Why hasn't MS designed a device to turn the 950 or 950 XL into a tablet?

[Drew Neilson]

I'm glad that Microsoft will release a desktop dock for the Lumia 950 and 950 XL, but why have they not also made either:
1. a tablet dock, a la Asus' Padfone,
or
2. a dumb touch-screen monitor that can be held like a tablet and that does not physically dock with the phone but instead receives video input wirelessly from a phone via a wireless video standard, and sends clicks (or, to be more correct, taps) to the phone via some sort of wireless input standard? The phone could be in the user's pocket while the "tablet" is in his/her hands.

Have any other companies announced anything like either of those two ideas, for the 950 and/or 950 XL?

 

[ArtificiallyYours]

Because the 950XL is the ideal mini-tablet. Some of us (sadly) won't immediately jump onto a sub-two-grand Surface tablet but it's nice that Microsoft is narrowing the gap between flagship phone and high end tablet. :smile:

 

[Drew Neilson]

Although the 950 XL might be big enough to cover the consumption capabilities of tablets (reading, etc.), it isn't meant for users to plug in a keyboard and use it like a small Surface tablet, is it? Whereas a device like either of my two ideas, above, would be designed to work well with a keyboard, like the Surface tablets do.

 

[Tien-Lin Chang]

Trust me, I had the padfone for about one year. That is not a good idea

1)the slot really limit the pad to certain phone and they'll have to make different type of it to fit every kind to phone that ready to transform.

2)due to the slot, the thinkness of the pad and combine weight is really obvious compare to similar pads.

3)again the slot, it just limit the heat escape from the phone and we know the new snapdragon is a monster of heat.....

 

[Citizen X]

Phones capable of taking advantage of Continuumm were just announced yesterday. Building a tablet presents many challenges and the tablet market is shrinking. Sales are falling off. I'm sure eventually something like that will appear but for now MSFT is concentrating on where the market is going to be not where it has been.

The cost to design the Continuum dock was probably negligible compared to designing a docking dumb screen. Also I've found since I have a 6 inch phone I don't reach for my tablet anymore. Some kind of docking screen makes sense for some people but it isn't as low hanging fruit as the Continuum dock.

 

[colinkiama]

I'm glad that Microsoft will release a desktop dock for the Lumia 950 and 950 XL, but why have they not also made either:
1. a tablet dock, a la Asus' Padfone,
or
2. a dumb touch-screen monitor that can be held like a tablet and that does not physically dock with the phone but instead receives video input wirelessly from a phone via a wireless video standard, and sends clicks (or, to be more correct, taps) to the phone via some sort of wireless input standard? The phone could be in the user's pocket while the "tablet" is in his/her hands.

Have any other companies announced anything like either of those two ideas, for the 950 and/or 950 XL?

Option 2 is kinda implemented. Not sure about the touch screen working but you can connect to a display wirelessly with continuum.

 

[grahamf]

I can imagine a really thin "laptop" coming out that is just a screen, keyboard, trackpad, storage, ports and extra battery that you just plug your Continuum phone into to use it as a laptop. I think any PC manufacturer can make one right now without any special support needed by the phones. A wireless tablet might not be too much of a stretch, but it would need to be able to transmit back touch information.

If I could buy a 13" or 15.6" "PhoneTop" to go with a Lumina 950 or something, I'd be more than happy to use it as my main laptop.