Your Phone COULD Be Your Laptop! NexDock XL Review!
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 16 ต.ค. 2024
- TEAM SGG PATREON / somegadgetguy NexDock XL review! It's the BIG one! A portable monitor is one of the BEST accessories you can invest in for ALL your other gadgets and computers. My favorite flavor of the portable monitor is the LapDock. Combining a screen, keyboard, track pad, battery, and ports into one convenient travel shell.
It LOOKS like a laptop, but it's a dock! The NexDock XL brings a bigger screen to the party, but thankfully the price isn't any bigger!
Let's take a look!
More info on the NexDock XL nexdock.com/ne...
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3:35 so nice to see that a youtuber is still calling this out ❤️
Pro phones not having a removable storage and headphone jack is stupid. I wish more people understood that it was a ploy to sell more battery powered e waste which cannot be repaired and you lay for manufacturers cloud storage or the comoany to uogradr storage.
Don't forget smartphone brands' attempt to lure us into their ecosystem.
@@farishanafiah8461 exactly
They got rid of headphone jacks to put square out of business
Yet there are "techies" out there who keep saying that headphone jack and microSD card slot are "outdated". God knows how much I cringed from reading such nonsense!
@@FAT8893 nice to know there are people like you out there. I wish it was atleast a bit of meat to our numbers so that companies would care.
Mate even budget £200-300 phones have stopped supplying SD cards and headphone jack
Couldn't agree more I have been looking for something like since razer project Linder 6 years ago.
I tried about 6 months ago, using a $120 portable 16" monitor with my Samsung S23 and DeX. The monitor could connect to my phone, only, without any additional power. However, I needed a powerbank after about 90 mins of use. The monitor has a pass thru so it was fine. Combined with a foldable keyboard and mouse and DeX was perfectly usable for about 80% of my use cases. One drawback was that mobile versions Microsoft Office apps are missing quite a few features compared to desktop. There is also no VS Code for Android, which was a pain. Lastly, it was awkward sometimes to have to pull out the accessories; display cable, keyboard, mouse, powerbank, especially if you're at a small cafe with tiny tables.
It's the joy of a proper lapdock. Just open the lid and plug in a cable. Done.
Wish there would be advanced development software available on Android. I would love to be able to use just my phone for everything.
Have you tried WPS office for Android? It's not bad and can change it's appearance in regular phone and docked modes too.
I appreciate you pointing out the spec changes but yiu forgot to mention the biggest change was the loss of the 120Hz screen they originally promised us. Not just the bigger battery. I was going to happily pay that extra $50 for the 120Hz screen and extra battery capacity. I still have not had any contact from Nexdock about the changes to my preorder unfortunately.
I am going to pick this up in a couple months. Ive beem rocking my Moto g100 + Nexdock for 3 years now as my primary personal computer. Literally does everything I need including stuff for slicing 3d print files, video editing and gaming via cloud... On a phone that was released out side of the US in March 2021. It takes a bit to get the workflow eet up, but once you have it, there is no reason to go back. Frankly, think of all the money and ewaste that could be avoided if companies issued thier employees a Samsung or Motorola phone, and then gave them a powered usb hub and a virtual desktop log in.
It drives me crazy this isn't taken more seriously. Especially on decently powerful midranger phones in areas where people cant afford multiple computers. The last proper try at that was the LG Velvet 😓
Great points. My 10 year old gaming laptop still works fine but with no hardware based encoding or decoding of the latest it struggles. I'm yet to get a dock but do use the Edge 30 Ultra on the TV with BT keyboard. The Snap 8+ Gen 1 and 12gb makes it plenty snappy and destroys the laptop in anything, 4k editing and encoding is decent etc.
The main frustration is software limitations, a decent vector imagine program and image editing software with layers etc don't seem to exist?
I've not been able to get pinch zoom working via Logitech keyboard with track pad. Does it work with other BT track pads? If I can get some of these things sorted and move external drives to exFAT (come on Android NTFS is very common 🤦♂️) it can do most things.
