A new year and more time for stupid hardware ideas. Right now I’m split between three generally stupid ideas. So I’ll list them below.

1. Full On Cellphone

The first stupid idea is going full on cellphone. This means grabbing a Samgsung Galaxy S8/S9/S10 with Dex, and then grabbing the DexDock, NexDock and then a 15.4″ 4k usb-powered monitor. In terms of upside, there are a lot in terms of being able to do everything on one versatile device. I like the idea of being able to have a phone I can use to shoot video, and have a LTE connection that let’s me use the internet all of time, and then be able to carry a NexDock to plug it into where I need more screen real-estate at a Park or a Cafe or something. And then at home I can drop it in the DexDock, charge it and use it as a complete desktop. I can also bluetooth pair everything to it and have gamepads, keyboards, and headsets paired to it. So there are a lot of upsides, the only downside here is the lack of unproven track record and cost ends up costing about what a normal laptop would cost.

2. Wacom Desktop

This wasn’t originally on the table (pun intended?), until I saw a used Cintiq tablet at a used good store. Having a huge 24+ inch wacom tablet and being able to draw directly on the screen is something that I’ve wanted since college, as even through I’m mostly a programmer it would be great to be able to draw diagrams and notes directly on the computer screen. The main downside here is that I don’t have a lot of time to sit down and focus at a desk recently. I would get a lot more use out of laptop with pen input or something. So I’ll hold off on the Wacom screen and hope they continue to improve in resolution, and lower in price over the next few years. There’s definitely been a lot of competition that has forced wacom to step up their game in terms of innovation and rethink their prices a little bit.

3. Normal Laptop

I’ve been waiting to upgrade my laptop for several years now and the main problem is there aren’t any candidates that are reasonably priced. Generally with the two options being the Dell XPS 13 and the Thinkpad X1 Carbon. With this previous CES 2020, it looks like AMD has finally managed to get Ryzen into a lot of laptops. And the most compelling of these seems to be the Thinkpad e495 which is a 14″ Full HD Ryzen thinkpad with a USB-C charger for about $600. This laptop checks off almost every feature I could ask for, except for 1440p, which is kind of a deal breaker, as resolution is the one aspect I want to upgrade more than specs. And usb-C charging is nice, but it’s an added benefit and not something that I would really change hands for.

In summary of the three options the Wacom option is the easiest to dismiss. In terms of price and practicality it’s not there yet. So I can put off buying one anytime soon and not feel too bad about it. The main comparison comes down to a Samsung Galaxy S9 versus a normal laptop like the Thinkpad e495. And in general between these two options without 1440p on the laptop, the Samsung Galaxy comes off as the more appealing option of two. Though right now I’m thinking that I could probably get more benefit out of using the money for commissions is the hardware available isn’t going to necessarily improve my efficiency.