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Turn Your Android Phone Into a Laptop For $99 With the Superbook (techinsider.io)

Posted by EditorDavid on from the phoning-it-in dept.

An anonymous Slashdot reader writes: A company called Andromium is attempting to harness the processing power of your Android smartphone and turn it into a full fledged computer. The 'Superbook' consists of a 11.6-inch laptop shell, which you connect to your phone via a USB Micro-B or Type-C cable, and run the Andromium OS application (currently in beta, but available in the Play Store)... The leader of the project and Company co-founder Gordon Zheng, previously worked at Google and pitched the idea to them... They refused so he quit his job and founded Andromium Inc.

In December 2014 the company had introduced their first product which was a dock which used the MHL standard to output to external monitor. That campaign failed, however their newest creation, the Superbook smashed their Kickstarter goal in just over 20 minutes.
And within their first 38 hours, they'd crowdfunded $500,000. In an intriguing side note, Andromium "says it'll open its SDK so developers can tailor their apps for Andromium, too, though how much support that gets remains to be seen," reports Tech Insider. But more importantly, "Andromium says its prototypes are finished, and that it hopes to ship the Superbook to backers by February 2017."

9 of 126 comments (clear)

  1. What do you gain from this? by ArtemaOne · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Is there any reason to have highly customized hardware, which inevitably drives up the price in comparison to similarly capable products, rather than just using, say, a Chrombook? The integration seems more like a reliance when all the relevant information can simply be synched anyway.

    1. Re:What do you gain from this? by NotInHere · · Score: 4, Interesting

      The theory I think is that you "upgrade" your phone every 1-2 years, but don't do the same for your laptop. They now want your "laptop" performance to improve with the phone upgrade as well.

      Probably the most interesting part of their plan is the $99 device, its very cheap and includes everything you need. Most likely it also has a processor on board, and that processor needs to be capable enough to send the app data over the cable. It seems the app communicates over the chromecast protocol, so the processor needs to be powerful enough to decode the video codec in real time. If it can be bought independently, its probably very nice as a throw-away laptop, or for schools.

    2. Re:What do you gain from this? by bloodhawk · · Score: 4, Interesting

      The only problem with that is my laptop that is around 7 years old is still massively more powerful than the best modern smartphone, hell even my 10 year old one would be preferrable. why would I want such restrictive performance of a phone without the form factor benefits?

  2. A bad feeling by fnj · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I have a feeling at that price the display is going to be a joke. What would be the point of connecting a 2560x1440 phone to a 800x480, or even a 1280x800 display?

  3. Not bad idea... by future+assassin · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Quick fix for cracked screen phones which seems to happen to me with every phone. Now make it a touch screen too.so the phone can act a a big tablet.

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    by TheSpoom (715771) Uncaring Linux user here. I have nothing to add to this but please continue. *munches popcorn*
  4. Atrix by Tailhook · · Score: 3, Informative

    Motorola did this five years ago with ATRIX. Didn't catch on then, but I though it was interesting at the time.

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    Maw! Fire up the karma burner!
    1. Re:Atrix by evilviper · · Score: 3, Informative

      I'd like to see this with bluetooth instead of a dock so you can just leave the phone in your pocket. Not sure if the bandwidth would work though.

      One of the big things the Lapdock provided was POWER to the phone... Can't get that if you leave your phone in your pocket.

      And no, bluetooth doesn't provide remotely enough speed for screen updates... WiFi is faster, but still not realistically fast enough, and you'd have to lose your internet connectivity to use it that way. Not to mention your phone would be consuming a lot of power just to refresh the screen, instead of doing any useful work.

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      Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
  5. Done, and Done, and yawn. by thesupraman · · Score: 4, Informative

    More to the point, I hope he has called ASUS and told them he is coping an idea they have put out several times over the years, each of which was a sales flop.
    Mind you, after they tried it is 2012, and 2014, perhaps being 2016 makes it 'new' somehow.

    2012, Asus padfone
    2014, Asus transformer book

    http://www.wired.com/2012/02/meet-the-asus-padfone-the-phone-thats-a-tablet-thats-a-notebook/
    https://www.engadget.com/2014/06/02/asus-transformer-book-v-hands-on-video/

    but yeah, go crowdfunding!

  6. Re:You are missing the potential benefit: by Aighearach · · Score: 3, Insightful

    That could be a huge win for those of us who no longer trust x86

    What is that supposed to mean? The words look like normal words, but it makes no sense. You stopped trusting a CPU command set? What?