@@SomeGadgetGuyNow we have Motorola Edge 50 Pro, but even that missed out both headphone jack and microSD card slot. It's crazy to think that there are still no direct spiritual successor to the LG Velvet 5G. I can kinda sacrifice the detachable dual display screen and stylus support, but no headphone jack and microSD card slot? No, not a single chance.
I love that commentary at the end about "what type of laptop can you buy for $300 that you can have this level of performance with". People are so narrow-minded when it comes to tech and it really bothers me because there are a lot of people who would thrive with this type of purchase and it would not hurt their Bank.
"nu-UH!
uH fOne cAnt beEt uh $2500 gaMe lapTop!!!"
Every $300 laptop I found, be it new or secondhand, all have low or outdated specs. It just doesn't make sense to get those, especially when it's not hard to get a secondhand $300 flagship smartphone with far more capable computing power.
I agree. I bought these in the past for my Samsung phone, but now that my Steam deck's screen has died, I can leverage this and use it for my Samsung tablet for a portable second screen.
However, OUTSIDE the US, it costs more to import these (exchange rate + shipping) so this is competing with 4-500 dollar laptops in places like Japan, for example.
I totally get your point and agree with your point about the phone upgrading the laptop every cycle. However my own little geeky hobby is how little tech I can buy to do what I need to do for personal computing (my employer gives me a computer I do my work on). So when the Chromebook comment came up I realized, no lie, I watched this video on a $179 Chromebook I bought in 2020 right as the pandemic started. I can'r help it, I've always been that person that when people say "Who does that?" I quietly raise my hand and say "I do" 🙂
It's the way to be! 😁
I've been getting frustrated with the streaming options, not working on desktop modes lately. Xfinity, Netflix, etc. they let you cast but if you use a wired version of dex or video output through a USBC hub or something? They automatically break the functionality. It's frustrating. If I'm paying for Netflix and I have a piece of hardware and an external monitor I don't see why they can't let me watch something.
Anyway, it's not the hugest issue in the world, but it's one downside trying to turn a phone into a laptop I suppose.
Man. Streamers are actively working to make sure I dont give them anymore money. You know what works great on my lapdock. Plex. Plex is rad.
Have had to kludge workarounds for Disney+, but it has gotten so frustrating that I've given up and I just watch pirate streams, instead.
Do better guys.
Now that Windows in arm is in a more useable state, we need phones to be able to dual boot natively. Something like bootcamp on Mac. As the translation layers improve, it can only get better IMO.
I know you can use this lapdock with any PC, be it desktop or laptop or even gaming handheld, but I always love seeing you keep bringing up the point of getting the most of smartphone's chipset power. Current flagship mobile SoC are more than overkill for most average consumers who only do web and social media web browsing.
At this point, what we should be see is a convergance of Android and ChromeOS. There's absolutely no point not to have ChromeOS on smartphones, especially since we already have ARM-powered Chromebooks before.
I abandoned this form factor after getting my XREAL air 2 Pro. I now bring the Xreal and my UMPC and power anything from a small bag.
It's exciting to see options for portable monitors right. A face display is the more exotic version of this idea, but it's REALLY flipping cool. Now if only more phones would add desktop modes...
@@SomeGadgetGuy yeah, managing with LG V60's desktop mode, and forced mode with my Xperia 1ii, but each have weakness, the LG white border around the windows (bad for oled) the sony the screen turned off when I switch the phone off.
I have been looking for something like this since the Motorola lapdocks. This is even better as its "agnostic" ... not restricted to just one device. Instead of having to replace your phone, PC and tablet every few years as OSs change, you just replace your phone and keep using the lapdock as PC and tablet. More $$ left in my pocket, and less junk left in landfills.
Well said. Glad to see someone like you truly understand the point of lapdocks.
I'm looking forward to getting mine!
