 Oh, yeah. So this is a little awkward. See, this right here is a laptop, but it's also not a laptop. Well, I guess it depends on how you define it. Most people probably expect a laptop to have things that the Next Dock 2 doesn't have, like an operating system or storage or RAM, or even a processor. This is just a screen, keyboard, trackpad, and some ports. There's a battery inside. But it's not just a prop for a display at IKEA. The Next Dock 2 could very well be the future of computing. Or at least part of it. Ridge Wallet wants to redefine the wallet with its compact frame and RFID blocking plates. Check out how they can help keep your wallet bulged down by using offer code Linus to save 10% and get free worldwide shipping. The Next Dock 2 is part of a very small category of devices known as Laptops, laptop-shaped shells that you can dock some other computing device into. Motorola was first to take a swing at this idea in 2011 with the Atrix 4G. For just an extra $300, you could get a compatible Laptop from Motorola's web top software, complete with browser and a handful of applications. It was basically like me in grade eight. It was lame and nobody liked it. Oh Linus. Microsoft partially revived the concept with Continuum in 2015, a desktop mode for Windows phones. But, well, I think we all know what happened to Windows phones. Poor one out boys. Since then, we've seen a few attempts at the concept, but Razer's project Linda never arrived and there's a ton of people commenting on the crowdfunding pages for the Mirror Book and Superbook that they never actually got their units. Bringing us back then to the Next Dock 2. Most people are expected to use it with a smartphone that has a desktop mode. So Samsung phones with decks and Huawei phones that support EMUI desktop. But this is cool. You can hook up basically anything you want to it. There are some slightly janky Android forks and home screen launchers that will work with any phone. You can hook up a Raspberry Pi or a similar micro PC for what is probably the cheapest overall configuration. And if you really wanted to, you could even hook up a game console to it. If it's got an HDMI port, it'll plug into the HDMI input that's right over right there. Now let's take a look at the rest of the device. Design wise, while the first Next Dock seemed to channel kind of a cheap Chromebook vibe, the Next Dock 2 goes more toward MacBook Air territory. It's got this smooth looking blasted metal finish, which surprisingly isn't actually that smooth. You know, it kind of gives me like a cat tongue or like a shark skin vibe. Like it's way rougher feeling than it looks. And the unit is surprisingly heavy due to a steel inner plate in the bottom and this crazy rigid screen. Like I don't remember the last time I saw a screen with that little flex in it. I guess though, if you're designing this thing to last for like multiple compute unit upgrades, it makes sense to build it as ruggedly as you possibly can. The screen is a 13.3 inch IPS LCD with a 1920 by 1080 resolution, no touch support and it does have some pretty unfortunate bezels. But both of those things are apparently being addressed in the next Next Dock, which is due to sometime in July. Below the screen, we've got a keyboard that's got a bit more deck flex than I'd like, but is surprisingly nice to type on with solid non wobbly key caps and a distinct tactile bump. And much of this review was actually written on it with Riley's only complaint being that the keys are a little bit on the large side. Unfortunately, the track pad, well, it's usable, but then so is a car that only goes backwards. The cursor jumps around sometimes when you click on the bottom and it'll drift for a half second after you stop moving with your finger. Also, you can't even fix that problem with like a firmware update because there's no firmware. Like what would you install it to? On top of that, the texture of the pad is pretty rough and it's kind of plasticky feeling. So I'd like a little less friction and maybe a glass surface on the next one if you're listening to Mr. Next Dock. Thankfully, there's a full-size USB-A 3.0 port on the right side that you can use a wired mouse with along with a micro SD card port and a headphone jack. So you can stick it to the phone manufacturers and still use your existing headphones with your phone through a laptop, optimal. On the other side of the machine is of course where the magic happens. So here we've got our HDMI in with three USB type C ports next to it. But don't imagine that you can just plug in a bunch of USB-C peripherals because all three of these are for very specific purposes. The leftmost one is just for charging the laptop. The middle one is a standard USB-C 3.0 that is intended to provide power to Raspberry Pis and other devices. And the