The Superbook - $99 laptop powered by your Android device!

R

RanceJustice

Supreme [H]ardness
Joined
Jun 9, 2003
Messages
6,629
Thought some of you might find this interesting....



The Superbook is a neat little idea, where you can connect just about any Android device via USB to its notebook-like "shell" and have a laptop like user experience - complete with 11.6" display, keyboard, multitouch trackpad, internal battery that lasts 8 hours and charges your device. Your smartphone powers the Superbook and it can run pretty much any Android application, but you get a more traditional desktop experience on the Superbook itself while still allowing you to use your normal Android UI on the device. It can even be used as a secondary display (plus keyboard, trackpad etc) for Windows and Mac, Linux, Raspberry Pi, and more, thanks to its use of the DisplayLink over USB open standard, allowing input/output of video and more with a driver that most OSes have with comprehensive USB support.

The campaign has been wildly successful having broken its $50,000 goal, and is nearing 2 Million! Lots of new stretch goals have been granted including those that offer a variety of bonus aesthetic skins and goodies included free with the pledge. Perhaps most importantly is an option for a 1080P IPS display and backlit keyboard (which at the moment does require a small surcharge. I've written to ask them if they can bring the price down or remove entirely if we pass another milestone).

The basic package that gets you a Superbook in Gold (the standard color) plus a USB cable and charger, is only $99! At this point, you also get skins and cases as free bonuses. Those who want to splurge for $145 you can get a special edition Blue (or a traditional Gold) Superbook plus a pack of accessories like a side mount for your phone/device. All in all pretty inexpensive for this sort of laptop experience!

If anyone has any questions check over the campaign and some of the Updates or I'd be happy to answer anything I can ; near the beginning of the campaign I wrote to the developers a long line of questions and requests and they were very helpful in their replies (for instance, I requested a backlit keyboard and sure enough they thought it possible, but told me that setting it up with USB 3.1 Gen2 or a touchscreen would not be possible at pricepoints they were trying to hit) .

Enjoy!
 
Last edited:
Had a Motorola Atrix + Lapdock years ago, brilliant idea that still nobody has done right but unfortunately Motorola fucked everyone on the pricing: the lapdock retailed at $400+ on release which murdered it considering it was just a screen, battery, and case and had no processing power of its own. They tried again with the Photon, same result, almost instant death. Ubuntu came along with their Ubuntu Edge Phone concept and could have done better but that failed because they were greedy in asking for $32 million on their Indiegogo attempt - I still say Microsoft should have bought the rights to that design (of the Edge phone) and made a true Surface Phone from it because it's literally exactly what a Surface Phone should look like.

For $99 this doesn't look too bad at all considering it's just the same thing, a lapdock with screen/battery/keyboard and not much else. If they were asking more for it I'd just say get a Chromebook and be done with it, especially since Chromebooks either do now (with the latest update) or will soon be able to run full Android apps directly so, no phone actually required to do that.
 
The pricing is really a strong point and I'm hoping it can get even better; I just wrote them about making the Blue color option available to all KS backers if they wish it and about ways to lower the price of the 1080P + Backlit Keyboard upgrade (including asking if users could "trade in" stretch goal items for store credit. For instance, if you didn't want a skin or case, you could get the credit for them to be used towards the upgrade etc). With their runaway success, it would be idea if they could just grant the whole thing for a stretch goal.

I can see a lot of potential for things like this; it seems like a great stopgap/companion device until I buy a new discrete GPU laptop, but it can also be a display and input for a Raspberry Pi or small headless server when I need it.
 
I signed up for one.

I've got 1 successful CF under my belt (IR Blue Thermal Imager), but 2 unsuccessful ones - One underdelivered (Powerup 3.0 RC Paper Airplane), and one vaporware (Robot Dragonfly).
 
This reminds me of the Asus padfone, the one where you can use your phone to power a tablet. But this one seems to be much better, since it works with so many more phones. I am guessing you would need a pretty decent phone for this to be viable though. My phone can hardly keep a few tabs open in chrome, so this might not be a good option for me, untill i get a new phone.
 
USB plug and play second display for PC. That could be really cool to play with.
 
For anyone who wants to get in on the pledge, there's a little less than 23 hours to go at time of posting! They've broken 2.5 Million in funding and have unlocked a ton of extras, most of them free (ie carbon fiber skin, a padded pouch), but a few of the actual upgrades to the Superbook itself require a surcharge. You can unlock the 1080P IP display by adding $30 to your pledge, or get both 1080P IPS + Backlit Keys for $55.

During the campaign I sent messages to Andronium and they happily replied to my queries, one of which was regarding software elements - particularly the AndroniumOS Android app itself which you'll need to install to use the Superbook with your Android device and its SDK - and if they're be released under an open source license. At the time, they mentioned they still discussing internally iif they will be able to do so. I'd much prefer if the AndroniumOS app and any related software was available open source for a number of reasons including privacy and security. Given that the company involves sells hardware (ie the Superbook) and doesn't seem to monetize its software, it seems feasible to do so from a business standpoint and in fact seems mutually beneficial to embrace the community for free development assistance and goodwill going towards purchases from the privacy-conscious; a group with a significant overlap between those interested in a power-user device such as this. If anyone else agrees and has, or is considering pledging, if you have a moment send a Kickstarter message to the Andronium folks requesting they release the software components under open source licenses. Licenses and Licenses & Standards | Open Source Initiative - shows many license options available. Perhaps with a bit more encouragement from backers / potential backers, it will help give some weight to the discussion and lead to a favorable outcome?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top