As much as I've always been a huge sucker for lapdocks, I'm still not sure about this one. Having built-in wireless charging might sounds great, but I'm happy to trade it for more keyboard keys, including Numpad, and bigger trackpad. I believed UPERFEFCT made a 15.6" lapdock in a 360 convertible laptop shell before, and I think I can say that it's still the only lapdock ever existed with Numpad keys. I have no idea why UPERFECT ceased the production of that particular lapdock model.
I decided to check Uperfect's website, and guess what? They sell a new 15.6" lapdock that looks suspiciously identical to the NexDock XL. The one with a detachable screen that Juan has reviewed before? That's no more. If you never bought it, you're pretty much out of luck.
@@farishanafiah8461 Ahhh, that's a huge bummer. I love the old X Pro lapdock because I can detach the keyboard when I don't need it. Of course, you can get any standalone portable monitor, but then I have to buy a separate Bluetooth keyboard and charge it up separately, which defeats the purpose of lapdocks.
I think if we cut all the wireless gimmicks, it would probably be easier to add something like an OLED...
Been working with a monitor, mouse and keyboard on my phone over the past two years. I've only ever had to return to a laptop once in that time, while arranging a slideshow in Libreoffice (no good free alternative on mobile, Google Slides is a bit clunky), and even then, I converted it to video and added music and transitions on the mobile.
I wasn't convinced to spend on a dock back then, but at $299... this is actually reasonable. I've got a $100 monitor, a $50 keyboard, a $25 mouse, a $50 USB-C dock. To match the NexDock, I'd have to add a $50 wireless powerbank to that. And the NexDock takes up less bag space.
Well said. That's why gadgets like this need to go mainstream. This is a great substitute for those living in a small space where it's impossible to have a huge PC monitor.
@@farishanafiah8461 yeah. And I travel with this setup. The rationale being that it is much less painful to lose or break a $100 monitor or $300 dock than a $1000 laptop.
Big love Juan. I hope you feel a bit better soon. All the best to you & the family. Kindest regards, Richard U.K
Thank you!
Review on a practical use of it in comparison to a laptop will be great.👍🏾👍🏾
Really wish the screen refresh rate was at least 120hz
We're starting to get more OLED and HRR options in portable monitors, so I hope the next gen of lapdocks improves there too.
@@SomeGadgetGuy for me, that's what holds the nexdock back. You can find oleds or hrr portables for the same and sometimes less than what the nexdock goes for.
This is so nice! I could get MORE use out of my phones and leave my heavy MacBook Pro at home.
It's REALLY fun to play with, and kind of liberating. Plus, when you DO carry the macbook, you'd also have a second screen for it.
@@SomeGadgetGuy I never thought of that...👍
👍
Hope you feel better ASAP Juan. I'm really interested in a device like this and hope to use it with my Pixel 8 Pro.
Reminds me of the well-ahead-of-its-time Motorola Atrix that was shown at CES 2011
Yup! The idea has been a good idea for a WHILE now, but it's only been in the last five years or so that we've really had the compute power.
Finally someones understands the real use case for this thing.
Juan has always been doing it for years. It's just that you'd never see this kind of gadget being reviewed by popular sellout channels.
Gonna buy the new GP9pro. Haven’t had a android phone for 4 years so stoked to get the nexdock
I dont think a Pixel will work wirelessly, but it should support video out over USBC. I prefer going cabled, but it is worth pointing out that Google doesn't include miracast support.
@@SomeGadgetGuy yeah I’m not a wireless guy either. I just hope the desktop experience lives up to the old windows phone days haha that’s the last time I used this feature.
Fingers crossed Android 15 brings some polish!
I am thinking of picking one up for my iPad. One i have two iPad (work and personal). Magic Keyboard for each costs around $300 and i have to buy a separate one for each. And this comes with an additional screen and battery. But i might get one of the older ones, i don’t care for the charger or wireless capabilities.
