Skip to content

Comment on Ask HN: What's stopping OEMs from building an all-in-one device?

Comments

Nothing. It's just very very hard.

One issue is that the mobile form factor doesn't lend itself to laptop or desktop class cooling. Some mobile chips can approach the performance of a desktop... until thermal throttling.

There is a reason there are different kinds of cars and trucks for different market segments. Try to build a car-truck and you get the El Camino. Computers are likely going to be subject to similar market forces.

Thanks for your comment. I don't think it's that hard.

Take a middle/high-end smartphone phone. Install something like Maru OS (but preinstalled and with OEM support). That's it.

I agree with the cooling problems, but a desktop browser and Unix terminal would be enough, and these apps are not that demanding for the CPU.

a desktop browser and Unix terminal would be enough, and these apps are not that demanding for the CPU.

That's called a tablet. You cal already browse, edit, and ssh from those. When I want a laptop I usually want something way more powerful that can build, run large software apps, run VMs, etc. I regularly max out all eight cores of mine for hours at a time.

AboutSource Built by g1lg1l

Hackerly is an independent reader for Hacker News, built on the public HN API. Not affiliated with Y Combinator.