports)
I find myself still cycling between options trying to figure out a best arrangement.
Has anyone found a sweet spot for a single computer that they could reuse in multiple situations or could you live with a single computer like only use a phone for main computing?
sj_zero@lotide.fbxl.net 2 years ago
I think any choice would be a bad one, but let's say that the world collapsed and I had to choose one and only one device, I'm thinking an x86 based Linux phone based off an Intel atom.
I think at that point you could probably configure it in such a way that it runs it a standard bios and you can use a standard Linux distribution that could be modified to operate in a phone form factor, and then you could use a usb-c dock to connect to a keyboard mouse and monitor. It would absolutely be a poor solution for any given thing, but I think it would be a good enough desktop, a good enough laptop, a good enough phone that if it was your one and only choice it would be subpar but acceptable.
iamtanmay@wolfballs.com 2 years ago
You'd prefer an AMD SoC rather than an Atom at that size. In a similar size its even possible to get an i3/5/7, in that board size, with throttle and a small fan.
I know, shocking.... but that's what all the Steamdeck & clones have
IMHO the only size still dominated by Atom is the USB Stick computer. At that size Atom and Celeron are the only options.
sj_zero@lotide.fbxl.net 2 years ago
I recall seeing some fanless APUs at that size from AMD, so you may be right. I was only thinking Atom because I know there have been Intel Atom based smart phones so it's a known quantity rather than saying some chip that I don't know would be workable in terms of size, heat, or battery life.