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Handheld General-Purpose PCs - Do They Exist?

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The Nokia N900 is the closest device I've seen to fulfilling this wish (or maybe the Oqo), but it's old hardware now.

I'd say Ubuntu on a Nexus phone would be your best bet.

Or chroot a debian install https://wiki.debian.org/ChrootOnAndroid

There's also the Motorola Atrix with its Ubuntu dock.
 
Rdmkr said:
there are some Intel x86 SoC phones out there that can theoretically run full windows*, but a full release of the drivers/firmware/source code is needed to make it happen.
Click to expand...

The Smartphone Intel platforms and Tablet Intel platforms are very different. Intel does a lot of work to enable smartphones on their platforms, so its not totally right to say they only do work on the chips they sell.

Lot is due to them wanting their platforms to be competitive. Smartphones need very different bootup systems(BIOS) and firmware so power use is optimized and costs low. Even though Merrifield seems to be largely based off Bay Trail, they probably even do fusing of certain circuitry functions not needed in non-Windows setups, or a seperate die altogether.

Best bet is expecting a manufacturer to put a Bay Trail-T in a 4-5 inch platform. Not sure if anyone will do that since the market must be pretty small.
 
You can probably add the new Lenovo Thinkpad 8 to the list of considerations. A business tablet that runs Windows 8.1 and is dockable.
 
All of those are still double the size he's looking for.

wpid-windows7hold.jpeg


The W3 is the exact dimensions he asked about 14cmX8cm
 
BrunoPuntzJones said:
All of those are still double the size he's looking for.
Click to expand...

That's right. But, right now, that's reality. In my experience as a road warrior, anything smaller than 8-in really has limited usefulness as a business working tool. Perhaps the Smartphone link to a work PC is the best current option. (Provided you doin't have to do any typing or data creation.) There's really not much work you can do on a 5.5-in x 3-in screen.
 
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Another idea might be to have a long distance miracast (/chromecast/airplay) connection with an actual desktop PC. Let the PC do the work and use the smartphone only as a display and input interface...

Now, I know casting a smartphone TO an external screen is possible, but I'm not sure about the reverse. Technically there shouldn't be anything preventing you from doing it. Although the input lag would likely be pretty bad.
 
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the RDM+ app for android and IOS lets you control your desktop PC from your smartphone through a (wireless) LAN connection.

it may be possible to access the LAN through a 3G/4G data connection somehow. that would give you a desktop PC's functionality no matter where you are as long as you keep your home PC turned on.

using the touchscreen to simulate a mouse is surprisingly convenient on this app. I did run into some problems with the android keyboards not having CTRL, ESC, ALT, keys etc. you probably need a specially tailored one for that.

as I expected though, the input lag is quite bad. any application where this matters is a no-go.
 
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