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 :)

> 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.

> 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?