I was encouraged to see that the trackpad works with your Moto device there. Does the touchscreen and keyboard work too? All three of those are a fail with my NexDock Touch, as we discussed when you came onto our PSC podcast a while back.
It does. The funky thing is tho, Moto doesn't always like being charged. Have you tried turning off charging?
@@SomeGadgetGuy No, none of the Function keys work at all to do anything. And of course, as soon as I plug in a Samsung phone, it all works perfectly. Including turning off the charging with Fn-F11. So annoying! I want to use Moto! 😞
What stoped me was not being able to turn off miracast. Im tired of companies making things on by default and not giving the user the choice.
"lean" is a generous description for the speakers. I have the 360 and really like this product category but the sound is all but worthless. They REALLY need to put decent drivers in this thing and hype the Bluetooth speaker as another thing you don't have to put in your bag because the dock can now do that too.
I keep telling folks, if we stopped pretending wireless was more "convenient" we could get better audio, better charging, and OLED versions of this concept.
Most of the issues I've had with previously released products like this have been fixed (line attaching the phone to the front of the device). However, as they seem to be based in the US, the price for global shipping, plus the exchange rate, makes this the same price as some cheaper laptop PCs. This needs to be globally available at around 2-300 dollars (locally, if you get my drift).
No youre absolutely right, but it's the difficulty of bringing a new product to market. You work out regional distribution in one location, hopefully build on that, and then you can afford to bring it to more markets. Unfortunately, as useful as this class of product is, it's still firmly in that "niche/kickstarter" tier.
It's disappointing that new accessories only seem to find consumer adoption if there's a metric ton of advertising behind the product from a major manufacturer.
I've been a NexDock user for years (their original). I've been using a Windows 7" handeld and it's definitely nice to use it with the NexDock when im on the go, but I used to use the lapdock with a Surface Pro 8 and that was really cool.
Now I only hope for one day for Microsoft phones to come back and a Windows on Arm device with PCIe/Thunderbolt so I can dock it with the NexDock on the go, and at home with an eGPU station so I don't have to keep switching between devices while I use it as my daily driver... is this too much to ask?
Surface Pro connection? Appears to be a perfect companion.
Yup. I use mine with my Robo and Kala.
dang dude, I hope you get better soon! I sound the exact same way cause I have covid too but unfortunately don't have insurance coverage right now so couldn't get the anti-viral pills but I'll be okay. (just got married and moved so don't have a new job yet and have to wait to be added to my wife's insurance.)
SO sorry to hear that. The antivrials hit me HARD. I still kinda taste them DAYS later. Hope you're recovering well.
this would be cool with a single board computer velcro'd to the back of the lid. many more options today than just the raspberry pi, some even x86. now I wanna see someone try that out
I dont play with a lot of those, but I was happy to see how sticks (like chromecast) and those retro consoles (like the SNES mini) CAN work on this battery.
@@SomeGadgetGuy that’s also very cool
I want a better screen if I go this large. And I will pay for it too.
I wish we could cut all the wireless stuff and switch to an OLED.
Have you considered the uperfect laptop dock with it's 4k touch screen display that is similar to the dock in this video? I'm mainly interested in the uperfect 4k laptop dock since I have the sony xperia 1 iv android phone with it's 4k 120 hz oled. I'm interested in getting a laptop dock that also has a 4k display similar to my primary android phone.
so glad that the trackpad is on the side where it belongs. I've skipped buying any laptop ever, due to the trackpad being under the spacebar.
Only ASUS made such a configuration before with pre-2024 Zenbook Duo.
@@farishanafiah8461 acer predator 21x was another option, but I dont like 21:9 ratio
@@RarefiedError I really never heard of it. That is... intriguing.
Would be interesting to see latency test using ps5 remote play app or chiaki app or ps play app which are better for remote play. Should be good assuming the usb c isnt any cheap variant and is actually high data througput indeed. Id rather buy this lapdock then a galaxy tab ultra and keyboard. Still would prefer 4k and 120z but i mainly use remote play using ps play on my fold 3 and its super low latency as is .
