Turning Android phone into a desktop PC?

Pawnless Endgame

Pawnless Endgame

Pawnless Endgame

Soldato
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Sunny Stafford
Several questions for you guys (please!) I'm pretty sure it can happen with the right link-up cables, given that the Sammy Note 3 etc have eight-core 1.9GHz and 3GB of RAM. That must be equivalent to a 2009ish desktop PC with a low-end DX11 GPU?

1. The data port can double up as HDMI. Given the right cables, can the data and HDMI features be used at the same time so that the phone can use a monitor and a wireless kb/mouse simultaneously?

2. If only HDMI-to-monitor is possible, can the phone pair up with a bluetooth kb/mouse? Is there a recommended model of kb/mouse for Android?

3. Being Linux-based, can Android use WINE to execute x86-based Windows programs?

4. If I've bought games on Steam (Windows), am I entitled to play their Linux counterparts, and will Steam be available on Android? Once again given that Android is a Linux distro.

5. If I enable NAS on my router, can my phone access it as a drive? Is it still via 'My Files' app?

6. Although the Note 3 is full-HD, does it have enough processing power to play blu-rays? Is there full size USB capability to plug an external optical drive into the phone?

Thanks! :-)
 
afaik the cpu is not x86 based on any single mobile nor any single tablet (with the exception of surface pro 2). this means it wont run windows or any other x86 program. i have no idea what linux is and what steam runs on but if that was do-able i'm sure it'd be heard of by now.
 
Don't do this. If you want a small desktop then look at micro-desktop stuff like pi's etc...

1) Nope
2) Bluetooth is the usual or USB via Hub
3) No and never will - ARM CPUs will never be x86, there is a huge difference in the design that can't be emulated
4) Steam as an app is on Android, steam as a platform if it ever comes will only support ARMvX instructions and games. None are on steam right now.
5) NAS access is via any decent file app
6) You can't plug BR drives into a phone and I doubt you ever will. You can play BR rips on any phone with a CPU over 1.4Ghz dual core comfortably (Before anyone gets picky - the requirement is actually a special set of instructions called NEON).
 
Addicted said:
Must be a troll.
Click to expand...

Excuse me? GD is this way -->

I think my question about x86 vs ARM was perfectly reasonable. Take my current works PC which is a P4 2.8 hyperthreaded with 1GB RAM. Time it takes to load pages from Wikipedia, deviantART, Tech Radar etc - about 30 seconds per page as the browser hangs while the CPU tries to catch up. My current phone is a Samsung Galaxy SII, 2x1.2GHz and 1GB RAM. Time it takes to load aforementioned pages is only limited to the speed of 3G or wireless LAN which is normally about 3 seconds tops.

Plus, I've heard about people linking their phones up to a computer screen via HDMI, so I thought it was reasonable to ask if a kb/mouse could be added to the set-up.
 
Its not an unreasonable topic of discussion IMO but we are quite a way from it being a reality yet.

Most phones (there are some exceptions) can only do USB or video out via MHL but not both at the same time so you'd need input devices that can connect via bluetooth. Depending on what has actually been compiled into the kernel on the phone keyboards are usually well supported and mice rudimentarily - tons of stuff won't work with mouse though.

There have been projects to get various linux distros working on Android devices but don't recall any that are relatively troublefree and useable outside of messing about testing stuff.

Best you'd get regarding windows is something hacked up on QEMU or Limbo but you'd be lucky to even get it booted to desktop in Windows 95 left alone actually use it for something. (I have actually had Windows 98 booted up - about 15 minutes and it takes 2 minutes plus just to open my computer let alone do anything else).

EDIT: Oh and the GPU hardware on a high end smartphone currently is closer to something from 2003 on the desktop than something closer to 2009.

EDIT2: Oh and if you did somehow get a stable and semi decent performing Windows desktop via QEMU or simliar the GPU side is fully emulated you won't be playing any games on it.
 
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