Thanks for the review, looks pretty good. Just FYI, I believe the first device of this kind was the Motorola Lapdock (there were a couple of different models). They were designed as a dock for smartphones, but people have used them with Raspberry Pis in the past.
Coming up with some kind of SBC cartridge standard with a formfactor like the zero would be nice. Then just slot in your new computer module when you upgrade.
Compute Module is pretty standard, but traditionally there have been too many competing low-volume products in the SPC / embedded systems space to justify any alliances with cross-manufacturr standards. :\ Maybe the time is now.
This should be integrated into an actual laptop. Having HDMI in (and being able to use your keyboard and trackpad to an external device via USB OTG) should be integrated into an IBM ThinkPad laptop. USB OTG even allows creating a virtual USB stick (hosted on a shared folder or ISO on your laptop). That kind of laptop would be VERY useful for single-board computer hobbyists/developers, and IT system administrators.
@@alexstone691 HDMI IN doesn't have to be implemented with an expensive capture device. You could directly wire it to the laptop screen and just have an input selector switch. This should be very cheap to do, but is still very useful.
ab-so-lute-ly, I still don't understand why it's not a thing, imagine using an old laptop as a screen for a headless homemade server, it would be perfect!
I'm building my own, using an old Vaio. It's mostly for my Samsung S9+ since it works in DeX mode, but I'm planning on having an HDMI switch so I can connect a Raspi on it.
I do agree. The turn of time when lost data is a problem. The mouse pad is not as good as it could be. The surface isn't that good. Had no problem with the USB, but I have not used it that much. It would be nice if the device could warn the device about baterie levels. Grate screen though. I have the previous one, and think this is better. And the RPi cable is great.
Make a little docking station for that bad boy, that'll be hot. A slot for the pi to sit in or another portable device. Not bad seeing a useful review though instead of the same crap others upload because 100 other youtubers did. Also, I like that you kept it real by being honest and told us some bad things instead of how "awesome and rad" this is.
My Motorola Lapdock is still doing pretty well, but I have only ever used it with my Pi Zero. I know the Pi 4 would be far too demanding on power consumption for the Lapdock to handle it, though.
Looks pretty cool. I hope people with Android devices looking at this know that not all Android phones can do display out, though... Also, I love that teeny tiny Hyper 212 look-a-like cooler, that's adorable
I backed the NexDock 1, and rarely use it since the BT connection is, as you said, really annoying to work with. Also I totally forgot the keyboard would be US configuration which makes it annoying for me who is used to a UK setup. Finally the power supply they provided didn't feel safe to me, so that was replaced. They defiantly seem to have made improvements on this version, and I'd be tempted again, but unfortunately the US keyboard would still make it a no go for me.
Only makes sense to pair Nexdock with a compatible phone for mobility instead of an SBC. Also, the laptop gets an upgrade every time you change your phone.
look up mrp on youtube he has tons of video with samsung dex connecting to nexdock.. samsung dex is the best.. im typing off my 15 inch monitor connected to blue tooth mouse and key board with samsung galaxy s10e..
This is the future of laptops. we've been able to build PCs forever, now that's possible for laptops, and they're way more versatile than any x86 laptop you can buy today, and almost limitlessly expandable and upgradeable, until the connections it uses are not used anymore, which will be a looooooooong time for USB. And when Apple starts using ARM chips in their laptops (which looks likely to happen soon) ARM app support will skyrocket. I'm excited, I'll definitely buy one for my RasPi 4, but I'll wait for the touchscreen version.I'd also love to see a version that uses the Raspberry Pi compute module internally (which uses the same DDR2 SODIMM connectors found in laptops), and then hopefully other SBC manufacturers will make compute module versions of their boards.
They have all of that extra space inside. Why doesn’t it have a 100Wh battery? Mostly because it’s larger, but it’s also the largest battery you can bring on a plane.