Also using shadow pc would be an excellent way to use this lap dock. I think ill buy it. Thx for the review.
Very informative video on the NexDock XL. I'm looking for some help here. Will the XL work with a Raspberry PI 4/5?
It can easily work with it.
@@farishanafiah8461 Thanks, I put my order in. Folks at NexDock got back to me the next day. I appreciate it
If Google finally releases a proper desktop mode for Pixel I'll definitely pick one of these up. Was gonna buy a laptop but i really don't need one, this makes more sense and way more in my budget lol. Pls Google don't tease us with the video out update for nothing, drop that desktop mode!
We're LONG overdue a proper desktop mode in Android.
Yes sadly LG Mobile left the game...
is it possible to swap the battery on this device? or are you stuck with a device that once the battery dies you are pretty much screwed?
I've seen teardown of previous nexdocks, and I believe you could easily replace your battery. I have replaced batteries in a couple of laptops, and I feel the nexdock is not as complicated. Besides, it looks like screws are easily accessible.
Now, about buying the battery packs, I hope they use an already existing model. Otherwise, it's going to be a diy time.
I love this. I wish Linux Phones would take off. This setup could very much replace my laptop.
And by proxy replace my desktop, as currently my desktop is just docked laptop :D
Ikr, it's crazy to see how well PinePhone can easily run desktop Linux softwares in Desktop Mode despite the slow performance.
I think the problem with this review is that the usefulness of the product is heavily dependent on the device it's connected to. You can't really compare it to a standard Windows laptop by itself.
WHICH smartphone it is connected to and how well it handles multi-tasking has a huge bearing on whether this can work with your workflow. For example, I often have a bunch of Chrome tabs open copying information between them and an office document or have several office documents open at the same time coping information between them or from PDFs. Is the phone going to eject apps from memory often? Is it going to allow multiple different files in a single app to be open? A 7 year old midgrade laptop can do all that fine. The phone HARDWARE is perfectly capable, but it feels like they actively fight you doing stuff like that in the phone software. The last time I tried a Nextdock, the phone kept disconnecting or refusing to open desktop mode. It was dramatically less efficient than just using an old laptop (which is what I replaced it with). We need the phone makes to stop kneecapping their own phones with their own software.
That's the thing about lapdocks. It's not just limited to smartphones. You can even use it with your existing Windows desktop or laptop. Heck, you can even use it on macOS and Linux machines.
Ok, I'm curious about trying an small Linux distro on that microSD
Is the track pad still broken?
I don't have this phone, but i've been looking into the moto smart connect and how it works as I'm interested in getting one of the razr phones from them. Would this nexdock be possibly able to set up the required desktop app to assist the moto razr to allow for a wired connection?
As far as I know, only the 2022 RAZR supports wired Smart Connect. The rest of the RAZRs can only do wireless Smart Connect.
Hey Juan, what do you think about the idea of using the wireless charging coil as the means to transmit data, video and audio via inductive data transfer? You could just plunk your phone down and have it automatically sync to the lapdock (or docking station) with potentially the same bandwidth and latency as a wired USB4/Thunderbolt connection. The platform/holder could have a cheap and thin thermoelectric/Peltier cooler to prevent the coils from heating up.
Coil alignment would be even more critical, and I don't know if anyone has ever standardized an interface like that. We've had other USB experiments in the past, like Essentials magnetic pogo pin interface, and proprietary docks. I think the thing that would burn the idea is every company wanting to make it proprietary to THEIR devices and accessories.
@@SomeGadgetGuy Coil alignment would be easy with Qi2/MagSafe. It seems very little R&D has been done on inductive _data_ interfaces. However, there's a company called Knick Elektronische Messgeräte which designed an interface called "Memosens" for waterproof inductive power & data cables and it's really amazing. It's totally impossible to short out the cables underwater. This hypothetical inductive interface would be every bit as universal as Qi/Qi2 already is, so I don't think manufacturers would dare try to make it proprietary.
