Google is building its own DeX: First look at Android's Desktop Mode

This is the only natural path if mobile chips are going to keep getting faster, everyone with a flagship phone is "wasting" so much good compute resources that never gets utilized.

I wonder if we'll see USB-C docks for phones with fans blowing at the device for improved thermals.

If they nail the Linux container UX as well as ChromeOS it would motivate me to buy a top-tier device rather than my sluggish Fairphone 4, right now I don't see the usecase other than good camera.

Imagine thst a large userbase could just skip the laptop and desktop in favor of a USB-C dock and a decent display :)

The original Samsung DeX dock for the S8 was exactly that. USB-C and had a fan in the stand to keep the phone cool.

https://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/samsung-dex-first-impre...

> everyone with a flagship phone is "wasting" so much good compute resources

Are they though? Phones already have a broad range of uses. I've seen people try to make laptops out of them and it just doesn't make sense for a number of reasons:

- As screen size goes up so do battery requirements, so you're already paying for a screen, a chassis, and a physical keyboard. Why not go the whole way and pay for the silicon?

- When your phone is being a PC it's no longer being a phone; you can't do phone calls and camera photos (at least not well) while it's a PC.

I have a Samsung and use Dex occasionally, but the uses are limited. In my case it's to check personal emails, which is not allowed on the corporate network. But outside of cases like this I can't imagine ever preferring Dex to a laptop or a dedicated computer. It's much better at being a phone.

If people waste fancy silicon on phones, yes very much. While people use browsers and apps they're hardly multitasking like you would with a modern computer. A lot of good horsepower left for more advanced use cases.

I'm a developer so I have my needs which are unlikely to be "completely fulfilled" by a Phone-as-computer either.

However "as screen size goes up so does battery requirements", my thought was to keep the device docked in a Dex dock with PD and a fan for cooling, and since the resolution on modern phones is so damn crazy, as long as the device screen isn't pumping pixels when connected it should be fine to do 2k.

While it's a PC it's docked so you can't take calls on the phone easily (unless you have a long cable) but you could with a headset. Now I am not talking about the Dex implementation, I'm in the "what can be" discussion for the future.

For "normal people" a good Android desktop would be a lot better than not having a "desktop setup" at all. They don't have to buy a new device but can still get a mouse/keyboard/display combo and so some "productivity tasks".

I tried Dex out on a S10 or something but it wasn't enough for me other than as a cool gimmick, but I definitely see a usecase that could become widespread.

At least here, everyone I know and see does 'phone calls' with whatsapp and ear buds; I never see anyone holding a phone to their ears or using the GSM network to call actual numbers and I see a lot of people. Also, most prefer text chat anyway. This includes my 80+ parents. I wouldn't need a calling sim if not for sms from some vital services for quite a few years now. It being docked or not makes no difference for that; I wouldn't notice if my phone didn't have built in speakers: for calls we use bluetooth headphones, for music a Bluetooth speaker.

I travel a lot and do not like carrying things, so xreal and phone are more than enough for coding while going day long, easily augmented with a small power bank (unlike a laptop), with all of that fitting in my pockets after I drop my luggage at the hotel. Most my colleagues have macbooks and while they have good battery life, it is no comparison: the search for places with power outlets starts when I am not even at 50%. It is not an apples to apples as I do a lot of compute in the cloud, but even with that on the laptops, they still last a lot shorter and you cannot plug in normal power banks.

> If they nail the Linux container UX as well as ChromeOS … >Imagine thst a large userbase could just skip the laptop and desktop in favor of a USB-C dock and a decent display :)

Yeah - I don’t think the user base interested in container UX is “large” in relation to the mobile world.

Also, who wants to carry around a display with its own battery, a keyboard with its own batteries, a mouse/trackpad (batteries) and cables for the above? At some point it’s honestly easier to just grab a MacBook Air and walk out the door.

> If people waste fancy silicon on phones, yes very much.

The silicon only has to be fancy, because phones are so constraint in terms of space, power and cooling.

Getting phone-like performance in a desktop or laptop form factor and power and cooling budget is a lot simpler and cheaper.

> They don't have to buy a new device but can still get a mouse/keyboard/display combo and so some "productivity tasks".

The point was that they do have to buy a new device. The only thing they don't have to buy is new silicon. But that's trivial compared to everything else.

Thanks for your in-depth simplification of thermal budgets and updating me on the hardness of buying processes silicon? How do you know what the person I replied to mean when I don't?

Umm no, the mouse/keyboard/display combo would be something you have at work and maybe at home... I'm not suggesting people start hauling 27" displays for shits and giggles, computing from a phone doesn't seem that fun.

And I don't know, the container UX people didn't exist for ChromeOS before ChromeOS made it easy to run Linux apps that way so.

Do you actually work on the xreal like this, in DeX? I really wonder what it's like. They're so expensive it's hard to invest in one (I don't have America-level purchasing power)

Yes I have several of those and they still work with my S23. Not sure why they don't sell them anymore. It was a great idea. The fan is even dynamic, it knows how hot the phone is (even if it's in a case so the phone must be reporting it over USB somehow).

There was a second version which was flat so you could use the phone as touchpad. But it was thick, lacked ethernet port so it wasn't really worth it IMO. When you use a dock it's trivial to use a mouse, way better than any touchpad.

You are welcome, I guess.

Yes, it works very well. The new ones are better, but I have the Air 2 and they work very well for this, no need for taking my laptop anywhere anymore.