My EDC ultra-portable laptop

In my previous EDC post I wrote a pocket dump. In this post I am going to start talking about what is in my EDC bag, starting with my ultra-portable laptop. I spent a lot of time researching a small, lightweight, ultra-portable laptop and the best option I kept coming back to is my Samsung S10e with a lapdock in Dex-mode.

Evaluating what work I do remotely

I get that this is not a solution for everyone. Some people do actually do intensive work consistently enough that they need a powerful laptop everywhere they go. Yet, most people spend all their time in email, video calls, and the browser and still over-buy a laptop.

Before I even started shopping I wrote up a list of what my normal workday looks like. I then segmented that list to the things I would do remotely versus what I do when sitting at my desk. My remote list was simple:

• View business files.
• Basic editing of spreadsheets and documents.
• Email.
• Extensive web browser use.
• Message my business partner through our chat app.

Once I had my task list, I wrote down my hardware requirements. For actual compute hardware, my tasks are so basic I could use literally any laptop. I don’t need a bunch of RAM or a dedicated GPU.

Other hardware requirements:

• Long battery life. I work on jobsites from my truck. I need it to last all day without charging.
• Charge from my truck or a battery bank. I know I won’t have access to a standard outlet, so I need to be able to charge it from the 12v port in my truck while driving or from a battery bank while I do my contracting work.
• Cellular data connection. I almost never have access to wifi while on jobsites. I prefer having this built into the device.
• Small form factor and ultra lightweight. This is my everyday carry and needed to fit neatly in my backpack without making my bag impossible to carry. It also needs to small so I can work from a tray I hang from the steering wheel.

Budget

All of the stuff listed above is important and the features are required for me to get work done. However, I have a strict budget. I have never spent more than $400 on any tech device. At the bottom I’ll detail why I think those days are over, but the budget of this setup is the most important factor.

I am a self-employed landscape contractor with 4 kids. We live under the poverty line for our state and I don’t have extra money. Therefore, I can’t take chances or buy things just because they are interesting.

Every device I own needs to be multi-purpose. I can’t spend $800 on a phone and $600 on just a laptop, especially one that is just for my bag and occasional couch use.

My budget absolutely had to be under $400.

Why not an Android tablet?

The only device that checked all the boxes was either using a tablet or my phone as my laptop. I had toyed around with the idea of using the tablet I had at the time (a Samsung Tab S5e) as my every day carry. But, it was missing a few things for quality of life.

First, it doesn’t have a data connection. I’d have to turn on the hotspot on my phone, which isn’t a huge problem, but I don’t want to have to use two devices when one can do the job. Second, I didn’t want to manage yet another device. With my desktop PC, phone, and homelab, I have enough to manage. This doesn’t include all of the other computers I support inside our house. Adding a laptop or tablet to my carry was just another device I need to maintain.

Finally, I chose against the tablet was not having a hinged keyboard. This one sounds funny, but turned out to be a crucial feature. I have used the S5e as a laptop-like device and I found (after much searching) a bluetooth keyboard with a touchpad. I didn’t like it. The keyboard has a cutout where the tablet sits and can only sit at one angle. I found myself constantly fighting with it to get into the right angle.

This is when I learned about lapdocks. These are clamshell devices with a screen, keyboard, and touchpad, with a battery. It is essentially a laptop without the PC inside. It makes it so you can connect any device to it and use as a monitor and peripherals. Designed for Samsung Dex and similar desktops, I saw the opportunity based on my workflow.

Why not a laptop?

Well, for a few reasons already listed above. One, most don’t have data connections and I can’t afford to pay for an additional data plan. Two, it is yet another device I need to manage. Three, the cost. Since I’m looking for something ultra-portable, the cost of a new(ish) laptop would be quite far out of my budget. Ultrabooks are at least $600 and go up quickly.

The mobile charging is a key feature for me, too. Not only does it need all day battery life, but if I need some extra juice it needs to be able to charge from my 12v car outlet or a battery bank. I know inverters exist and there are some high-end (think expensive) battery banks. However, low power charging has a lot of personal use attached. We get power outages and I want my laptop to be able to easily charge from anything. This is also part of my EDC bag, which is in addition my get home bag (AKA bug-out bag). I don’t want to be carrying around a 5 lbs. laptop that needs 180-watts to charge with a custom brick.

This is why I wish there were good options for ARM laptops and why some Chromebooks have caught my attention lately.

What I chose

Looking at my requirements I decided to go with my phone in desktop mode with a lapdock.

1. It is ultra-portable.
2. It can charge from the 12v outlet in my truck. In fact, I can fast charge it.
3. The battery life is great. I can get a full day of use as my phone and a laptop on a single charge.
4. It has a built-in data connection.
5. I already know I can get work done from it as it has my email client and a web browser, plus the other apps I need for running my business.

Build list

After spending way too much time reading about my options, I created parts list for my setup.

1. My Galaxy S10e. I obviously already have this.
2. A Uperfect X Mini lapdock. I read about a lot of lapdocks and size was a key feature for me. I wanted a netbook sized lapdock and the X Mini fit the bill at 11.6" screen size.
3. A USB-C by USB-C with one side right angle cable. This is so I can connect my phone to the lapdock. It is only 6-inches long so I can keep the setup simple.
4. This magnetic phone mount so I can hang my phone from the side of the screen of the lapdock.

In total this setup cost (minus the phone) $230 at the time I bought it almost 2 years ago. Here’s what the setup looks like.

This setup works perfectly for me

When in Samsung Dex-mode I can use the existing apps on my phone in floating windows in a traditional desktop PC experience. Dex works great and I use it all the time. Most days all I need to do is review my notes in Obsidian, read and send emails, look through work documents, and do various tasks in the browser.

