I have seen devices just like this (keyboard, display, battery) on aliexpress.

https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256807367187700.html

https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256803000890517.html

And the 360 degree hinge is a big selling point for me! I'm glad i didn't pull the plug when i saw the KS go live last week. It's a great product but hard to justify spending more money for similar/worse functionality

Good point. In addition to being available right now, the Aliexpress version has a better battery (10000 mAh vs 5000 mAh on Kickstarter).

That second one seems to have a screen twice as high as the keyboard is deep, so when you fold it, the k/b only covers half the screen? That's just weird.

I'd like to see a short-wide-screen form-factor, where the folded device is just the size of the keyboard.

And a synaptic trackpoint as on thinkpads.

The kickstarter link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/elecrow/crowview-note-e...

This seems to have full support for Raspberry Pi.

- Type-C port supports 5V/5A PD (Pi does not comply with PD specs)

- keyboard and trackpad over USB-A

- Micro HDMI input

This thing might also be usable in the datacenter as a KVM console that can sit in a rack shelf or be carried around by technicians. It's certainly more compact than the typical monitor and keyboard on a rolling cart.

Don't people already have their laptop if they're planning on bringing a device with a screen+keyboard? I can see it as useful for a dedicated raspberry-pi screen and keyboard, but the adapter board looks easily broken if you move around with it.

I'm excited to see the row is keys on the right with Home, pgup, pgdn and End. Very useful for someone who spent their early computing years on non-gimped keyboards. I had a laptop with that layout in about 2009, was easy to adapt to.

Not everyone owns a laptop, nor do they really see a need for one very often.

Phones and other devices are plenty powerful these days for most tasks most people are doing on laptops. The input format is the only reason most people own them.

You're right, there are places where the smartphone is the only compute device in the home. Would this be too expensive for those people though? I'm thinking people from Myanmar for example.

I suspect vanishingly few of the "I don't own a laptop(/desktop), I just use my phone" also own (or want) Raspberry Pis...

This device doesnt require a raspberry pi, that’s just an option. It is compatible with several phone “desktop mode”s.

I came very close to buying a similar device recently (Nexdock), but ultimately decided against it. I mostly work from home on my desktop computer, and only very occasionally need a portable computer. Since I own a SteamDeck with a plenty strong CPU, lots of storage and a fully functional Linux environment, it felt like such a silly waste to need to buy a whole laptop, when all I really wanted was the keyboard, trackpad, and screen.

Ultimately decided against it though, and got a Framework 13 laptop instead. Less fuss to use it rather than fiddling around with connectors and lugging two devices around in tandem. I also hope that Framework's modular approach means that this laptop won't have been a wasteful purchase and I can keep it as a 'laptop of Theseus' for the next decade or so.

> 'laptop of Theseus'

Heh :)

At what point does it cease to be the same laptop and becomes something else?

> At what point does it cease to be the same laptop and becomes something else?

Once you replace the last screw (there are no nails in Framework laptops).

What makes the last screw the identity? Why not the second last screw? What if you put in the second last screw after you removed the last? What if I put in a nail? Maybe nail some cork to it to make it float?

> What if I put in a nail?

Seriously, for thought: Will we ever (if ever) have electronics, screens ... that you can actually drive a nail through (remaining functional, to whatever degree, of course ...)

The point of a nexdock for me would be convenient kvm / crash cart, not laptop. It's all about the video input.

Precisely, I'm super tempted to mod one of these laptop-shell devices into a little 1U metal drawer to use as a cheap KVM switch for my server rack.

Essentially the same thing as a crash cart, but they're little bit sleeker since you can tuck it away when not in use.

With all due respect to hardware startups and the complexity of running them: why don't they create another form-factor to put your mobile phone, Pi or other devices? The frustrated industrial designer in me says that those devices should take an space inside the CrowView, not at the sides.

Palm Foleo would like a word.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palm_Foleo

I had a Pi-Top for a while:

https://www.open-electronics.org/pi-top-the-all-new-modular-...

I gave it to a junior dev who worked for me, figuring I'd buy myself another one to replace it. I never did, presumably because it wasn't actually as useful as I'd imagined it'd be when I first impulse-bought it.

(It was also really quite crazily built. It worked fine, but it felt like a really cheap toy, instead of a tool. A MacBook and a Pi in a decent case is what I use instead these days.)

battery runs for "2 hours" yea no thanks

So, a portable crash cart?