@@SomeGadgetGuy I also don't think it's quite fair to say that wireless charging is "a ton less efficient" than wired charging. I might have agreed with you if it was around 50% efficient or worse, but it's actually 78% efficient (at least without a case) which definitely isn't _terrible._
Is moto razr 40 ultra not able use this device for their ready for ?
does oneplus 12 have a desktop mode by itself?
Nope. Just the Google "desktop mode" in dev settings, which hasn't been functional since Android 10. REALLY hoping we see that improve on A15, but for now, screen mirroring is the way to go.
Nex is trying to gain Juan's approval with each new release
Personally I'm good with my NexDock 2 and 360. I didnt need ANY of the wireless nonsense. If we cut those costs, the lapdocks would be cheaper OR we could include fun things like OLEDs.
Do we know what the passthrough wattage is of the charger? I have a nextdock, but it limits to slow charging which is especially slow for my steam deck!
Still low. To properly charge a 45W computer, you wouldn't want something this inexpensive handling that kind of power.
Adding a touchscreen and pen support to this would make any samsung galaxy a powerhouse.
I'm still mad Samsung won't bring Dex to the galaxy a. Screen+ on the LG Velvet worked great. The people who REALLY need this, aren't the people buying $1000+ phones.
@@SomeGadgetGuy midrange chips nowadays are as powerful as sd 855 back then. if only samsung could bring dex to their midrange too - that would be great.
I also enjoyed screen+ on lg g8. Checking and editing google documents on the go with a bigger screen was a breeze.
I miss my umbilical cord too 😅
Yeah. But cutting your umbilical cord doesn't drop you to 30FPS (only if you keep perfect line of sight inches away from the dock) and drain your battery faster.
Contrast ratio?
In 2024 we need 1440p. 1080p doesn't cut it anymore 😂
As if most people can even tell the difference between 1080p and 1440p in the first place, even on smartphones. 🙃🙃
using Dex to run shadow pc is the way. You get a portable desktop computer.
Shadow looks like a cool service.
Needs to happen...
How does it work with Pixel phones?
Pixel phones don't have video out.
@@KennyLarsonactually they have added it to the pixel 8 and newer. Although I think you might need to be on that Android 15 beta to use it unless that's changed. But you're correct any pixel that predates. This has no video output whatsoever. I think they were using USB 2.0 back until the pixel 8.
@@michaelcorcoran8768All Pixel phones before, except for Pixel 3a and 3a XL, have USB3 port. It's just that Google deliberately disabled it for no valid reasons.
4:3 aspect ratio
120hz refresh rate
Better speakers
Fast speed charging + big battery
Anti microbial keyboard
Please 🙏
I just bought one and i like your reviews but im still kinda disappointed...
4:3 aspect ratio is asking too much since pretty much nobody uses it. 120Hz would be a great addition. I totally agree with better speakers, faster charging, and bigger battery.
Juan isn't this your second time getting COVID?
Nope. I had a BAD respiratory infection earlier in the year, but not covid. I was really proud of my no covid streak... 😓
@@SomeGadgetGuy I know the feeling
One issue with how badly designed this thing is it is the size and weight of a slim gaming laptop and the battery size is a joke . i like the idea but we need better engineers working on this. this is a pathetic effort .
Okay but have you considered how effeminate laptop docks are??? That's what I thought nerd.
I spent all night trying to "yes and" and came up completely dry. You stumped me on this one. 😅
Yes, but this one is a masculine charcoal grey. :)
None of these products will ever be successful without proper localization support. No, I'm not going to use a US keyboard, it's missing 9 letters from my alphabet. I have a laptop already that DOES have all the keys I need.
Note: only Apple, and certain PC manufacturers properly support my language. So no Surface ot any Chromebooks for me either.