other Phone, Tablet, Laptop, Desktop: All in one.

I'm starting to see these all-in-one type devices pop up where all you do is buy a phone then by accessories for it, such as a tablet or a laptop or even just a monitor and keyboard, and plug them into the phone. The other devices pretty much just act as a larger screen or give you a keyboard or mouse options while all the processing, storage, ect is done on the phone itself. This seems to be the near-future of computing, at least for basic computer uses. No need to carry around a heavy laptop and worry about transferring everything from your laptop to your desktop or phone and vise-versa, when its all stored on the phone.

I have seen two such devices so far:

The Asus PadFone, which is just a phone that has a tablet attachment. The phone itself isn't too impressive hardware wise, but the idea itself is pretty good.

The NexPhone. It is still only in the design stages now, and I just came across this indigogo page for it where they are trying to raise funds ($22,692 out of $950,000 ) to develop it. They have estimated prices listed on the page (the laptop dock is estimated to be $200, for example) plus a lot more information on it.

I, personally, am really interested in this. Now, I'm not going to go and sell my desktop, but I would love to have a powerful phone that I can just plug into a laptop when I want and mess around on there, or hook up to a tablet and have a larger screen without having to spend $1,200+ on a laptop or $600 on a tablet and then have to setup a local cloud storage type option so I can share everything around. I know that the accessories won't be cheap, but I'd rather buy a $200-300 phone and get a ~$200 laptop-dock add-on for it than spend another $1200 for a laptop. I'd still obviously use my desktop for larger tasks, pretty much anything thats not web surfing, watching movies/tv or listening to music and would probably even set that up to share with the phone. I could use a new phone and a decent laptop, but I may just hold off and get something like this when I can.

With phones becoming as powerful and energy efficient as they are, this will easily start to become the norm within the next 5-10 years.

What are everyone's thoughts on this? Will this be something you would want to see happen and even use? Or do you think its a stupid idea and you just want to stick to hauling a laptop, tablet and phone around and trying to share data between them all easily and cheaply?

Some android phones already come with 32gb of onboard memory plus an SD slot that can hold up to 64gb, so thats 96gb of data available now. I think the Samsung Galaxy Note is available in 64gb models. It won't be hard for them to include 128gb, 256gb or higher models with the way flash memory is going.

Phones today are comparable to high end desktops from 2-3 years ago, so I doubt computing power will be an issue. Its not meant to be a full computer replacement, unless you just use the computer for web surfing and office applications. If you're gaming or doing any type of editing, then sure, you'll want a desktop. All I'm doing is surfing the internet with 2 chat programs going and I'm sure a decent phone could easily handle that. Looking at the Galaxy SIII, it has a 1.4ghz processor and 1 or 2gb of ram (depending on the country).

I knew the Padphone has been kinda sitting around for a while, never knew why.

I wouldn't think having to keep the same design for a few models would be that big of a problem. Its worked fine for Apple. All they would have to do is keep the same size and dock connector and just add better hardware and software, then after 2-3 years, change the design if they want and release a new and better tablet for it.

They wouldn't really even need to physically dock. With wireless charging and wireless data transfer, I would think just having it really close to the device would work. Or even use some sort of magnetic connection that would be strong enough to hold the phone to the device and at the same time transfer data/power through it. I'm sure if they worked on it, someone could come up with a way to use different phone models on the same dock connector for this to work.

i dont agree with a lot of these all in one things. sure, id love to see a lot of simplification where fewer things are needed to do the same thing, but when it comes to phones and computers, the two should remain separate. thats just me though. if i want to do computer stuff, ill do it on a large screen, and with a proper keyboard and mouse...not this touchscreen crap which makes for an easily crackable screen, fingerprints galore, and oversized screens that make sticking it in your pocket a bitch. oh and battery life suffers as well. no, ill keep my phone for calling and SMS, and reap the benefits of a longer battery life and generally stronger device, instead of some all in one bs.

quote The Slayer

quote harbin91

They looks incredibly unwieldy to talk with and carry around with you all day. Some things should just kept seperate.

How is it different than if you were to carry a tablet or a laptop around with you? If you were just going around town and all you needed was a phone, then just carry the phone around in your pocket. If you were going to class and needed your laptop, throw your laptop in a bag and go to class. The only difference is, once you need it, you just plug your phone into the back of it and its all ready to go.

Having a phone in your pocket is more accessible if you need to answer it than if you have that Padphone, which no doubt would have to sit in a bag that is carried around on your shoulder or carried around in your arm being advertised to everyone. Even if you get a call, if the tab is in its pocket, the time it takes for you to open it you risk missing the call, depending on how long it takes you to notice it to how long it takes you to get it out.

quote The Slayer

quote harbin91

If anything, things such as the Galaxy Note should be big enough if you want a catchall device, and dare I say it the Apple iPaphone Minilarge thing.

Not everyone wants a huge phone or a really small tablet. I'd rather have a 4" phone and a 10" tablet.

That's personal preference and if you want a phone and a tablet then fair enough, that's probably how I'd go if I needed both. Originally smartphones developed from crossing over PDAs with mobiles due to advancements in technology. I just don't see the attraction of having a tablet with a phone feature.

quote The Slayer

quote harbin91

Personally though that wouldn't replace a laptop or desktop since they have atleast twice as much computing power, and different uses in the workplace. No business would scrap their PC/Macs to use a smartphone/tablet hybrid as their main work tool.

I don't think its meant to be a desktop replacement, unless you get the monitor attachment for it. For me personally, it would never be a desktop replacement, just a tablet or laptop replacement. 99% of the time I just use a laptop for office programs or web surfing or simple tasks so using a powerful phone as a laptop would be just fine for me. No businesses would do that unless they also wanted to buy everyone a phone and phone plan, and few do that.

I was saying that in reponse to the title.

quote The Slayer

I think some of you are missing the point with some of the add-ons for this. They're meant to be more like "I want to get a tablet, but don't want to spend $600 for one or have the hassle of sharing all my documents, bookmarks, ect back and forth between my phone, the tablet and computer" so you have the option of getting a phone that has a $150 tablet add-on for it and you just connect your phone to it and have everything already there. Same with the laptop if all you want to do with one is surf the internet or take notes in class, you have a very cheap option (as apposed to getting a small atom-powered computer) to use.

Surely that is what Dropbox was created for, sharing documents between various devices, all you'd need is the app, an account and an internet connection and it would automatically sync what you'd need. Synced bookmarks I'm not sure how it works on Android or how it will work in Windows but I'm sure there will be a program or app to manage that.