NexPhone: All-In-One Smartphone, Tablet, Laptop, PC

By Tuan Mai
published

Smartphone concept docks into a collection of devices to become a tablet, laptop or PC.

With smartphones becoming more and more powerful each year, today's top devices are powerful enough to perform most of the tasks needed for everyday life. Hardcore gamers aside, most smartphones are enough for the general public's internet browsing, email collecting and document viewing/editing needs.

For somebody who only performs smartphone-capable tasks with their PC or laptop, having a number of different devices can be costly and unnecessary. The NexPhone concept hopes to remedy that situation with a one size fits all solution that becomes whichever device you need it to be. The versatile device comes with a collection of options ranging from a simple dock that allows you to connect your own peripherals to a tablet dock, laptop dock or pc dock.

The device is currently just a concept seeking funds from crowd-funding site IndieGoGo, but it certainly isn't the first to come up with such an idea. Asus's Padfone offers similar solutions with its docks, but the NexPhone aims for a more complete package with a keyboard and trackpad built into its docks. For more renders and information on the device, head on over to the IndieGoGo page.

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Tuan Mai
Tuan Mai
Tuan Mai is a Los Angeles based writer and marketing manager working within the PC Hardware industry. He has written for Tom's Guide since 2010, with a special interest in the weird and quirky.
38 Comments Comment from the forums
  • freggo
    Not exactly a 'new' concept but one who's time is clearly coming.
    Smart phones are clearly getting to a point where they have the computing power for most everyday tasks. So docking them into a PC or Laptop shell could be interesting as long as the various docking hardware does not cost more or close to the device they are supposed to replace.
    Reply
  • CaedenV
    make it x86 with windows so I can have more of a desktop expierence with some of my old applicaitons and I am sold.

    Even better would be a device that, instead of 'docking' to take over the use of a periphrial, would be to make the device bootable, so that my phone would have all of my data and applications, and be able to use the hardware (cpu, gpu, etc) of my laptop device, or my desktop device. The phone could be absolutely gutless, but with a big system drive/SSD, and let it leech the power of other devices instead. That is the phone or 'personal device' that I really want.
    Reply
  • i definitely like the concept, its similar the what asus is trying to do with there phone that's in the works, plus what the atrix failed at.
    Reply
  • mmstick
    It seems you forgot to mention that this will have Ubuntu running on it, to the above user, NO WINDOWS, it is obsolete trash from the proprietary software era. This is the era of the free software society.
    Reply
  • tanjali
    Yes, but now seriously,

    Can it run Crysis?

    No?

    I though so.
    Reply
  • yobobjm
    I feel like having a phone hanging off of all your devices would look a little weird, I wish they could find a way to integrate it better.
    Reply
  • Onus
    I remember thinking this could be a very cool idea when Intel first described their "Medfield" processors. I'll be watching this one to see how it scales when each dock type is used.
    Reply
  • friskiest
    I'm sure this should be a good alternative to those who typically browse, watch and listens to music. But seriously,. I wouldn't bat an eye on it since doing multitasking is probably awful on this.
    Reply
  • kronos_cornelius
    Phone, ok, table, ok, TV/media center, ok, Desktop. wow, now you went to far.

    I suspect we may need to wait for Project Denver and ARM-64 before having the smartphone take over the PC. I favor Ubuntu as my desktop so it is not that far out for me in terms of OS.

    However, the electronics will become relatively cheap, and they in fact are kind of cheap right now, a $200 tablet is very cheap specially if you see the price of electronics over the years accounting for inflation. So it is more likely you'll see an ARM chip thrown on any future media device instead of trying to turn your cell phone into multiple devices.
    Reply
  • friskiest
    - I should have watched the video before posting

    I really don't understand the point on this one,. "dock your phone on the nex laptop to get full computer experience",. seriously,. just buy a Windows 7 laptop or pick up those upcoming Windows 8 laptops and get touch-screen, touchpad and keyboard if you really dig the touch screen.
    Reply