On average people upgrade their smartphone in 24.7 months. That is a little over 2 years. I know I, along with many of you, upgrade phones frequently. But at the same time, I don’t find myself upgrading my laptop as often. Well, laptop shells are essentially laptops that “upgrade” as often as you upgrade your phone.
In essence, laptop shells (aka LapDock) have a keyboard, trackpad, display, and a build in battery as well as speakers. They don’t have Windows, they don’t have graphics card, etc. They won’t work unless they are plugged into another device, say your tablet, laptop, or your phone. You can connect it to your computer and use the display as a secondary device. Obviously, you can also use it as a mirror of your device. The major benefit is comes from connecting to a phone so I will mostly talk about that.
Currently, there are three major phone manufacturers that support their own “desktop mode” and thus are compatible with laptop shells. The most prominent of these is Samsung with its desktop mode called Samsung DeX. Huawei’s EMUI Desktop mode is on-par with that of Samsung. However, LG’s desktop mode, although a welcome addition to the list of manufactures that support desktop mode, is far behind the other two. In fact, some LG devices, most notably LG Velvet, seems to have tough time working with some laptop shells, including Uperfect X.
Through desktop mode you can pretty much run everything you can on a phone. It is almost a perfect alternative to the chromebook, except it upgrades as you upgrade your phone. So if you can find a shell that has the screen, trackpad, keyboard, price, and weight you like, then you’re golden.
Unfortunately, there aren’t a whole lot of variety on laptop shells out there. None of the big companies have picked up on the idea to a point that “macbook level” shell is easy to find, but the companies that have picked up on it are providing a solid dollar-for-dollar value. One of the latest laptop shell is the Uperfect X LapDock. You can find it on ebay or aliexpress for around $300.
Uperfect X comes with FHD 13.3 inch 1080p touch screen display. A touch screen display in itself is a a huge deal. Don’t believe me? Try to search for 1080p touch screen display by itself on amazon. Then the shell itself is a 2-in-1 convertible which is a major convivence.
The weight of the product is at 2 lb 9.8 oz (1185 g) which isn’t too terrible when you compare it with its direct competitor NexDock Touch that weights 3 lb 0.3 oz (1367 g). Further, Uperfect X has a build-in battery of whooping 10,000 mAh. For reference a 13 inch Macbook Air has around 5100 mAh battery. While we’re taking about the battery, it is worth mentioning that the battery from Uperfect X can charge the phone it is connected to.
The device also comes with various ports like HDMI, SD, USB-C, and headphone jack. The device comes with a designated USB-C port for plugging in your device.
ports on the right side 
ports on the left side
Apart from the display, I think the other most pleasant experience is in the keyboard itself. The keyboard is extremely comfortable to type on for hours. Thankfully the keyboard is backlit (2 level of adjustment) as all keyboards should be.
However, the trackpad is not great. It feels like an improvement over NexDock’s trackpad but that isn’t saying much. Laptop shells overall need to step up big time in their trackpad game because as of now none of them have trackpad would want to consistently use for hours. Thankfully Samsung and Huawei allow you to use your phone as a trackpad. The sound from the device is okay but nothing mind-blowing. I have comfortably consumed media in this devices.
using Huawei Mate 40 Pro as Trackpad
Closing Thoughts
Overall I’m pleased with the dollar-for-dollar value. My big complain is the trackpad which hopefully will be addressed in the future iteration of the product. As time progresses and as Mobile Desktop modes get richer in features, I think laptop shells will become a good niche of their own.
I should also mention that assembling all the parts you need for mobile desktop (be it portable monitor, powerbank, mouse, or keyboard) could be an alternative but you may have a tough time beating the price of Uperfect X.