Since the lapdock has a battery, my phone actually charges while using it rather than wearing the battery down. This is why I hardly notice I use it for my laptop in addition to being my phone, it costs me no extra battery life.

With the built-in data connection and the configuration of my setup I can get it setup and working fast, which reduces a barrier as I’m often working from the hood of my truck while standing on a jobsite.

Leveraging my homelab

This is another “not for everyone” part of the setup. I am an avid homelabber and I have added browser-based solutions to my homelab to assist in using my phone as a laptop. I have been working on a work from anywhere setup using my homelab to make virtually everything browser-based.

To use these services remotely I use Tailscale. I have Tailscale setup to use my home as my exit node and to allow LAN subnet routing. Doing this allows me to access my homelab infrastructure without exposing any of it outside my LAN.

How I’m using my homelab with an ultraportable:

• Samba shares for bulk storage and direct access to files so I don’t have to store them on my device.
• Dufs server ontop of the files so I can also access them from the browser instead of mounting samba.
• KASM-based Libreoffice editor in the browser with remote files mounted so I can view and edit in any browser with a full desktop office suite.
• PiHole accessible with subnet routing to block ads when I’m connected to any network.

Lapdock fringe benefits

Now that I have the lapdock, I find all kinds of other uses for it. I have used it often to view the console on my server, when setting up a Raspberry Pi, or adding a temporary second monitor to any other PC I’m working on at the time. I’ve been playing around with an old Microsoft Surface RT and I’ll use the lapdock connected to the Surface RT while also using my desktop to research projects.

I honestly love this little lapdock and even if I stop using my phone as a laptop replacement I’ll always have a lapdock around.

Full desktops

After I committed to using my phone as my everyday carry laptop, I also discovered the world of proot desktops. I was already accustomed to using Termux as a terminal emulator on Android for doing occasional server tasks. After spending more time with Termux I found out just how powerful it is.

I now run two additional desktops on my phone when connected to the lapdock. One is a full Debian XFCE desktop with most of the apps I use regularly on my regular desktop PC. I use this when I need additional tools for my tasks, mostly when working with my homelab. I’ve written about this a bunch, with the most recent about managing virtual machines using virt-manager on my phone in a Debian proot environment. This is also where I go when I want access to an office suite while offline since I can install the full version of Libreoffice.

The second desktop is a Termux XFCE configuration. This is a XFCE desktop, but with software from the Termux repos. I will go into this setup mostly when I want to use a desktop web browser instead of the mobile version in Dex-mode.

I find myself more and more just using the Termux XFCE desktop for everything. Comparing the two, the Termux desktop is a lot faster than the Debian instance since there is less translation that needs to happen. The Termux repos have much of what I want, including syncing files with Syncthing, Firefox ESR, and a terminal emulator with nearly all my preferred command line applications. It makes me feel like I’m working at my desk. I wrote recently about using yazi, glow, and helix for viewing and editing my notes. I can do this in the Termux proot desktop from my phone.

Papercuts

Not everything is perfect. These are some of the issues I encounter:

• The touchpad on the lapdock is not great. It is small, which is to be expected on a 11.6" laptop configuration. It also lacks palm rejection which is the most troublesome. Most of the time I turn off the touchpad and just use the touchscreen on the lapdock.
• No USB-C charging. This doesn’t bother me that much, but it does mean I have to carry around the barrel jack charger.
• Some apps in Dex-mode are just the mobile app stretched to fit the screen. I wish there were more Android apps that had tablet modes so they scaled better.

The future

I truly enjoy this setup and I don’t want to move away from it. However, with Samsung going all-in on A.I. features, I am less and less inclined to get another Samsung device. It is how I feel about getting a Pixel device, too. That means there are fewer and fewer Android devices I am actually interested in picking up.

There are also fewer and fewer devices that have DisplayPort Alt Mode, which is mandatory for using my phone as a laptop. The Galaxy line from Samsung (minus the FE devices), a few devices from Motorola, and a couple Pixel devices have it, plus some Sony Xperia devices and the ZTE Red Magic gaming phones. The options are limited and essentially non-existent if you also want a SD card slot.

With my phone EOL it has lead me to researching my options. Android phones are losing a lot of their appeal for me since they are removing hardware options like SD card slots and Display Port Alt Mode. Additionally, phones are becoming more and more expensive. There is no way I can justify spending $1,000 on a phone unless it is also my laptop.

For the same reasons above, an Android tablet won’t cut it either. In addition to the reasons listed for not wanting a new Android phone, good tablets are soul-crushing expensive. Why spend over $1,000 on an Android tablet? For that money I can get a decent midrange phone plus a laptop with a few accessories.

The only device that has caught my eye is the Sony Xperia 1 VI. It has all the hardware features I want with limited A.I.. At the moment it is too expensive and I am watching for sales to see just how low it will get this holiday season.

Otherwise I think I’m in the market for a 12-inch or smaller ultraportable netbook that is in the 12v, 3A charging range. There are some options, yet not many at the price point I’m looking for when combined with a new phone. The one laptop I am considering is the Chuwi Minibook X, although the reviews of their customer support is suspect at best. I am also considering Microsoft Surface or Surface-like detachables. The one I wish I could afford is the Starlabs StarLite. Another device I am fascinated by is the Lenovo Chromebook Duet line of detachables. It can run Android and Linux apps, which is pretty much what I would do on an Android tablet for significantly cheaper that also includes DisplayPort Alt Mode. Honestly, I don’t know how you beat one of these devices for the price.

The more I think about it the more I realize that maybe up to $800 on a phone that is also my laptop isn’t ridiculous. I am, however, very poor, and these are just pipe dreams.

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