one on the right supports the display port over USB-C spec. So that is where your desktop compatible phone would plug in like we've got it right now. Inside, instead of the 38 watt hour battery that was listed in the specs on the Kickstarter page, we actually found a 52 watt hour unit. I guess they upgraded it since the campaign concluded last April. But the extra capacity is definitely appreciated since the Next Dock will actually charge your phone while it's connected. Enough chit chat though, let's talk experience. We tried it out with Samsung Dex, a Raspberry Pi running Raspbian and some other things with HDMI outputs. And well, I don't really know what to tell you. It's a monitor with a keyboard and a track pad and a battery. Now I don't want this video to be about Dex or what it's like to use a Raspberry Pi, but I will say this, if you just need to do some web browsing or use Word, Samsung's desktop environment has come a long way since when they first showed it off with resizable and snappable windows, keyboard shortcuts, and a sensible UI. The unfortunate reality though, is that Android apps on desktop lack the polish that most people would expect from a desktop or laptop as it were operating system. Bringing us to the question then of, if you're relying on Android apps anyway, why would you get this instead of say a $250 Chromebook, which has a screen, keyboard, track pad, battery and everything else? The answer is most people probably wouldn't. A Chromebook can do everything that a phone connected laptop can do and more, and you don't need to have a little doohickey hanging off of it the whole time. But the appeal of the Next Dock 2 isn't really that it's the most sensible option price-wise. It's that by getting it, you're participating in what could be the future of computing. Smartphones have gotten so advanced that many traditionally heavy workloads like even video editing are bottlenecked by the cramped user interface rather than by the performance of the actual hardware. In the future, devices like the Next Dock could allow occasional users of these types of apps to save some money compared to expensive windows or Mac laptops. And the kicker is that they get to upgrade the performance of the unit over time as they get new phones, reducing waste as well. And to balance some of the dongle inconvenience, using just one device is pretty cool. It means all your files, apps and login information are with you all the time. In their promo video, they show a concept cafe where there's a stack of available Next Docks in the shop. Customers grab a dock, plug in their phone, write their tech linked fan fiction, then they put the dock back when they leave with their phone juiced up for the rest of the day. In this future, there's no logins, no two-factor authentication, everything is just ready to go seamlessly. Or, ooh, better yet, what if there was no need to even dock the device at all and all the data could just be streamed via 60 gigahertz Wi-Fi? That would be cool. But let's get back in the TARDIS and come back to the present for a second here. The phone desktop experience, as we mentioned, is just not there yet, as a true alternative to Windows, Mac, Linux, or even Chrome OS, which doesn't mean, though, that I'm not rooting for it. I really hope Samsung continues to invest in DeX, and I also really hope Google stops screwing around and adds a real usable desktop mode to Android and enables display output over USB-C on their Pixel lineup while they're at it. Why not? So for now, we've got a well-built, super versatile gadget that can not only combine with your phone as a laptop substitute in a pinch, but also be a portable monitor for everything from consoles to TV sticks to even just acting as a secondary display for your real laptop. Now, I wouldn't necessarily recommend the Next Dock 2 to the average user, but for a certain kind of tinkerer, for about 250 bucks for this thing, I do think it offers a compelling value. The Mastrop Sennheiser HD 6XX headphones are one of Mastrop's all-time best sellers with over 90,000 units sold, and why not? They've got an unchanged driver design and sound structure as the HD 650, meaning you get nice, balanced, mid-range, natural sounding bass. They've got a detachable six-foot cable instead of a 10-foot cable that was based on community feedback. They are super comfy. The HD, I forget if they're 600s or 650s, but one of the two. Those are actually my daily drivers. They sound pretty similar. And they use an eighth-inch plug that's versatile for everyday use with a quarter-inch adapter if you're into that. They come with Sennheiser's long-term support and new users who sign up on the website at the link below can get $25 off a purchase over 50 bucks. So buy it today at the link below. Did I mention the link is below? Bye.