Im thinking about a nextdock and a pi4 as a laptop replacement. I gave my laptop to my sister since I hardly use it. I figure if im not going to use a laptop that often I want something where I dont care if the hardware goes out of date.
I've been saying for YEARS that the future of portable computing would be something like this, although In my head I had it combined with those sort of "laptop dock" things. You have your phone, which has this amazing processor in it, so you just plug your phone into a processorless laptop thing, maybe have a dock with a graphics card or extra RAM or an optical drive. Just have one device that can be a phone, or a laptop, or a desktop replacement.
I think you might be onto something there. A lot of people I know don't need anything more than their phone. They could use the "dock" for the few times they need to write long documents or for convince, but 90+% of their daily lives could be done on the phone.
The pi-top looks amazing, but they haven't brought one out for the Raspberry Pi 4 yet. I'm thinking of buying a RPi and one of the laptop kits as a cheap alternative to a laptop (as you can get a 8GB RAM system for way less than a laptop would cost)
Wouldn’t it be cool to see a future where a portable computer were 4 components? Display, Keyboard+Mouse/Trackpad, Battery, and Compute would all be separate and highly interchangeable.
@@cocoshort6528 Yeah, a different, smaller computer would work, i mean, they did make a gameboy mini that's about the same size as the altoids smalls container, so.....
What is it with these tight USB ports these days. Feels like every other device from China has this issue (in my case the GPD Micro PC and a no-name power bank I recently got)
Hey, an idea, how about you make an emulator, like a gameboy, but with the bottom part of the ds lite, it can run gameboy advance, snes, etc, but everything is inside the bottom part of a ds lite :)
I have a motile which I did a video for which will be up soon and the usb ports on there are tight as well. Every time I pull a cord I have to use great force and because the laptop is really light it will pull. Make me cringe since it is a metal laptop and I worried about scratches at the bottom of the laptop!
I can get a decent thinkpad used for around 150$ which is probably 10x more powerful than a raspberry pi. Why would I get something like this instead? Considering that I would use the Pi for emulation etc.
I want one, but I was wondering, why to you have to plug both ends of the spliter to the Pi (the type C for power yes, but the type A ?) Can you go type C to type C and keep the 2 type A from the Pi free ?
When I connect my Note 10 Plus to the NexDock 2, Dex does not open. Dex worked the very first time that I connected my phone. But not since. Any ideas????????????
I won't even consider the NexDock 2, because the NexDock 1 was inexcusably terrible in easily avoidable ways, to the point where I'd say backers got screwed. The worst part is the touchpad that randomly clicks on things. You so much as breathe on it while typing, it clicks. If they had at least disabled tapping, then the most it could do is harmlessly wiggle the cursor. It's not even logically a touchpad, it's a pretendtobeamouse-pad.
It is *not* meant to be a laptop replacement, it’s meant to be a portable screen/keyboard/mouse/battery for the types of uses I showed. If those uses don’t excite you then yes a laptop makes a lot more sense for you. :)
If all you want to do with it is chromebook-type things then sure, that makes a lot more sense. This is more aimed at people who want a portable monitor/keyboard/mouse setup with a battery, to make things like the Raspberry Pi portable. :)
@@wermy well I can see how useful it can be, I just compared the benchmark of a $899 HP probook 11 with a Samsung Galaxy Note 9 and the Galaxy scores higher on multi-core. So it'd be cheaper to buy a NexDock. I also like to have the ability to connect my pi's. Thanks for the video, it was very informative.
This thing is only good as a Dock for your SBCs, other kinds of testing or software developing. Due to its seriously BAD speakers, it can't be used as a laptop, tablet replacement or media device in general. That's a lesson NOT learnt by the Nexdock team. They featured the worst speakers in the world with the first Nexdock and back then they reassured us, that version 2 would come with high quality speakers in the future. Well nexdock 2 has now landed but the speakers remain dreadful. So think twice before you buy this. Consider how you are going to use it and set your expectations accordingly. It's not dead cheap after all. A big big shame and the last Nexdock I ever buy.
